Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Pennsville Township

Cracker Barrel, What Happened?

I love Cracker Barrel. No, seriously—I love Cracker Barrel. I’ve been to locations all across the country, from Tennessee to Pennsylvania to the Carolinas, and it’s almost always a solid experience. Warm biscuits, that cozy general store, rocking chairs on the porch, and food that makes you feel like you’re back at your grandmother’s Sunday table.

But, man. This one? This one hurt.

It’s only the second time I’ve ever had a bad experience at a Cracker Barrel, and wouldn’t you know it? Both of them happened at locations near each other. District manager, I’m looking at you.

The second I walked up to the host stand, I knew something was off. Call it intuition. Call it years of experience in reading a room. But when you see two young hosts full-on arguing with a mature woman—who wasn’t even in uniform but wore a white shirt with blue horizontal stripes—you can tell it’s not gonna be smooth sailing. No aprons, no sense of control, just tension you could slice with a dull butter knife.

And sure enough, despite a whole slew of open tables, we were told, “It’s probably gonna be a 10-minute wait.” Why? Because no one was cleaning tables. Not a soul. The best part? A couple that walked in after us almost got seated before we did. Efficiency at its finest.

Alright, fine. We finally get to our table. And we are hungry. No need to even open the menu. As soon as I passed the host stand, I saw the sign: Try our Southern-Style Ribs. Boom. Done. My wife locked in on her chicken just as fast. We were locked, loaded, and ready to go.

The waitress came over. Sweet girl. Professional. No complaints about her or any of the other servers. We gave our drink order and our food order at the same time. In and out, easy peasy.

Except it wasn’t.

We waited. And waited. And waited. We watched every single table around us get their food. Tables that came in after us? Served. People who ordered after us? Served. People who hadn’t even sat down when we placed our order? Served.

And I want to be crystal clear: this wasn’t the waitress’s fault. She was doing everything right. She brought me three drinks and two baskets of bread in the time we were sitting there, without us even asking. The problem? The manager.

And I don’t mean some faceless figure in the back. No, she was right there. This woman actually came to our table—to light the candle. That’s it. She didn’t check on us. Didn’t ask if we were okay. Didn’t notice the two hungry, miserable customers who had been waiting over an hour while other tables feasted around them. She just went about her routine, lighting candles like she was performing some kind of sacred ritual, completely oblivious to the disaster unfolding right in front of her.

And that, right there, is unforgivable.

I live in New Jersey. People always ask why it gets such a bad reputation. Now I understand. If this is the first Cracker Barrel someone walks into after coming over the bridge, it explains everything.

I’m not one to leave bad reviews lightly. Check my history. I always try to find the silver lining in every dining experience. 90% of my reviews are positive. But this? A manager who publicly argues with employees in front of customers and then walks around pretending everything is fine while guests are actively suffering? No. Just no.

Do better, Cracker Barrel. I...

Ordered a country boy breakfast, but I didn't want to eat the sides, just had them bring out three eggs and the steak. The meal includes 3 eggs, one steak, 2 sides, and biscuits an gravy. That's a lot of food for $12 so a pretty good deal i guess. Any how, they brought 2 eggs, and an overcooked steak. Then I noticed they added an extra fee on my receipt at the end for an additional side. When I asked the manager Lou why the extra charge, he told me that it was because I didn't eat the sides that came with the meal, so it really wasn't a country boy breakfast. Basically the country boy breakfast is a "package deal" was how he explained it to me. . I had to explain to him that they never told me they were gonna charge me extra for requesting that they hold the side dishes. If had I known, maybe I would have taken them home or something. After a little back and forth, he adjusted the price back to what we had ordered. Last week I came and ordered the same thing but there were no issues with extra fee's, so i'm guessing that Lou was just new or something. What was also kind of irritating, not just for me, but for other customers, was that when he came out to argue with us about why they added on extra fees, he initially went to another table, and interrupted a poor customer who was just trying to eat his breakfast. Both the customer and I were trying to explain to Lou that he was at the wrong table, but Lou really didn't seem to understand that he was arguing about my check with the wrong table. Even after both the customer and I tried to explain it to him. When Lou finally realized that he was at the wrong table because supposedly someone put the wrong table number on the receipt. Kind of blamed another staff member. No sense of accountability in the situation, even though both the other customer and I were trying to explain to him he was at the wrong table. It's really quite laughable when I think about it. I've been here a couple of times. Both times the...

Update: Visit 2 After reviewing our very disappointing dinner a month ago, the manager emailed and offered to cover our meal if we would give them another try. We went yesterday, July 18. We arrived around 3:45. Since it was a Friday, I was lucky enough to choose the Friday Fish Fry. It was excellent! The cod was meaty, tender, perfectly white and lighty battered for the perfect crunch. I'm pretty sure the fish is fresh, not frozen. The seasoned rice and corn were good sides. I only ate 2 of the 4 pieces of the fish and made a fish sandwich the next day. It was so good! My mom had the Smoky grilled chicken breast with mashed potatoes and cole slaw. She enjoyed her meal so much that I got one from the $6.99 take home special. It tasted as good as it looked. The biscuits were fresh out the oven and browned nicely. For dessert we both had the peach cobbler. Not too sweet and the pastry has a nice crisp top.

This visit was like night and day, compared to our previous meal. I really appreciate that someone cares enough to read these reviews. We will definitely be back soon.

• I will say that the dining room could have been cleaner. I saw them mostly just wipe the tabletops; leaving crumbs in the seats and napkins on the floor under the tables.

Visit 1 My mom and I stopped here for dinner and she always looks forward to the chicken and dumplings. Unfortunately they were very salty. She said they have changed because the gravy used to be really thick and it was just kind of thin and soupy. I had the turkey dinner and the turkey was dry, overcooked and salty. The dressing was just full of celery, it had no balance. The gravy was salty and kind of slimy from the onions. it was just really bad. The mac and cheese was decent and the sweet potato casserole was pretty good. The biscuits were super dense, like they needed some baking soda in them or something. A total fail. I'm not sure when/if we...