Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in South Hill

2 visits to this CB have been very subpar. About a month or so ago, we waited 45 min for a table even though it wasn't that busy and we saw plenty of empty tables throughout the restaurant. Then the dish I wanted wasn't available. Ok whatever I chose something else. After ordering it probably took another 45 min for the food to come out.

Fast forward to today, we were seated relatively quickly after I downloaded the app and joined the wait-list. It still took 15 min longer to be seated than the wait-list said it would be, but it was quicker then the 35-45 min wait that others had. That was good. But immediately ruined by the fact we sat at our table for probably 30 min before a waitress came by to take our order, and that was just drinks! We sat there for 30 min with no drinks. No offer of a basket of biscuits or anything. After ordering our food, probably 35-45 min went by before we got our food, and the bacon was flaccid. I mean it was barely cooked, it was inedible. The waitress did come back with some cooked, crispy bacon after I said something about it. But we shouldn't have to suggest that our bacon is actually cooked before it's plated. The waitress also never came by to offer drink refills until the food was brought out. So we sat there without any drinks for a good while because we were all thirsty and drank what was brought out pretty quickly.

I'm not really trying to dump on the wait staff here because I can see how hard they are working. This restaurant is severely understaffed and it seems they are trying to do the best they can. But they are missing/forgetting about certain tables and they aren't checking on whether we have silverware or need drink refills or anything else. This location really needs to hire more wait staff and more kitchen staff too, given how long it took to get our food. I saw the girl who was the hostess bussing tables, because the wait staff wasn't doing it. But she's bussing tables and people are standing at her kiosk waiting to be helped wondering when she's coming back.

Overall my family had a great time because we weren't truly in any kinda hurry so just enjoyed each other's company while we waited. But the lack of wait staff, the lack of actually being waited on and the timing of getting our food, was so bad, I don't think I've ever had a worse experience in...

I gave one star....BECAUSE I couldn't do ZERO!! I need someone in Corporate to see this. Now normally I would NOT do this...but it needs to be said. To start off... ya'll so worried about your decor that ya'll have forgot about your food and service. To start off the A/C was broke or turned off...it was way to hot in there. If I'm aggravated when I first step in because it's too hot...I KNOW the employees are pissed. I've worked in the food industry before. Then we sit...it takes a minute for the server to get to us...by this time I am hot and thirsty. I ordered an Arnold Palmer which is suppose to be Sweet Tea...which is wasn't and lemonade. BUT, fine....I'm thirsty. Finally, the food comes out. We still don't have silverware. My son ordered the catfish platter with three sides. There were no hush puppies, and pintos were GREY...DRY!!! Do you know what that looks like? Dry, mushy..grey beans. My husband orders the Country Fried Breakfast..it looked a mess. The eggs were over cooked AND he didn't receive his biscuits and gravy that CAME WITH the meal. Then came to my WONDERFUL plate. Since ya'll try to be fancy..and I'm trying to spend money....I order your steak and shrimp combo. With a loaded baked potato, Mac and cheese..& pintos with chow-chow. The steak was suppose to be medium....OVERCOOKED and DRY...BURNT. It's HOT in the building..but the butter and sour cream didn't even melt on the potato... & missing my ashy Grey pintos. None of us received bread or REFILLS. A complete lack of SEASONING!! The place was not busy. Did I fail to mention the fight that was going on in the kitchen. To tell you the truth...if that's the best ya'll got....Decor is the LAST thing you should be worried about. Thank you for a terrible EXPENSIVE meal today. I literally was so disappointed and digusted that I got up and left everything and everyone. The food was so bad, that we refuse to try anything else in the area. I'm giving this review as I'm leaving the restaurant. This...

This is the first time I've been to Cracker Barrel that I don't complain about the food. Although, my steak came and it wasn't done. I sent it back and it came back cooked too much but it still tasted good so I let it go. No the food tasted good when it finally came. The service is where this experience went to pieces. The waitress didn't put the lemon in my wife's water or bring her gravy or cook her eggs properly. I asked my scrambled eggs be soft, she wanted hers hard. They were both soft. They brought the gravy then a little later she got the eggs. It also took our glasses being empty before we got refills. We smiled through it all because each thing on its own was a little thing but the final straw was the receipt. The cashier asked if I wanted a receipt, I said yes but one wasn't printed. They couldn't figure out how to print one so they called a manager. She worked at it for what seemed like forever (honestly it was about 3 to 4 minutes) and finally told me that they can't print duplicate receipts, like she knew all along. I then asked if I could have the bill for my record and she told me they threw it away. Then they went digging through the trash! I told them not to dig in the trash, just write it on something for me but they had no clue how to figure out how to see what I payed and since they were already on the floor digging in the trash they just kept at it until they found all four pieces. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the lengths to which they were willing to go to help me but if they knew what they were doing none of that would've been necessary. I can't in good conscience recommend others go here. Maybe today was an off day for them but they were having troubles with everything. Not just with me but...