Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Shelbyville

Decided to treat the family to a dinner that we didn't make ourselves. So we went to Cracker Barrel. Last time I went was in the mid 90's & I wasn't all that impressed then. But things change - once in a while for the better. I was decidedly unimpressed with the layout - basically you have to wait in the store to be seated in the restaurant. I'm sure that's on purpose as they'll hope to sell something. But for a new customer? Angst & confusion. I was wondering if I was in the right place. Once we figured out where we needed to do & where to go, we finally arrived to be seated. The system for seating was impressive - the hostess was able to immediately find us some seats with no delay. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. It took a while for the server to stop and get our drinks - he passed us several times in the meantime. Not necessarily a big deal at first as we were planning on taking some time to order and told him so. But it was quite a while after we were obviously ready to order before he arrived. Finally he arrives to take our order. It is extremely loud and we have to repeat several times. The wife tries the trout, I have the fried Catfish, & the son gets the country fried steak. The wife gets mashed potatoes & gravy & green beans, I get turnip greens, fried okra, fried apples, and bacon mac-n-cheese. The son gets green beans and bacon mac-n-cheese. We also get a side order of shrimp. It takes some time, but our order arrives... it's all messed up. Neither of the fish dinners have tartar sauce. No fried okra (they gave me mashed potatoes & gravy) or fried apples. The green beans were bland and overcooked. The gravy wasn't too bad, but the potatoes were pasty and underwhelming. The only thing that was tasty was the fried shrimp. The meal is over & I noticed we didn't get the bread (biscuit or corn muffin with butter) that comes with the dinners. When I asked about it, the server told me HE DIDN'T THINK WE'D WANT IT! Would I like some to go? SERIOUSLY???. I went ahead & ordered a peach cobbler, a chocolate cake, and one of their $5 "meals to go". They bring them, BUT THERE'S NO BAG (we had to ask)!! While I don't have much expectation for food in places like this, I DO expect some semblance of service. The server should NEVER make decisions for the customer (unless the customer chooses to let them). I might point out as well as we were never offered refills on our drinks until the meal was done. Long story short? I won't be going back... if the service is that bad, there's...

Our group of 3 was seated right away on Saturday evening. We sat for over 10 minutes before Jason walked over and said, "I guess you must be my table"...and it pretty much went downhill from there. I love going to Cracker Barrel. The food is usually good and the prices are reasonable. We all ordered, finally. I got the country ham and 2 sides. Another ordered the 4 sides meal, and the last person ordered just hashbrown casserole and an Apple Dumpling. Our food was delivered by a different server, ours never came to check on us. They were out of Apple Dumplings, so 1 at the table had nothing else or the option for another choice. The person with the sides got mashed potatoes, wasn't asked about gravy. We asked for our server. When he came we asked about the missing Dumpling, informed they were out (obvious since other server told us at delivery time). We didn't order a replacement on that just asked for him to correct the check. Now for the gravy, he apologized, she asked for brown. He came back after some time with white, she corrected him , he said white was better anyway, and since food was getting cold, we kept it. 2 of the 3 of us had bent forks, sent him back for straight ones when we asked for a coffee, and got another bent for and was told they are probably all bent. Showed him the one straight one at the table and said I didn't think so. At this point it was all really light hearted because it's just dinner at Cracker Barrel on Saturday night, not your tax return, but for crying out loud, that was some of the poorest service I've had in a long time. Not to mention my ham was less than 1/8" in thickness. I've had thicker stacks of napkins at the table than my main course. I will never go there again, or if I do, remove myself from Jason's section. I will say, the young man server who was a section over was killin' it. He was attentive to his customers, I saw him handle 3 tables more often than I saw Jason come to our table. I hope he was just having an off night, happens to us all. If you are reading this Jason, get your sh#t together, you sucked...

The only reason I'm giving 2-star's, 1-for hostess upon arrival was greeted, & seated, the other star for paying the courteous lady at register durning paying my bill in full, at check out. After seated waitress came to table, she said that she was confused, didn't know if it was her table to waitress. When she finally returned, we placed our beverage order. When she rtn with beverages, we placed our meal order, & we patiently waited a long time for our food. She walked by looking at our table several time's, I think she was high...I asked politely for both our beverages to be refilled each time she, walked starring at us, again, & again, she never returned with beverages.. wasn't serving anyone else,staring off into space, I even asked if she was alright, she giggled & walked away.. We never recvd drink refills!!! Once we finally recvd food, along with the bill, we we're missing part of our order, the biscuits, cornbread, jam, butter for our entres, along with cinnamon roll, still no drink refills!! Asked for each of those item's that she didn't bring, napkins, & once again, asked politely for our drinks to be refilled. After I received my dinner of country fried chicken, mash potatoes w/white gray, w/side of chicken dumplings. Took a bite of the chicken it was hard, cold, & dried out. Tried the dumplings lost my appetite after the taking a bite of dumplings, it's had hair in it, lost my appetite, set my plate to the side. When she finally returned, she brought the jams, butter, biscuits, cornbread, NO cinnamon roll, NO REFILL'S once again, she however asked for our bill, she said she forgot to add the cinnamon roll, thay she never brought to the table. She returned with the bill, no refills but brought my aunts cinnamon bun... She asked if I wanted a to go box I told her about the hair, nasty cold food, & she said better luck next time!!! No refills, paid for both the cold meals, no refilled beverages, & a cup of dumplings with hair in it! I've never had a bad experience with this Cracker Barrel until...