Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Village of Germantown

It's been awhile since we've gone out to eat at a restaurant , but for my birthday I wanted to go to one of my favorites, Cracker Barrel. That said, you can understand that my expectations were very high.

We got there at 7:40pm and browsed the gift shop. The store was well stocked, organized, and had a wide variety of interesting products.

At 7:50 the hostess greeted our family of four with a warm smile and communicated that she would be back after making sure our table was ready. Once it was, she seated us.

Our server (a two star waitress and her trainee) promptly greeted us, introduced herself and her trainee, and took our drink order. We were in no rush and took our time looking at the menu, deferring the waitress' inquiries to take our order. (I was impressed how they were very ready and available.) We finally ordered at 8:10pm.

(I was very confused about how the Cracker Barrel Rewards program works, but pleased that for signing up you get a free appetizer. Apparently, you have to order your appetizer on the app if you want it to come before the meal, but if you order it from the waitress as she takes your whole meal order, it will come when the meal comes. I don't like that at all. Also, this morning I checked my rewards balance and I didn't earn any credit on my rewards account for last night's visit. That's not impressive.)

Our food arrived at 8:52pm. Yes, according to the time stamp of my pictures, we had been waiting 42 minutes for our food. It was so late in the evening and we were so hungry that this factor was the most frustrating part of our visit. I was beginning to feel sick from the hunger. But due to the unusually good humor and pleasant nature of my family we kept ourselves entertained adequately (though our table was disappointedly lacking a golf tee game).

The food was excellent, hot*, flavorful, well presented and delicious. It was more than our ravenous hunger that made us appreciate the outstanding FOOD - it was great! My chicken was crispy, juicy and meaty. Yum! (I will say, the little bitty side dishes of carrots and green beans seemed disappointedly chinsy in comparison with the abundant mashed potatoes and two nice sized chicken beasts they came with.)

[*While I was in a fully self-focused, blissfuly enraptured-in-my-food state, I had failed to notice or inquire how my family's meals were. Only until after I was at the point of gasping for breath and carefully fitting the last corn muffin in my mouth, did I comment how wonderful my meal was and asked my family how their's was. My kids felt the exact same way about their meal as I did (though my daughter showed incredibly admirable self-control, leaving some of the meal for a take-home box). However, my wife said that her catfish and all side dishes were cool to cold, and the catfish itself was disappointedly small and thin. Though having three out of four of us enjoying our meal is a 'win' in my book, however, "when mama's not happy, ain't nobody happy." We all felt bad for her and wished she would have said something to the waitress and trainer (but that's not in my wife's nature).]

Our bill came to something around $51. The check out procedure was problematic as I had brought two gift cards which I had partially used in the past (one with $1.22 remaining and another $17). These brought the bill down to $33ish dollars so I paid the rest on my credit card, giving an appreciative tip of $15, but the computer made me swipe again to put, what seemed to me, an extra $15 on. The cashier assured me I was only tipping $15, not $30... I guess we'll see when the bill comes. In this process, the computer wouldn't close the bill (due to the combination of the free Rewards appetizer, 2 gift cards and credit card payment), so one, then, a second manager were called to the front to help. This took awhile and we finally left at 10:02pm, totalling a enjoyable 2+ hour evening...

We had what had to be our worst dining and retail experience at the Cracker Barrel in Germantown, WI. First was the meal...it was about 2pm, after the likely lunchtime rush...and were seated right away. Restaurant was not busy, so we expected relatively prompt service and food. We were wrong. Meals took about 35-40 minutes from order time...with no other service for those around us being evident either. Once we did receive our meals we had couple requests for an item or two...tartar sauce for the catfish and extra napkins. In one case the waitress apparently forgot altogether as she proceeded to go wiping tables and scooting around empty chairs and the other she showed up about 5 minutes later...instead of looking to fulfill the request right away. With that all done we went up to the shop to look to pickup something we'd seen when we first walked up. Only 1 lady at the register and 3-4 other employees congregated around some displays apparently redoing something. My wife got item and got into a "line" that was just her. Lady at the register having long (10 minutes minimum) conversation with current customer then proceeded to leave the register to help carry something out to the car. No acknowledgment of my wife, nor request for someone else to work the register. Other customers were forming up behind. After another 5 or so minutes the lady returned. My wife allowed a very elderly man who was directly behind her, and who looked to be having issues standing so long, go ahead...and that transaction took additional time. At this time I went up to my wife to figure out what was going on and she explained what was happening. With that, apparently one of the loitering employees overheard, and began to vocally praise the lady at the register...that it was okay that things were taking so long. It was clear that she was purposefully trying to make my wife feel guilty or bad. Had we not been pressed for time at this point, due to all the delays, I would have laid into those loitering ladies, and the manager who we assumed was amongst them. I've been both a retail and financial services firm manager and I was outraged by the horrific lack of awareness of their customer...

My party was told it would be a 30-40 minute wait for a table. We didn’t mind and perused the store and sat outside. After 50 min we asked how much longer it would be and were told they couldn’t tell us. We noticed that there were many empty tables in the dinning area and asked if we could sit at those tables pushed together as we had a party of 7. We were told no as it was a safety hazard. They could have just sat us at two tables across from each other if that was the case. After 80 minutes we were told they could seat us. Our waitress came to the table and said she would be right back to get our order. That took another 10 minutes. We ordered drinks and our food right away. Our drinks didn’t come for another 15 minutes. We overheard someone say that the kitchen was backed up. One member of our party had asked if they could order the cinnamon rolls as an appetizer for the table and the waitress said she thought they were out of them but would bring some if they had it. We never heard back until our food was delivered and she said she would check with the kitchen to see if they had any at that time. We never got them. Biscuits and gravy were supposed to come with one of our meals and other than the basket for the table, they never arrived. The waitress was unapologetic when a member of our party asked about something with their food being wrong and essentially passed the blame to the kitchen stating “it’s not my fault.” We were polite and were met with dismissal and no one who would take accountability. When asked to talk to the manager, again there was no apology for the long wait times, missing order items with no updates, or poor service overall. Other than shopping in the store, I haven’t eaten at a Cracker Barrel in years and can. Honestly say I won’t return. An apology goes a long way in...