Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Tinley Park

Absolutely terrible pick up experience. Now I remember why I never come here. I came to pick up an online order which was already paid for. There were several employees standing behind the counter, at least 4 people. I walk up and one woman asks me if I’m there to pick up. I respond yes and give her the name of the order I’m picking up. I can see my name on a bag where the pick up orders are. So she turns around and looks at the pick up orders they have and she sees the bag with my name on it, she says “here it is.” Instead of simply handing me my order, which was already paid for, she tells the cashier my name and tells her to give me my order when she’s done ringing up the customer she’s on. I don’t know why the first woman couldn’t just hand me the bag herself in the time it took her to tell someone else to do it.

So the cashier says okay and the first woman walks away. The cashier finished ringing up the customer she was on, and instead of handing me my order, she then proceeds to ring up three additional customers who got in line after me, when I’m still standing right in front of her, just waiting for someone to hand me my already paid for order. Which would literally take 10 seconds.

So the cashier then starts ringing up ANOTHER customer who got there after me, while I’m still waiting for her to hand me my order. I politely interject and ask her if she can please hand me my order, and she tells me to wait. I respond saying I’ve been waiting awhile, and my order is already paid for and sitting there on the shelf. She rolls her eyes, turns around and grabs the bag and hands it to me. Then she rolled her eyes at me AGAIN and goes back to ringing up the customer. There was no “thank you”, no “sorry for your wait”, no “have a good day”. If I hadn’t interrupted, she probably would have rang up 5 more people while my food was just sitting on the shelf getting cold. I was standing right in front of her, and she was ignoring me. It was so incredibly rude.

I was polite to everyone from the moment I walked in, there was no reason for her to be so nasty. She was the cashier at the furthest register on the left (on the left when the customer is facing the registers) around 12:45 pm on Labor Day. The register closest to the shelf where they keep the carry out orders. She was white and she had shoulder length dark/straight hair.

They need a better system in place for carry out orders. I’m still not understanding why the first woman who asked my name couldn’t have just handed me my order. It was already paid for. Why do I need to wait for 5 customers to get checked out? People who got in line AFTER me?!? It’s not like I cut in line and expected to be served before anyone else. She was literally ringing people up who arrived after me.

To make matters worse, I get home and my food was all ice cold. Probably from all the extra time I spent waiting for someone to hand my the order. AND my order was missing two things - the side of fried apples I ordered. And the bacon that was supposed to come with the apple French toast bake. The receipt has both items listed and someone highlighted them as though they had verified they were in the bag. But they weren’t in the bag, so they clearly didn’t actually bother checking the order before highlighting them. And the portion of French toast bake they gave seemed like a child size portion. Not worth $12, especially when they forgot the bacon. I’m pretty sure every time I come here, they forget something in my order. But today was the last straw with the disgusting customer service combined with the missing items. It’s truly disappointing. I would not recommend ANYONE come here. 0/10. Would NOT recommend.

In response to Cracker Barrel’s response: you provided a link to contact support. But when I follow the link and click “contact us” I get a message saying “Oops You've reached an invalid page. Find what you need by checking out our FAQs or searching above.” So, there really is no way to...

First time back at Cracker Barrel in over 20 years, and this visit on 4/12/25 may be my last. What a weird and terrible experience. The good: I liked the meatloaf, the Mac and cheese by all means tasty, chicken was also good. The bad: fries underdone and raw like in the middle, cornbread burnt and dry, no biscuits were available for my fiancée’s order when food came but were promised to come out soon but never came out; my fiancées breakfast for dinner order must’ve been finished 20 min before my meal was done cooking and most likely sat under a food lamp that whole time since her scrambled eggs had the consistency of a hard boiled egg and the bacon was like leather, tea was supposed to be unsweetened yet a peach tea came out. The ugly: walked through the knick knack shop at first and started getting some nostalgia back and excitement, then we go to be seated, and must have stood there for 7-8 minutes with no worker at the podium, then a shop worker called for a hostess over their radio, and another 4-5 minutes before someone came. We’re seated, and order appetizer, takes at least 15 min. We order our meals, and it must have taken 40 min for them to come out(again, her meal must have been sitting under a heat lamp for 30min). While we are waiting, couple next to us is seated and orders. Another table of mom and 5 kids come. The server yelled at the family of kids for asking for plates. Manager is called, things are weird. I look around and see left over plates and mess from tables left long ago. I see people sitting around and waiting with only drinks on the table looking around and wondering where their food is. The couple next to us wave the manger down asking about how long their meal will take. She comes and brings out the lady’s breakfast meal, guy’s meal is not ready yet, but first thing I see is her touch her pancakes and say they’re cold, the ball of butter on top never even slid or left any streak of melted butter from my vantage point. They bring out his ribs and take her pancakes back to the kitchen. Another couple behind us also waiting for food, and the food comes out, but I hear the server say “so sorry we’re out of tartar sauce, probably should have told you before”.

I swear they have the little pin jumping game on each table to keep you distracted from the long wait times and poor service. After our meals came out the server did not check on us once. Once the circus became very apparent and we wanted nothing but to leave, no server to hail and get our check in sight, getting more uncomfortable and weirded out by the second.

As we get up to leave we hear the ladies behind us tell the server they never got their biscuits, just like my fiancée. We hear the server say, when fresh ones come out of the oven they’ll be going right to you; story old as time.

Just disappointing, regret driving 25 min and wasting 2.5 hours in total on a Saturday night. Would not recommend, crazy part is it wasn’t even packed, about half the tables were empty, couldn’t imagine if it were...

Earlier this week, I visited the Tinley Park location. I was dining solo. Since I used the online check-in, my wait for a table wasn't long at all. However, the wait for my food was 40 minutes. I noticed others around me were getting their meals and tried to catch my waiters eye several times. I could tell that he was avoiding me. Finally, we locked eyes, and before I could get any words out of my mouth, he pointed his finger at me and says... "Your food should be coming up next." It was still another 10 minutes before my food came out.

No complaints with the food, but my waiter never stopped to ask if I needed anything after my food came out. In fact, he had another waiter bring me my food. When I was ready for my check and a box... it was the same game of trying to get his attention and the feeling of him intentionally ignoring me. Eventually, he looked my way and again....before I could fix my lips to ask for a box and my check...he points and says "your check" as he zooms by my table. This happens a total of 3 times.

When he finally brings me my check...guess what.... no box was provided. Why? Because he refused to stop at my table for 10 seconds to allow me to ask for not only my check but a box. So when he finally did stop to drop off the check, I told him just that. How he rushed by me 3 times, pointing at me saying "check" when that wasn't all that I needed. My waiter then crossed his arms and tilted his head and said, "I'm not a mind reader!" I told him..."No. I never said you were. But you wouldn't allow me to get the words out of my mouth because you assumed that's all I wanted." He quickly walks off and returns with a box just as his manager came over, asking how my meal was. As I was explaining my frustrations to her. My waiter left my box and told me to have a blessed day (sarcastically). Yet, never apologized for being so rude and dismissive. As I'm heading to pay my bill, the manager approached me again, saying how she spoke to my waiter, and she's so surprised by his actions as he's her best worker.

Working in corporate for 30 plus years....many times its the best workers who can be the bullies and tyrants. So that means nothing to me. I appreciate the manager giving me half off my bill. However, I spend so much at Cracker Barrell I should invest in stock. With so many other options in the Chicagoland area, and I choose Cracker Barrel only to be mistreated ... makes me think twice about giving Cracker Barrel another dime. I am a regular there and have never been a problem. The staff recognize me when I come in & I tip well. Nothing I did warranted the rudeness and dismissive treatment I received by my...