Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in San Antonio

Worst experience ever with the wait list. Never go here on a holiday (mainly Mother’s Day) with a party of 5 or more people. We left our house @ 930 so I put us on the waitlist at that time and it said estimated wait time 45 minutes. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the restaurant in which I checked in with the hostess. They DO NOT seat parties in order regardless of what time you checked in online or in person, UNLESS you are 4 or less people. After waiting about an hour, I went up to the hostess to check our status. My name was 5th or 6th on the list, so I sat down and waited and listened as more and more people kept getting called except us. Confused, I went up again to try to figure out why we weren’t next, when I saw my name was still in the same place, 4,5 or 6 names down the list. I couldn’t understand why this was happening, the outside hostess couldn’t give a clear explanation other than “it takes into account other things” nor could she give me an approximate wait time of how much longer it would take. Finally, I just decided to go inside and check with that hostess and wait by it so I could try to understand what the heck was happening. Several people with large parties kept going up to them complaining about how long they’ve been waiting, that they checked in a long time ago and other people that showed up after kept getting seated before them. Which I observed as well. I noticed that parties of 1,2,3&4 were getting seated almost immediately after they checked in. To this I was told “oh they checked in online” and I was like “yes I did too”. While I was inside, once again I saw my name as the 4th or 5th person to be called only to have several people seated ahead of me, and then when I went to check again my name was still in the same spot!!!! Get this, finally, towards the end of what ended up being an over 2 hour wait, I see my name at the top of the list. I’m thinking I’m next! The hostess even told me I was next. But guess what ended up happening again??? 3 people got called ahead of me and I’m like wtf??? So I go and check AGAIN and I see I’m #4 on the list 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️. So I ask about that and they finally tell me the people that are being seated ahead of me are small tops of 4 or less people 🤦🏽‍♀️. I couldn’t believe it. They said they only have a limited number of tables reserved for “large parties” and there is nothing they can do about it and that’s just how the system works. If I’d have known it was going to take over 2 hours for us to be seated I would have never gone there. They need a better system and to seat people in order of arrival, not party size. I was always respectful and polite to the hostess, and patient. And they did a great job of staying calm amongst a lot of upset people. I just wanted to figure out what was happening and I did. Finally got to eat breakfast around 1230 or so. Luckily our waitress was great, food didn’t take as long as I had expected it to and we got out of there 3 hours later!!! Fair warning to large parties on holidays. I will never do that again, worst Mother’s Day...

Im currently visiting my aunt for a while, while she works, so I’m not from the area. You hear stories about how certain customers don’t always get the same treatment as others, but I take everything with a rain grain of salt. When I got in the restaurant I asked the worker in the shop could I have a table for one please. She told me to go over to the podium, and the hostess would sit me. No one was there for a little while, the guy that was working the podium was just doing his job replacing utensils and other things. Me waiting didn’t bother because at all, and it wasn’t even that long of a wait. I’m very patient and understanding no matter the situation. As I was standing there, I was looked at by a few different employees, and not one of them greeted me or acknowledged I was there. That made me feel uncomfortable bc I the only person that looks like me in the restaurant. I truly felt uncomfortable being there, it took my waitress a while to recognize it I was sitting down and waiting, but that was okay because she was sweet and amazing (Samantha)

I ordered Grandma's sampler pancake breakfast, it comes with two Buttermilk Pancakes n’ butter, (I added strawberries) two eggs and a sampling of thick sliced bacon, smoked sausage and sugar cured or country ham, I substituted the ham for another peace of sausage and I added one more piece of bacon. I also added a side of hash-browns. First off,

I got three brunt paper thin pieces of bacon, the bacon wasn’t thick at all, it didn’t even taste like bacon to be honest. I received ice cold sausages that looked like it was sitting out for a couple days, the hash browns had a funny taste to them as well. The scrambled eggs were okay. The pancakes with strawberries and butter were delicious, and the free biscuits were good as well. I should have only gotten the pancakes like I initially intended to.

I was very respectful and calm about the situation and told my Samantha about the burnt and cold food. She was very sweet and apologized for the cold sausages and the paper thin burnt bacon. She replaced the items that I was not satisfied with, with no hesitation or problem, even after replacing the paper thin bacon and cold sausages, it still was just okay, I honestly didn’t like the food at all, besides the pancakes, I literally had to forced my self to eat all of the food because I don’t have money to waste. That’s why I tipped her 50%, she was amazing, she even apologized again as I was leaving.

I don't know if that’s how the food was supposed to taste, or it was just me. I truly don’t know. I haven’t been to cracker Barrel in a little while, but I remember how the food tastes, and it definitely didn’t taste like the food I was served. Again, the pancakes were delicious and Samantha...

Me and my daughter had made it a tradition of going to Cracker Barrel when we travel and today we came to this location, I have visit another Cracker Barrel in San Antonio because we travel here often so we like trying different ones. The wait wasn’t bad because I sign us up online, the server for the first time in a long time got to me, no eye contact, no smiles hardly wanted to greet us, I’m the one that said good morning,how are you doing?. She kept looking at her little notebook,I understand you guys are overwhelmed but that’s not the customers fault, you are not feeling well ask for help tell your manager that you need a breather I don’t have to flag you down.I had ask for biscuits,I don’t care if you’re going to charge me I want biscuits with my coffee so of course I waited also for my coffee refill and after asking another waited next to our section for biscuits which he never brought and I know he isn’t my server but isn’t team work part of the job ?.I get my food I asked that person at this time already mad who do I talk to about changing servers because she hasn’t been to my table at all by this time, he said no worries I will help you what do you need and I told him all I needed he brought it and finally was done eating go to the register told the lady I wanted to tip this guy who served me because the waitress didn’t serve me she was like ok yeah ok. At this point I told her I know you don’t care so I won’t say nothing anymore,a manager had to come so I can tip Aston because he wasn’t a server, did he ask if everything was ok no he didn’t. I wasn’t Trying to get a free meal I just want to make it clear I had a problem and I was not the only one the table next to me also had to wave down the same server but it didn’t matter. I believe that if you want a good tip treat people with respect make them feel good about coming out to visit your restaurant,this why waiters complain about not being tipped but they don’t see how they are serving us so poorly and expect a tip smh. I tipped the guy Ashton for taking care of us thank you very much for serving us and my waitress just came back to drop the check not once did she ask is your meal ok? need anything? So she got a...