Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Sulphur

We were staying at the Best Western in Sulphur for the weekend and figured we'd give this place a shot because usually Cracker Barrel in Texas is amazing. First, after waiting 15 minutes to be seated, we attempted to order iced coffee and were told the latte machine was down, so then we ordered coffee with glasses of milk to make our own iced coffee. After waiting a few minutes, they bring us a cup of milk but no coffee, and tell us they're out of coffee... yet we see other people being served coffee. We then changed our orders to orange juice and Diet Coke, wait a few more minutes, and then are told that they can serve us the coffee after all.

Then I decided to order the cheesecake stuffed pancakes because they looked really delicious on the menu with the strawberry topping. After waiting about 20 minutes for the food, what looks like regular pancakes with cream cheese in the middle are brought to the table (see photo). When I asked about the strawberry topping they said, "Oh, would you like some?" to which I replied, "Yes please that would be great, the menu says it's included." After waiting a few minutes, she comes back with 2 bottles of regular syrup saying they didn't have any strawberry topping. The icing on the cake was the Styrofoam cups and plastic cutlery we were eating with, for that nice country home dining feel!

When I was almost finished with my meal, a different waitress was approaching our table with what lookes like strawberries on top of pancakes and asked us, " cheesecake stuffed pancakes and grandmother sampler?" To which I replied "I know that must be for someone else but that looks like exactly what I originally ordered!" I guess they felt so bad because they wound up giving us the food since the original person canceled their order for what they brought to my table, and then it seemed like I had to wait an eternity for a drink refill and each time I asked our waitress for something she kind of made it seem like it was an inconvenience where I was asking for something that wasn't included or out of the norm.

It was time to go so I headed to the front check out where I sat for about 10 minutes before somebody asked me if I was ready to pay. During this time I watched a cashier chit-chatting with another customer, the phone ringing off the hook and then someone answering it and sitting there for about 5 minutes on the phone, and nobody paying attention to where a dishonest person easily could have walked out without paying and trust me after the experience I had I was tempted.

Keep in mind when reading this that I'm not the type of person who normally complains and I'm normally very easy going, being a restaurant owner myself. I can forgive one or two faux pas but having mistake after mistake in a single visit and then not even so much as an apology was a bit annoying. Just sharing...

Was served how they wanted to and what they wanted versus what I actually ordered and this attitude carried over to my to go order as well. Was not able to get assistance to get a huge discount I had available which would have made this horrible trip here worth it. The gift shop used to be nice to walk and look around with music and workers ready to help if intrigued into by something but they avoid you unless you grab their attention. So I was served barely warm grilled fish versus the fry. I was told my food was on the way in a way to shoot down my request for more biscuits. I had only had two so far. I remember when you didn’t have to ask. They used to practically be thrown at you. My too go meals were frozen with the wrong sides according to label and what I asked for. When saying something the waitress wanted to argue then realized iI was right then still proceeded to want me to wait on a third order that I wasn’t going to wait on any longer. This is super short version of everything. Also come to find out frozen $5meals are saltier tasting than a grocery frozen dinner to me and 3tiny spoon portions of Mac and cheese is all it contains the rest was liquid watery cheese. Not any more appealing when heated. If you choose the grilled chicken which I was given instead of what I choose the thing is like a floppy disc of rubber. The meatloaf have me thinking someone grinded rubbery steak gristle and seasoned to look like ground beef with ketchup and salt. If I had come on the day I had another waitstaff like the one I had a few days later darn this review would be so different. But my waitstaff just didn’t seem to give a darn and I don’t care to let one good one bring a good score home for the team. Someone hired that server who gave me crap service and the food wasn’t the best so like I also noticed the young lady who sits people and hands out menus didn’t wash her hands or use hand sanitizer after bathroom visit. Just saying the low score is a team effort.The cashier could have done more to apply my awesome big discount I had coming from my email. Less and less locations I will be stopping at. Took me for a lot. Not for the future customers , don’t just lay food that’s those’d to go trays so tacky like on table like here you can go...

We arrived around 5:40 pm and a sweet gal greeted us to take our drink order. She did inform us our waitress was running behind but no one told us how behind things were.

After 20 min of sitting and a 2nd drink refill did our waitress finally come take our order. She was missing the majority of the time. The people at the table next to us told her there were missing items and she never returned with them. They had to pull other waitstaff to get their missing items.

One table got seated not long after we got seated but two other tables got seated a while after us and yet all 3 of those tables got their food well before us. We had to call the sweet gal over to have her check on things because again our waitress was no where to be seen.

My father in law who is the most patient person I’ve ever met, got up from the table to walk out. He was done waiting. We waited for over an hour for our food. As we started to get up to leave they brought our food out.

My Mac and cheese was cold. My fried apples were luke warm. My country fried steak was hot hit the gravy wasn’t. My son got the buffalo ranch Mac and cheese and his Mac and cheese was also cold.

We had our waitess get management when she brought our food. She did offer to get me something else or bring me some different Mac and cheese which I declined because at that point I had been waiting for so long, I just didn’t want to wait any longer.

The people who got seated just before us got seated, got their food, ate, and left before we had even gotten ours. We literally stood behind them in line and they left before we got our food.

Excuses were made. Listen, I’m sympathetic to places being short staffed. I get it. But our waitress didn’t communicate with us. We didn’t even see her. She didn’t check on us. The sweet gal that took our drink order did. Other servers did but ours didn’t. They were short staffed in the kitchen but they didn’t communicate that with us. If we had been told the kitchen was short staffed and it would take a while to get our food, we would have opted to go else where.

They did take my meal off but more should have been done. No one should have to wait that long. It was not a great experience. Definitely will never be back to this...