Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Spartanburg

Yep. Consistent great food.

It's also amazing how one person caring deeply can make such a huge difference.

We were eating lunch today as a family at Cracker Barrel in Spartanburg, SC and the waiter working our section was a bit overwhelmed. We had sat at our table for a significant amount of time with no one coming by when a waitress from another section noticed and came over to check on us. It was obvious that it wasn't her section, but she took our order and was so polite and helpful. I noted that her name is Marissa. A bit later, our actual waiter came by and apologized that he was a bit overwhelmed. He was clearly trying hard to keep up during the busy Cracker Barrel lunch rush, so this isn't about making him the bad guy.

Marissa continued checking on us and her own section and made sure that our every need was covered. When something happened with our order in the kitchen and my food didn't come out, she immediately noticed from across the room that I had no food in front of me and jumped on it to get the kitchen and the manager to resolve the situation. The whole time, she kept us smiling and laughing.

This young lady had such a great attitude, work ethic, and genuine care about the experience people were having at Cracker Barrel -- not just her own section/customers. So I had to walk up to the manager afterwards and compliment her and recommend her for whatever management training program they might have available.

She reminded me so much of my mother in law Kathy Fowler, who was a favorite waitress friend to my family long before I ever met and fell in love with her daughter. It seems everywhere we frequent, we find people who aren't just showing up and doing the bare minimum to earn a paycheck -- but they care about bringing value to their customers by doing the best they can.

I can remember years back being a janitor cleaning the church every Saturday with my daughter's help. We loved taking extra time to take care of the smallest details that no one would ever notice, and praying over every area and every soul who would be there the next week. There was so much more reward in those moments working for free than the paycheck I earned the other days of the week at "my real job".

It would be easy for us to instead grumble that our eating experience wasn't perfect today, but we would have completely missed the beautiful things that were happening in the midst of this lunch rush. And any delays that we encountered were just minutes of extra time we were able to laugh and joke with each other as a family. I have to admit that we were on the verge of "hangry" when we first walked in, and it would have been easy for us to be blind to the good and only see the bad in the situation. But we try to never see those serving our food or helping us in stores as "lower" or "less" or "servants" who must "live up to" our expectations. No, these are our neighbors and friends who are helping us. That difference sets us up to appreciate and recognize when someone is an "above and beyond" champion for us in a situation like today -- rather than acting like a victim and looking for a bad guy to point blame at.

This is something that Jesus has been teaching our family for years, and we don't always get it right. But when I see someone like Marissa who is fulfilling Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart...", it inspires me to consider what would the world look like if we all worked this way and served each other this...

I had a very bad experience at this location. On May 31st, I was visiting from out of town. My aunt and I had originally stopped in to eat around noon; however, no one came to wait on us and it was 12:20 pm. We realized one of her appointments was earlier than we thought so we had to leave to head to that appointment. I decided I would place an order online and pick up later that evening after my aunt's appointment.

I placed the order to pick up at 4:30 pm. I got to curbside around 4:37 pm. It took over 10 minutes for them to bring the food out to the car. I was just about to go in when the young girl came out.

Upon checking my order, I noticed that they had left out dipping sauce and did not provide the additional biscuits and cornbread I had ordered and paid for. I went inside and was waiting behind another customer. There were two cashiers and when one opened up, she helped customers that had just come around the corner from the dining area than me who was waiting in line. I decided to walk to the hostess stand and asked if I could speak to someone about my to-go order. She said she would call the young girl up.

The girl came up and I told her what was missing. She said okay and walked to the back. She returned with the dipping sauce, but insisted she provided all of the biscuits and cornbread in the box. I explained that all that was provided was what came with the three meals and I had ordered four additional cornbread and four additional biscuits. She said I was wrong. I walked through the order again and she smugly looked at me saying "Yeah, I know how it works." I said "Apparently you don't because I paid for additional bread and I want what I paid for." She said she wanted to see my receipt and that the number of bread on the receipt is what I was supposed to get. I showed her where I ordered the additional bread and she said that she would give me one more of each since she only gave 3. I told her it wasn't rocket science and that I had ordered four extra of each at $2.99 a piece. I said if she wanted to refund me the amount, I'd be happy to leave, but I wasn't leaving until I got what I paid for or received a refund. She still insisted I was wrong and said, "So you're wanting eight more bread?" I, again, told her I wanted what I paid for (4 biscuits and 4 cornbread for a total of 8). She stomped off in the back.

The rest of the staff up front were laughing and joking about the situation. I'm not sure exactly what was said, but I didn't care at that point. One of them looked at me and approached me. She said "I'm sorry. I know you're not in the mood." I said, "No. I'm not and I don't appreciate how she talked to me and insisted I was wrong when I showed proof of my order." The woman then said that they have had other issues with this girl and it's not the first time.

I spoke to the manager on duty at the time and he offered his apologies, but that's about it. I'm sure nothing further was done or said to the unprofessional girl.

The food tasted bland and was unappealing. The mashed potatoes were hard and cold. Even when trying to warm them up, they were still hard.

I also noticed after I had left that the toppings I requested and paid additional for on my salad were left off.

I will never go to this location again. The food and service...

If I could give NEGATIVE 5 stars, I WOULD. First of all I had to apologize to my ancestors because I KNEW BETTER than to go to ANY Cracker Barrel in the first place. I placed my order at 4:19 pm through the app for a curbside pickup. I didn’t realize until I hit the confirm/order, whatever, button, that it said an hour and a half. I’m already in the parking lot, feet hurt and tired from grocery shopping. So before I got on the chat to cancel, a waitress walks out with someone else’s order. She said it definitely wouldn’t be that long, but maybe 30 minutes. I’m thinking, “Ok, I can chill for 30 minutes. I can catch up on a tv show.” Thirty minutes hit and I decide to go in and maybe get something to drink, since I forgot to order it. I walk up to the counter, Krys, the cashier, looks at me, and IMMEDIATELY walks away from the register and asks an older white gentleman if he’s finding everything he needs. They chat for a few moments and she kind of rushes him to the cash register. She checks him out, he walks out, and she walks right behind him to do the same thing. I’m frustrated at this point and goes to find something to snack on. Moments after I walk away, my name is called for a to-go order at the cash register. I hurry and get back to the register, and she walks off AGAIN and does the same thing. I patiently wait. She finishes with that person, and then pauses by the to-go order. I politely said, “I’m sure that’s mine.” She proceeds to ignore me and goes to the phone. When she gets off the phone, she looks around and then come up to the register and says, “The to-go order is yours?” I told her it was. I then asked for a strawberry peach lemonade because I forgot to order a drink. She acted like she didn’t even know what it was. She then said she can’t ring it up but then asked it it was a lemonade or something else. I REPEATED that it’s lemonade. She gave a deep puff like I was annoying her. I told her to forget it and let me just get what I had on the counter. She asked for cash or card and I already had my tap ready. She says, “Oh, you’re paying with that.” I was confused and more annoyed with that statement. I got my stuff, and went to the car. By this time I’m STARVING. I opened my food and IT WAS ALL COLD! I was INFURIATED but REFUSED to go back in there. This was 37 minutes after I placed my order. If I had waited the hour and a half, I would have walked back in there and probably threw it back. EVERYTHING was COLD, my fried fish, the pinto beans, the mashed potatoes and gravy….EVERYTHING. This was a clear sign that I will NEVER visit another Cracker Barrel the rest of my...