Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Pinellas Park

I usually do not write Google reviews--any issues I have I ask to speak to management. But, the service at this store was extremely unacceptable. I went there two weeks ago with my family and waited 40 minutes to get in. Not a problem. We then sat down to a full house and ordered our food. As we waited the restaurant began to get less crowded. As tables emptied and were not filled as quickly as they did when we first came in, I noticed we had waited almost an hour for our food and asked our waitress why our food was taking so long. She told me that the party of 8 behind us took up a lot of the time in the kitchen. I explained that it didn't make sense if other tables were getting their food ahead of us. After I asked to speak to a manager, she told me that the kitchen was backed up. OK that made sense. I took my little one to the restroom while we continued to wait for our food and noticed there was a 40 minute wait time! The restaurant was half empty (probably due to the back up in the kitchen). As the hostess told a guest there was a 40 minute wait, his response was kind of shocked, so I mentioned to him there was more wait time for food and we had been waiting an hour. The hostess, then raised her voice at me telling me that I should leave the restaurant if I didn't want to wait. I told her I was upset because we were waiting an hour for biscuits and cereal! She continued to raise her voice and I walked away since I still had to take my child to the restroom. On our way, I told another Cracker Barrel employee that the hostess may need a break. When we got out of the bathroom I saw the manager, the kind employee I spoke to, and the hostesses all standing around the hostess stand discussing what happened. I walked up and tried to explain what happened and the reason of being upset. As I was talking the hostess again began to raise her voice at me in front of her manager. The manager ended up sending her to the back and I walked away too because our food was finally on the table and I still had a child with me who needed to eat. While we ate our meal, our server never came back to check on us, We didn't get any of our drinks filled. No napkins that we needed. No manager to come to our table to even apologize for what happened. We paid and left so upset at being treated so horribly. I messaged the company on FB and got a response the following day saying they needed my contact info so that Guest Relations can look into the situation. This was almost 2 weeks ago. I haven't heard from anyone. I just wanted to share my experience, because no one should be treated like this. It was our choice to wait, it was our choice to stay, and it was a lesson to our children to not tolerate this type of behavior...

Will not be returning… we were a table of four and frequent this particular location. Throughout the whole Covid pandemic there have been slight mishaps which we gladly overlooked. Tonite two of our party ordered Chicken and Dumplings with sides of Dumplins and hash brown casserole our waiter returned to the table to tell if they were out of casserole, no biggie. But when the meals came instead of the normal thicker gravy they were in a very soupy sauce. My husband ate his despite the issue because he knew it was late, the kitchen would be closing and we were running out of options - however I patiently waited for our waiter to return. The people next to us sent their food back to the kitchen also. By the time we got the waiters attention two members of our party had pretty much finished eating, he offered me something else but being the kitchen was closing and our table was wrapping up dinner I turned it down. The manager Laura came over and offered me fried chicken or another dish or dessert all of which I politely declined. When we questioned whether they had a new cook she side stepped it. She said the key is if you do not like the food do not eat it (which I absolutely did not) - I’m assuming she was referring to my husbands empty plate. He had been waiting for a refill of Coke which she said she would bring but she did not we had to ask the waiter again. She did credit me for my dish but charged me for the half of glass of soda I drank. When I went up to pay there were two other people complaining to the cashier about their food also. When I chimed in the cashier asked me what was going on and asked me to wait she brought Laura back out who became sarcastic and insistent that she had done her best to fix it in a rather rude tone. I quickly told her I would not return and reminded her about the coke that she had never brought to the table and mentioned that I should not be charged for the partial coke and that small token would of gone much further towards helping the situation. Laura made a big dramatic showing of walking away while I was still talking to her all the while her cashier repeatedly apologized to me and said she wished she could fix the situation. I wish to make it clear that although the food was way below the normal quality it is the unprofessional demeanor of the manager and the lack of customer appreciation that will keep us...

HUGE let down. We are CB regulars, not this location but occasionally here, and just planned Saturday AM around breakfast here on 8/10 and it was not good at all.

We really love their pancakes and made a trip there from North County to make another appointment close by and regretted the drive and waste of money.

Our server was nice, but something was definitely wrong. It was not busy at all and we waited an eternity for our food. We watched a couple get sat after us, order, eat and leave about 15 minutes before our food arrived. When it did, it was barely warm and was obviously sitting under heat lamp or whatever warmer they use for a while.

The plates were warm but the pancakes, the only thing we really wanted, weren’t warm enough to melt the butter on top. Even sandwiching it between two cakes, nothing. Just a big ball of butter that could not melt since they were not hot.

They were hard and nowhere close to being as flavorful as they usually are at the Tampa Rd / Racetrack Rd location.

The bacon and eggs were warm and I felt like I had to shovel them down, which I did after the long wait l, so I could get to my pancakes before they fell below room temp.

We were there for about an hour which is crazy considering there were maybe three tables sat in our section, against the west wall. I also don’t understand why a server doesn’t recognize when a customer “pre busses” the table so the dirty plates and trash can be taken away to clear space before the entrees come out.

After the biscuit service, which was delicious, we stacked the plates and trash to be collected but it sat there until we left. The dirty napkins and stack of plates placed on the edge of the table should be a clue that they need to be taken.

I would love to provide details to a manager should you like to hear the specifics of this visit.

I don’t think this CB will see us again for quite a while. Should have just drove...