Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Texas

This is from a customer perspective as well as a former employee. I used to love Cracker Barrel for their "homecooked" meals. After working there as a cook, I will not eat at Cracker Barrel again. THIS IS REGARDING THE RESTAURANT SIDE, NOT RETAIL. The management of this location is a huge joke. Managers are very poorly trained, and the employees are seriously overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated by management. The company wants to cut everyone's hours but wants to hire more people. The last GM set into place some managers that aren't even qualified to run an OUTHOUSE, let alone a staff. Food orders not placed or not placed correctly, dysfunctional, and inconsistent schedules, and failure to follow company rules are just a few consistents you can look forward to as an employee. CrackerBarrel likes to claim that it is a "family environment," but it is the farthest thing. If this is a "family," it is a dysfunctional and toxic one. Employees are treated as indentured servants, including being forbidden from even leaving the store while on a break if you are lucky enough to get one on a 5-8 hour shift - I worked a 12 hour shift, had to fight to get A break and was granted a 20 mins, but was told I had to take it in the break room only and couldn't go outside even to smoke a cigarette on a shift that I volunteered to help with due to low staff, and then they still shaved off 2 hours on the paycheck. The servers try their best, but when there is a serious lack of guidance or management (managers hiding in office all shift), they get burned out easily. God forbid you stand up for yourself, though, because that equates to instant termination. Managers literally walk around talking about openly which employees they don't like and want to fire. This is the poster child location for a "Toxic and hostile work enviroment." I took the job as a secondary income and for the experience. I have worked for toxic companies before and stayed 5 years out of loyalty.... I quit this hell hole after only 1 month. IF they could get decent and well TRAINED managers at this location, it might be salvagable. The food is a joke at this location. Do not fall for the "homecooked" gimic. The only things made fresh are the biscuits and cornbread. This location ruined ALL restaurants for me. RETAIL side is polar opposite. The staff are relaxed, friendly, informative and are being run by the only manager that has any qualifications. STORMY is an amazing manager who is not only company focused but employee focused as well. She is a great example of what a grounded and trained manager can accomplish ESPECIALLY when compared to the OTHER side of the business. If you go to this location to shop, you are beyond good. If you go to this location to EAT.... I would recommend any other location. Corporate, if you get to see this or even care, you need to pay attention as to who it is...

3/24/2025 @ 8:13PM I'll start off by saying that I have been to Cracker Barrel many times in the past and I love their food. Today, I stopped in for dinner and had the worst possible experience a customer could have. After the hostess took us to the table, The server never came. We waited and waited until I had to flagged down another server to verify who was going to be our server. I was told that our server was a young lady by the name of Jamiyah. Since the server never came to our table, I got up to look for the manager. The manager Brittney took our order. During dinner I asked for more coffee, and asked the server walking by, which turned out to be our server named Jamiyah B. Server Jamiyah just looked at us and walked off. Several minutes later, Jamiyah returned with a pot of coffee. As she was serving the coffee, the lid on the pot fell off and the coffee spilled on the table, almost got coffee into my food plate. After serving the coffee, she walked off and did not clean the spilled coffee. My wife and I had to clean the spilled coffee off the table. I got up for the third time and approached the guy cleaning the tables. He was identified as Parret. I asked and he gave me extra napkins. During this time, server Jamiyah came out from the kitchen and was very upset at me that I was there asking for napkins. I told her that I had asked for napkins to clean up the coffee that she and spilled, because did not clean. Server Jamiyah then raised her voice and said "I didn't spill any coffee" Her tone of voice was loud as she argued with me, to the point that Parret had to tap her on the shoulder a few times and get her to come down. She did not care and continued arguing with me. I then walked off and looked for the manager. I complained to Manager Britney, but she also didn't really care what I had to say. Manager Britney just made excuses that the server had a long day and they were short staff. I told Britney I was going to make a corporate complaint, and she just replied that the customer is entitled to their own opinion. Britney was polite, but she really didn't care what I had to say. I can honestly say that I will not be returning to any Cracker Barrel...

Went in today (4/27/2025) My husband ordered eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, biscuits, and gravy with coffee. I ordered French Toast with strawberries and bacon with coke. The waiter Christian brought the coffee and coke (no straw) when he came back by I ask for a straw, got it and the coke was so flat had zero taste. I want it back and got 2 waters. One had ice and one had no ice. Then after a fairly long delay Christian shows up and says sorry for the wait we are out of biscuits. More time passes- another waiter brought out biscuits to another table. Humm, so they do have biscuits. Christian comes by, your order is almost ready husband ask for more coffee. Wait, wait, wait. Christian comes out with eggs, bacon and hash brown casserole (note he ordered plain hash browns) and I get French toast that the top was over cooked and hard as a brick. Husbands bacon was soft and limp. Mine was hard and stiff. To the point of too hard to eat. And no biscuits and gravy and no refill on coffee. Another waitress passes and fills my husbands coffee. My husband eats his and I ate the strawberries off the French toast. Then Christian shows up with biscuits and had to go back to get the gravy. Never ask if anything was wrong with the clearly uneaten French Toast. (Seriously you come tap it with a fork and it sounded like cardboard. Thump thump.) Christian is taking the order at table next to ours, we ask for the Check $31.00 (and change). The bike was still on the check. The food was mostly left on the table. We left my husband paid - the checked asked how was everything. My husband mentioned the Coke was flat and Christain was going to remove it, my order was not correct, and the French Toast was scorched and breakfast took 1 hour and 17 mins. The checker said sorry he would have had to do that before you left sorry your food was not up to par. Thank you for coming, come again. I remember now why I dont eat at Cracker Barrel. The food is bad, the service is bad, why even ask how was everything if you...