Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Van Buren Charter Township

Visited Friday, November 12 at 1PM for Dine-In

Friday at Lunch time lol this place is busy. People trying to pay.... people trying to line up for... I don't know what. The organization was just...non-existent. No wonder this place is hiring.

The front room is much busier than the dining room - which didn't look all that busy but that may be because there weren't enough servers to accommodate all three dining areas to be open.

When we arrived there was a 15-20 minute wait time for a table which we asked to be texted when the table was available.

We were seated and served by Nicole who was absolutely lovely. Just lovely. She is the kind of person you want serving you all the time. Give this woman a raise. Above and beyond service.

It was our first time at Cracker Barrel so we ordered quite a bit. Old Fashioned Lemonade Peach Tea French Toast with Scrambled Eggs and Sausage Friday's Fish Fry with Steak Fries, Fried Apples (no coleslaw today) and another side of Mac and Cheese Biscuit Beignets Maple Bacon Grilled Chicken, side of Mac and Cheese, grits, greens, and corn bread. Biscuits and Gravy for the table

The drinks - 100% order. The Lemonade was perfect. The Peach Tea... they must put something in this because it is delicious!!!

The breakfast French toast looked sort of sad....like it was just sad and depressing looking.

I am a bit of a fish and chips connoisseur and obviously this wasn't that. But for what it is - it's fine. The batter was good but the fish seemed kinda dry to me. Very flaky and didn't hold form or flavour. Tartar sauce was fine. The fried apples they're famous for which is like apple pie without the pie lol After having sad Mac and Cheese at other restaurants I can say Cracker Barrel Mac and Cheese is good!

Not being American I'm not sure what the obsession is with Biscuits and gravy but I tried it. The Biscuits are a tad too salty, just a smidge but I think they're supposed to be like that. And the gravy.... I'm not.... really sure.... what that was.... like.... white slop? It didn't taste like anything. Maybe cause I'm not a gravy person.

My friend said the Maple Bacon Chicken totally redeemed the meal for him. It was so good he ate it all. Loved the greens didn't like the grits. He said the corn bread was meh. Like we've had better.

After going to New Orleans I still have not found any place that serves beignets half as good as in the French Quarter so I mean....eh lol

We were also given very large to go cups of our drinks which we appreciated.

Overall I would still come back to Cracker Barrel to try other menu items and for that peach tea. I'm also curious about their pancakes.

If you're at this location definitely ask if you can sit in Nicole's section. She's...

Any emergency at a restaurant can occur at any time but the important thing is when it does occur. How does management handle it and how does this staff handle it? This was my experience of today’s review. My family and I arrived at this Cracker Barrel anticipating a good meal when we were informed by Christopher the manager that the fryer had broken down earlier, listening to him talk to another customer he was not able to get a mechanic to come in to repair it. so what was available on the menu that we could order if a fryer was not available. Usually I believe the two fryers are in a workspace one for a higher temperature and the other for a lower temperature frying so maybe it was just one of two, but it was only one OK that’s a problem. I ordered the I ordered the pepper, lemon, rainbow trout, my wife ordered the cheese sandwich grilled cheese sandwich my daughter ordered a salad with grilled chicken and my son-in-law ordered something but I forgot what it was. My fault it took about an hour after we placed the order to get our food now, as I brought it to the intention of Christopher the manager, he carefully explain to me the situation in the kitchen how food is determined to be cooked what time and what order and so on and it was a very acceptable explanation because I have already worked in the restaurant, so I know things like this can happen. Sophia, our waitress was an absolute sweetheart. She was so kind to make sure things for we’re ready for us she brought the food out of silhouette was available, which was quite a bit of time, but it was neither Sophia or Christopher‘s fault for this problem. I do not fault either for what happened. It’s just that the time for the cooks to do what they were doing, and the place was busy tonight that I can understand a delay an hour on that was pretty well stretching it but when I went to talk to Christopher about it, Sophia had the food on hand and my family agreed that the food was delicious. so there is no negative review should be considered with what I’m saying right now. It just happened to be one of those nights when something like this happened to the fryer. So I continue to appreciate this place. I’ve been coming here for decades I am a local I am a one of the original customers to be here at this particular store and I’ve been through many managers and many waitresses and I still love you. I still love coming to the brighton Cracker Barrel. I gave it four out of five because of the long delay of getting the food but other than that it was spot on. Thank you Sophia and especially Christopher for being great employees for Cracker Barrel. I want to emphasize that the cook tonight did a fantastic job on what they had to work with. I’m very grateful for...

I have always been a Cracker Barrel fan. I love southern cooking and while it’s not always “grandmas” it’s good. We had two bad experiences at a location in Livingston County and we said we wouldn’t go back there but thought it was just that location. Last night we went to dinner at another location in Wayne County. It started out immediately with seating. They said their GM didn’t want them to take names. There were several of us in line so we sorted ourselves in order but then another person came and started asking for peoples names off the list so we were confused. Then others showed up that had been texted their table was ready. It was very confusing. One couple was handed their menus and directed to their table verbally instead of shown to their table. The hostess apologized but it was still a mess. Once seated our waitress came and she was pleasant. We placed our orders and then waited. It was much longer than normal and it really wasn’t busy but we weren’t in a hurry so we just chatted with a neighboring table. I mentioned we weren’t asked if we wanted biscuits or muffins which was odd and the other table realized they weren’t asked either. Once our food came my husband was missing the gravy for his biscuits and gravy. The waitress said she’d be right back with it .we didn’t see her again until she came to let me know my to go order was almost done. I asked for his gravy and she said omg and off she went. She did return with gravy and fresh biscuits but by then I was done eating so we got it to go. My meal was worse. I tried something new for me. It was steak tips, fried shrimp and I requested the grilled chicken tenderloins. My sides were dumplings and fried okra (my fav). When my meal came I had fried chicken tenders but she had rushed off to get his gravy so I didn’t have a chance to say anything. She was gone so long I just decided to eat what I had. I swear to you my steaks texture was more of a boiled meat. Truly inedible and flavorless. The shrimp was good and though didn’t want the fried chicken it was ok. The saddest part was my fried okra. I honestly don’t know what they did to it but it had no flavor or texture. It was as if it was just the breading . I literally opened one to make sure there was something there. I feel like everything was maybe microwaved or something but it was definitely not right. Our waitress brought to go containers as requested but never brought the check. After waiting more than 5 minutes I went to the register to request a check and someone got us one. I did relay our displeasure and she asked if I wanted manager. So said no I just won’t be back. I really hope they get it together. It would be so sad for them to go out...