Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Panama City

Update a couple of years later: I recommend everything on the menu, as long as you do not want medium rare or rare steak. The kitchen is much better than at the beginning, the wait staff, and retail staff have really developed into what we all expect from a good Cracker Barrel. Again, this is not a steak house, so expect any steak to be cooked well-done. If you like well-done steaks, then that makes this a perfect place, if not, avoid the steaks, and you will likely really enjoy your meal. In fairness, on a recent visit, my waitress made the decision to take my steak back after seeing the dry brown interior where I cut it. Her manager cooked me a new one (I didn't complain or send it back myself), and the new one came out medium and juicy. I had originally ordered rare, but that is because I will eat a steak from rare to medium (well with some type of sauce to juice it up). I knew what I may get, and I took a risk. The waitress knew that my rare steak was very well-done. I actually feel the need to score this experience better because of the insistence of the dining room and kitchen team to make my meal great. My wife had the country fried shrimp... it was amazing. All of our sides were delicious 😋.

(Original comment, almost immediately after store opening, is below) This Cracker Barrel Restaurant is still well positioned in the training curve. I am sure it will get better, and I intend to keep coming back periodically, but my past few visits were met with various disappointments. I met here with my family on Mother's Day 2018. We had six people in our party.

Some of the drinks (specifically, those of us with water) were refilled but very late and only once while the others never were. My steak was ordered medium. It did not come out with our order, and I was interrogated about it when I mentioned it to the waitress. I finally gently recommended that she go ask the runners that delivered our meal instead of me because I didn't know the answers to her inquisition.

She left the table, and the kitchen was alerted. In less than three minutes, I received a very well-done steak that was obviously crushed to about 3/8 of an inch thick. It was dry and tough. I expect that they tried to rush the steak because it had been forgotten in the first place. By the way, when I got my steak, the lady that brought it out asked if there was a "recook" on a steak from our table.

We had to ask for jellies and butter for the bread, napkins, straws, the dipping sauce that was ordered with chicken strips, pepper vinegar sauce, and a few other things that are traditionally offered or provided automatically.

In fairness, I need to acknowledge that I didn't eat the steak. The waitress offered to have another made for me, but by now, my family had finished their meals, and I had no intention of making them sit for it to be recooked and for me to eat it. Besides, by now, I had eaten my two side items and didn't want to eat the steak anymore. The server did take the steak away to the kitchen, mention my problem, and they did remove it from my bill.

I have traveled a lot, and I have developed expectations of Cracker Barrel. In time, and with some training, I believe that our new, local restaurant will eventually come up to the standard set by this American favorite. I recommend waiting out the growing pains and coming back in six months or more.

Update:

I have frequented this location several times in the months (years) since this review was posted. The training process was, obviously, what we experienced in the beginning. I have come to expect great service and food now. I had originally given only two stars, but I feel confident, with very much experience now, in changing my assessment to a...

Awful experience. Terrible food, terrible service. My wife and I visited this Cracker Barrel on a weekday and it was not very busy or crowded at all. We ordered our food and after 30 +/- minutes the waiter came up and says that they do not have one of the meals prepared because they did not have chicken ready for the chicken and dumplings, and that it would take maybe another 10-15 minutes. I said ok, we’ll wait. Another 15 +/- minutes pass and the waiter comes back to say that they would ‘not have it prepared in any time soon, and that I could order something else instead. I tried ordering something simple like pancakes, eggs over hard, and bacon. Another 20 minutes or so pass and we decided that we were going to leave because it was taking so long. We sat down for our meal at 1:30 and by 2:30, we still had no food. I got up to tell the hostess, because our waiter was no where to be found. There had been 3 or 4 other tables that came in after we sat down and they got their food right away, and were eating while we continued to wait. As I went back to the table, the food is then rushed out. My wife had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and okra. It was atrocious. The Okra was as hard as marbles, and were cold. The country fried steak and mashed potatoes were cold too. My wife said that it seemed like her food just sat out while waiting for them to make my meal. I had ordered simple pancakes, eggs over hard and bacon. My pancakes were dried out, the over hard eggs were undercooked and runny and the bacon was undercooked as well. Because we were hungry, we ate it but it was a big mistake as I ended up getting sick later that afternoon. The food was awful, the service was incredibly slow and inept. All in all, this was by far the worst experience we ever had at a Cracker Barrel and it is doubtful that we will ever go back. I contacted Cracker Barrel Customer Care and they offered me some sort of coupon for another visit (which we never got), but frankly, the ought not bother because it is very doubtful that we will ever visit this restaurant again...

Thanksgiving day (yesterday) we ate breakfast in the restaurant and it was great. It went downhill when we placed an order Togo from the app for our Thanksgiving lunch to take to my family-we ordered the turkey dinner plates that Cracker Barrel so heavily advertises. We paid $17.99 each for 3 dinners and a $9.99 dumpling dinner. We chose Cracker Barrel because last year we ate the turkey dinner on a different day than actual Thanksgiving and it was wonderful. This year it was horrible! I’m not one to typically post bad reviews, I just suck it up and make a mental note not to order there again, but this time because it is Thanksgiving and because I know CB is usually very good and they typically take great pride on one of their busiest days of the year, Thanksgiving and they fell so flat. The food tastes liked it was dumped out of a can. The turkey was so dry, the sweet potatoes were like bland soup, green beans were stringy and the celery in the dressing wasn’t even fully cooked, even the rolls were hard and old. The price we paid for that plate was a rip off. In fact we still have one of the plates untouched because it’s not even worth eating it. I’m very disappointed. We lost my father in June and my moms health is not good so we decided to order out instead of cooking because it’s a sad holiday for us with it being the first Thanksgiving without my dad and we thought we could rely on CB for a good meal and we are just so disappointed. Do not recommend to choose CB for your Thanksgiving meal. And again if it was just a random day then I probably would not have reviewed but again, CB advertises so heavily how proud they are of their wonderful Turkey thanksgiving meal and so they should actually deliver what they advertise especially on such an important day for families. We spent $80 and didn’t even get our stomachs full. I added a pic below of the plate that looks so good but proof that we didn’t even eat it because the other 2 plates were so disgusting. Step it up Cracker Barrel. We relied on y’all for our Thanksgiving meal and you...