Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Violet Township

We've eaten at Cracker Barrel for years, locally and all over America as we have travelled the country. They have a wide variety of some of the very best "home style" cooked food there is. They specialize in a variety of breakfast items which are served all day. Delicious pancakes and waffles with real maple and blueberry syrup. Grits, sausage gravy, biscuits, corn bread and sour dough bread. Sausage, bacon and steak, plus much more. For lunch and dinner there is something for everyone. Grilled, baked or fried chicken, fish, beef and steak. All served with a choice of home made sides like mashed potatoes, dumplings, turnip greens, pinto beans, carrots, salads, baked potatoes, fried apples, green beans, etc. Plus delicious desserts. Cracker Barrel is a nostalgic step back in time and a tourist attraction all in itself. Outside there is an inviting front porch that greets you spanning the length of the whole building filled with rocking chairs and tables with oversized checkers to play. You can relax there before or after your meal rocking, talking and playing checkers. When you go inside, it is a step back into time. It's like an old time country store. You will find candy that you haven't seen since you were a kid and didn't know they still made. The store is filled with so many unique gifts and treasures that are beautifully displayed. No matter what the season, you will find beautiful decorations for your home. There is a whole corner dedicated to the children with clothing and toys. Trust me there is something there for everyone! If you are one of the few people in America who have never stopped at Cracker Barrel to eat, please give it a try. It's a great way to reentergize a monotonous rode trip. I was there the other day and the Christmas decorations were out. I thought the trees looked so pretty that I snapped a couple of pictures....

THIED UPDATE: even 2:00 pm on Sunday afternoons they are slammed with business!! Porch full of ppl waiting but only 15 mi wait!

SECOND UPDATE: so the breakfast casserole is already extremely popular. Now they have made it insanely great!! They made the casserole into deepfried tater tots with bacon?! OMG X 10!!! 🤯 We devoured ours and forgot to take a pic?!!!! Grand slam concept!!!

UPDATE: huge round of thanks to our waitress, Bailey today on Mother's Day!! As a former waitress, I know how difficult it can be on slamming traffic days, but Bailey was flawless! She assured us we could take a min to look at the menu even though the place was completely full! Coffee and drink refills were perfectly timed, order was spot on! Alllll the things! She even said Happy Mother's Day to me since my 3 sons took me out to breakfast this morning.

One new feature, you can pay using your cell phone at the table!

I'm also going to say this...I prefer CB to the Ohio-based Bob Evans by far. Whatever CB has done to get quality employees, bravo!!!

ORIG REVIEW

This review is written after several visits over the years. These folks from beginning to end know what they are doing. Wait staff that are experienced, cook staff that have their skills down to a science. Add CB's wonderful nostalgic atmosphere and huge roaring fireplace, rocking chairs on their porch and novelty store at the entrance, and it's a formula for success. They will always accomodate your choices and changes to their menu and your belly is full for the majority of the day with generous portions!

The parking lot is huge and the restaurant is always clean and so are...

So we arrived for dinner, they initially were going to seat us at the round top just inside the dining area. My husband requested a different table they decided they would move us to a 6 top table but it required cleaning up. We waited patiently it didn’t take long however they did seat ud before it was fully cleaned off and wiped down. They came back and finished the job, took our drink orders. Then she brought back the drinks and took our dinner order. All but 1 of the 5 of us ordered corn bread with our meal. They brought out 2 pieces of cornbread in the basket nothing else. Seriously for a table of 5 the basket only has 2 items… then we all had a form of chicken. 2 with fried bone in, 1 grilled, 1 boneless, 1 salad with the fried chicken. One of the bone in orders the thigh piece was very pink and chewy it wasn’t fully cooked. They tried to say it was an that id just how they cook it in whatever they use … however.. the other fried chicken order was fully cooked all 3 pieces… so explain that to w… any rate the took off the chicken meal but charged us for her salad and her fries… they should have comped her entire meal. We come to this area multiple times a year. We will not return to this Cracker Barrel. Btw.. when we asked for more cornbread and my son was the one who wanted biscuits they only brought out a basket of biscuits no explanation no apologies nothing. We recently stopped going to the Cracker Barrel in our home area because the service has declined and to experience this at a different Cracker Barrel 4 hours away… well says something about Cracker Barrel in general...