Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Rialto

Drove two hours from San Diego to eat here today. I decided to order two meals, so I’d have leftovers to take home.

The food was AMAZING, service was surprisingly fast considering the restaurant was packed to the gills, and I only had to wait 30 minutes for a table despite the crowds. They texted me when my table was ready.

I’m forever grateful they have expanded outside of the South so my favorite foods are more accessible to me.

Top plate is a four-veggie plate (yes, the term “veggie” is used rather loosely here lol) with buttery, sweet cooked carrots, green beans, dumplings, and cheesy hashbrown casserole.

Bottom plate is lemon pepper trout with more carrots and dumplings. Their dumplings are made out of the same dough as their biscuits and served in a gravy that I swear should be illegal, it’s so good.

And pecan pie with the best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever tasted. Because I drove two hours to get here in the rain you best believe I treated myself. 😂

If I had to pick one thing to complain about, it might be the biscuits, they were a teensy bit hard on the outside but still tasted good. I took the rest home and I’ll definitely eat them!

Special shout-out to my server Brian, who was ON TOP OF IT today. Quick and attentive and friendly. I especially appreciated how he gave me a separate little to-go container for my leftover dumplings, so the gravy wouldn’t spill all over the rest of my food. I tipped him 25%, and after I had paid I made sure to tell the manager what a wonderful server he had been. Having worked in the service industry, I know that a little praise can go a long way!

Side note: Personally, I don’t understand all the negative reviews for this location. Makes me wonder if those people just complained online instead of asking the staff to make it right. When I asked for the manager, the girl in the gift shop asked me if everything was OK and if I needed help with anything. They were more than eager to make my visit a good one. After I had told her I just wanted to compliment their staff and give my server some praise, she seemed SO relieved and thrilled to hear I’d had a good visit. It’s the holidays, so please be extra kind, generous, and patient with food service and other service industry workers. They want you to have a good experience, so let them help you! Everyone makes mistakes, be a good human and show some compassion.

I had a five-star experience all around, from the gift shop staff who offered to put an item on hold for me, to the gift shop cashier who helped me pay for some (massively discounted) Christmas decor, to my server, to the manager… even the guy who cleared my table (I don’t want to call him a busboy because he was a grown man and “boy” seems insulting… anyway, he was lovely and kind!) made my experience a fantastic one. Being able to pay my check on my phone by scanning the QR code on my receipt was a big plus. I’ll...

First visit to this new location (4 months opened) in California. We’ve been to ones in Florida and other southern states. We made a special trip as we live about 30 minutes away. It was worth the trip! We were there on a Sunday evening so we used the Wait List option available on the website..Sweet! There were quite a few parties waiting but we only had to wait about 10 minutes which gave us a chance to look around the store. Such cute items! I was looking for the small Halloween salt and pepper shakes I saw at another location but they were sold out🙁. Our server was Rhonda. She was great! She recently moved to the area from Oregon. Welcome to California Rhonda! My daughter, 19, and I decided to share the southern fried chicken with sides of mashed potatoes with white gravy, dumplings, and my daughter wanted a extra side of broccoli. Don’t forget the biscuits! My mom got the French dip with fries and my nephew got the kid’s cheeseburger with sliced apples. We waited awhile for the food but it was pretty busy. The fried chicken was delicious! Nicely seasoned, juicy, and crunchy. We didn’t care for the white gravy, too smoky. Rhonda switched it out for the brown gravy. It was good. The dumplings were good but like every time I have them they are never hot enough, never. The mashed potatoes were excellent. The broccoli was good, not over cooked but needed a little more butter. Here’s the thing...the extra side was over $3! We won’t make that mistake again! Biscuits were delicious, even more so with honey. 😃 I tried a bite of my moms french dip. Very tasty! The beef had great flavor and the grilled onions added more flavor. Also had Swiss cheese and horseradish, It wasn’t served with au jus but my mom said it was okay since it wasn’t dry. Fries were good too. My nephew enjoyed his cheeseburger and sliced apples. They have so many sides here..something for everyone. We didn’t order beverages as they are $3.29 each run comes to over $12for 3 drinks, with tip and tax. 😱 that’s the price of a meal, lol! The chicken breast was huge! I took most of it home. the wing was superb. In conclusion, I would eat here again. I would definitely like to have Rhonda again. I will order the Southern Fried chicken again. I will never order an extra side. Oh and the store has those candy sticks for 7 for $1. Quite a deal! One thing I wish they would fix. It is so annoying to pay your bill in the store. When we first arrived around 7:15, the line to pay your bill was long, and it just makes the store more crowded, with a lot of people waiting to pay, and others milling about. It would be so much easier if you could pay the server.. I understand the reason because if you’re in line in the store you’ll probably buy something, but it can get crowded enough that you just might pay the bill and leave....

We arrived at the San Bernardino location on Saturday 02/15/2025 and waited about 20 minutes to be seated. Once we were seated no one came to greet us or take our drink order for almost 35 mins. Eventually a girl shows up and takes our drink order and then I ask her to bring all biscuits and no corn muffins because my family won't eat them. This young lady tells me they give bread for free is a special order from the waiter/ waitress. I explain Amy time we have been here no one had ever said that amc ask her to send our waitress. She finds the waitress who had been waiting on ever table around us but ours and they stand and argue for a good minute when the young lady comes back amc days Remi told her she will not been waiting on our table and that this young lady who clearly was not a waitress soils be taking care of us. I ask her why all the tables around usm. njmj including people say after us were being waited on and we were not, she said Remi refused to wait on us because she was just to busy. We decide to stay and hope it gets better! We offer our food and my husband starts a timer because he had a bad feeling. The young lady comes back with our drinks leaves them at the table and dissappears for 30 minutes even though we asked for straws. When she does come back she had biscuits in her hand amc still no straws. She drops the biscuits off with no plates, doesn't ask about refills because all of our cups were empty by this point. People around that were seated after us got their food and had begun eating when our time hit 50 mins. I walked back out to the hostess and request the manager, she comes back amc goes to the wrong table and then walks away, I waited another 5 mins and went back to request her again. I exposing the situation amc she says let me find out what is going on. About 5 mins later at just over 1 hour the manager and someone else bring out our food. Our food gets to the table barely warm and missing several items and we request the manager againto show her what's missing. She apologizes and goes to get what we are missing. She says she will discount thefood which she did. My entire family day and watched as everyone around us was taken care of as we were discriminated against, all of the tables that Remi decided to take care of were Caucasian and refused to serve us a black mixed family. My husband and I sat and thought we were crazy until we watched further. This was the worst experience we had be ever had. We drive 45 minutes to this location and that is how we were treated.

I was not going to write this review and leave it alone but decided that people should know how your establishment featured my family! Needless to say we will not be returning to any of...