Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Virginia

New review September 2023.

I had written a review a year ago on the Newport News location. It was the last Cracker Barrel in the area with good food. It was still a little hit or miss at the time as they were training new cooks and servers.

We went to the Newport News location for supper on a Friday. It seemed odd because there were only about 6 cars in the parking lot on a Friday evening. Usually this location is pretty busy on Friday. I soon found out why this Cracker Barrel is no longer busy.

I ordered a hamburger steak medium with gravy and onions, baby carrots, mac and cheese and hash brown casserole. My friend ordered the meatloaf with baby carrots, fried okra and turnip greens.

My hamburger steak came out over well done with just 3 tiny pieces of onion and no gravy. It was covered in grease and was so dry I had to wash each bite down with water. The mac and cheese was more like pasta soup. The hash brown casserole tasted like reheated left over food that was at least a week old. I could not finish the hash brown casserole. It had a foul taste.

My friend said her meatloaf was not good and was soggy and falling apart. I also made the mistake of ordering one of the $5 meals to go. You guessed it--the meatloaf. She only ate a few bites of the meatloaf and said she couldn't eat it. She ate the okra and the carrots but said the turnip greens tasted bad. When I went to put her meatloaf in a to go container, there was grease dripping off it and it fell apart.

Two hours after we got home, my friend got sick and started throwing up. This morning she was still sick and has a bad case of the runs. I just heated the $5 take home meatloaf. When heated, the container had 1/4" of grease and ruined the mac and cheese that comes with it. I took the meatloaf out and tried to salvage it by grilling it in a frying pan. There was so much grease in the pan it was like frying bacon. I have had the meatloaf before and thought it was pretty good. I don't know what they did to the meatloaf, but even after frying it and getting some of the grease out, it tasted terrible. It did not even taste like meat. I ate a few bites and started getting nauseated. I threw the rest in the trash.

I make it a point that if a restaurant makes me sick, I never go back. That is a good sign the management is not properly ensuring food safety measures are taken and food is properly prepared and cooked. It was obvious by the amount of customers that were in the restaurant that a lot of people were disappointed with this Cracker Barrel and no...

So, I ordered a basic breakfast thru doordash as a "first impression" of this place. As a 40 year veteran of Southern California, I had no idea what to expect, but wanted to give this place the benefit of the doubt... I have to admit, everything was amazing... At first. The eggs, the biscuits and gravy, pretty much everything was perfect. I come from a LONG line of bacon lovers. My grandmother was super picky about the bacon she brought into our house. I proceeded to read "THICK CUT BACON" on the menu. As I read nothing regarding "thin cut bacon", I decided to try it. It was false. I received bacon that I could read the newspaper through. I held it up to the light and saw nothing but light. If this is how you prefer your bacon, I salute you. However, where I come from, our "thick cut bacon" is at LEAST an 8th inch thick. And that's after cooking! Try seeing light through THAT! I called the restaurant and spoke to Eric the manager. He agreed to offer me a free additional side of bacon on my next order. A few days later, I took him up on the offer. But decided to dine in. I waited as the most entertaining ladies I've ever met did their best to keep me occupied while I ordered another meal. Exactly the same meal I ordered previously. The first time, I got 3 eggs. This time, I was told I would get 3 eggs, but only got 2. The bacon on my plate with my order was slightly crispy, (I always order mine soft as I am missing several teeth), but overall, not bad. HOWEVER... manager Eric decided to bring out my extra side of bacon in a separate container, in front of the whole restaurant, and attempt to prove his point that their bacon is what it is. If it isn't THICK CUT, take it off ur menu! Just say bacon. But don't ever humiliate ur brand new customers just to prove a moot point. The next time I come down there, I'll bring ACTUAL THICK CUT BACON prepared by myself. Then you bring out your so called thick cut. We'll see which one ur customers prefer........

I ordered a curbside pickup order, the site stated the meal would be ready in 15 minutes (which is a great wait time). I promptly drove to the resturant and parked in the curbside pickup area. I checked in through the email I received which stated they would bring my order out soon. I waited in the parking lot for 25 minutes and I had arrived when my food was supposed to be ready. I went into the store and walked up to the hostess desk to see where my meal was. After waiting another 5 minutes I was told that another clerk (who was standing around chatting to a waitress about their apron) could assist me, they brought me over to a cart where my meal was sitting, likely since it was scheduled to be ready. No where was I informed that I had to go inside to receive my curbside pickup order (especially when there are literal parking spots specifically for curbside pickup) obviously, as you can imagine, my food was cold. I was also annoyed to find that my food was missing the toppings requested. I was so agitated and hangry at this point that I didn't want to deal with any of the staff there, because honestly with how annoyed I was they would've gotten quite a bit of attitude and rudeness from me, which I don't believe anyone deserves, plus they were all kind to me when serving me. Instead I drove to Kroger to buy and pick up the toppings I had requested on my meal. Went home had to microwave and prepare my meal nearly an hour and a half after ordering my meal. It was delicious by the way, and I do really love Cracker Barrel, however I will never pickup food from here again. Just remember apparently curbside pickup doesn't actually mean...