Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Smithfield

I will preface this review with the caveat that up until recently, this has been a great restaurant experience, with fair to generous portions and good comfort food. However, it seems they have gone the unsustainable way of Disney World, by offering much lower quantity and quality food for the standard price. This leaves the bill unjustifiably high. A recent $75.00 visit with my wife and two children was absolutely awful! It started with a waitress who couldn’t understand or did not acknowledge in a way synonymous with typical social interaction that I was ordering a sweet tea. The standard question concerning whether we wanted biscuits and cornbread was met with our request for ONLY cornbread. Well, we received a basket with ONLY biscuits. When I re-requested cornbread, we were handed a basket full of burned lumps. The worst and most disappointing part of the entire experience, however, was the meal and the portions. I ordered a classic go-to, the Chicken and Pastry plate with three sides. I chose green beans, corn and macaroni and cheese. These sides always come in a small amount as is, in little ice cream bowls. At least they are usually filled with the sides of your choice. Not this time!! I was astonished to find my little green bean bowl only HALF FULL and my corn bowl about two thirds full! The green beans and corn they serve are already out of a can, so why skimp on that? It’s not like that much money has been saved by the restaurant! Then came the macaroni and cheese. My daughter, who has always LOVED their macaroni and cheese, ordered a double portion for her two sides with her chicken tenders. She directed my attention to multiple prices of black/brown colored slimy pieces scattered throughout the bowls of macaroni, asking what they were. Upon further inspection, it became obvious that they had scraped the bottom of the macaroni and cheese pan and mixed the residual food up with the scrapings AND THEN SERVED THEM as such! The macaroni and cheese was served complete with all of the pan scrapings!! I cannot begin to tell you how offensive this appears. My bowl of macaroni and cheese was no different! Finally I looked to my chicken and dumplings plate. A dinner plate which is usually filled had only two thirds of the plate full, with a whole third of the plate sitting empty!!! How blatantly cheap is this? For a restaurant right off of I-95 that remains packed most times of every day, this level of cheapness is inexcusable! Do you really need to give optics like this? How much money can you possibly be saving while offending customers like this? All I can say is this is no longer the restaurant it was and no longer is worthy of consideration with so many other food options in the same area. If you need a Cracker Barrel fix, there are plenty of other locations. You are best off skipping the...

We were seated all the way in the corner of the restaurant underneath the vent, passing about 40 empty dirty tables to get there. I have not been to a Cracker Barrell in a while and we thought this was a save bet to get some dinner. We ordered our food the server brought us the bread basket. We were talking and I didn't notice we didn't have bread plates. I asked the waiter for plates and his response, "We don't have any?" I said, "What???" What do you mean you don't have any plates in a restaurant, what are you going to serve our food on, our hands?" I said half jokingly and have in shock for the comment. He said, "we're short handed, we have large plates just not bread plates." We received our food and my aunt's hamburger steak was raw, we called over the waiter again and he apologized and took it back into the kitchen and told us it would be a few minutes. It took 40 minutes and 2 times asking the waiter for my aunt to get her food back, we had completely finished our dinner and we sat with her until she ate her dinner. It was disgraceful. My chair was positioned exactly so I could look into the kitchen, it amazes me that the manager never came out, never apologized, instead he and a few other people were hanging out in the kitchen laughing and talking. Maybe if there was better management, there would be bread plates, properly cooked meats, and accountability. This is a big NO-GO here, horrible experience and made me remember why I haven't been to a Cracker Barrel in...

A party of five of us dined in yesterday for breakfast before we hit the road back to Maryland and it couldn’t have been a better experience! Although we expected to wait about 20-25 minutes, it felt like we were called back in about 15. We didn’t mind hanging outside in the comfy rocking chairs out front though, as it ended up being a beautiful day!

Alyssa our waitress was an absolute charm! She greeted us shortly after being seated and was prompt in checking on us throughout our stay. She even made recommendations & she was on those refills faster than I have ever seen any waitress! She very personable and sweet and that added to the delicious meals we all enjoyed.

Just about all of us ordered the Grandma’s Sampler which comes with plenty! Choice of pancakes or French toast, bacon, sausage and either country ham or sugar cured ham plus a breakfast side and two eggs. My French toast were perfect! Eggs were okay & I recommend the sugar cured ham over the smoked. My husband & friend said theirs was salty. Grits were pretty good and Alyssa kept the hot coffee coming! We even got a chance to say hello to the manager who was also super hospitable and warm. He spoke highly of all his staff and I believe him! Great experience before hitting the road.

Even hanging out in the shop was a delight. Everyone was very friendly and for those who care to know, the bathroom...