Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — Restaurant in Wrentham

I’ve been to Cracker Barrel restaurants in four different states. This location was by far the worst experience from service to food quality. Southern locations do it right - hands down. Mid-Atlantic locations were always consistent in service and quality. Even the Midwest location was better all around, and that was on a busy Sunday morning. We ate at this location on a Thursday night. I expected it to be busy since it’s next to an outlet mall. As we waited by the podium to be seated, we could see who I assumed to be the staff supervisor watching over tables and speaking loudly. I quickly realized she was speaking to other staff on her headset. Didn’t seem like she cared if customers could clearly hear every word she shouted into the mic. She stood ten feet away when she spoke into her mic that our party of three would need to wait five minutes. The hostess on the other end of the radio then told us that we would need to wait ten minutes. Ok, no big deal. When we were brought to our table, it was not wiped down, places were not set, no silverware, and there was a ton of food remnants on the floor underneath a high chair. Ok, again not a big deal but it was not very appealing to be sitting above a huge mess on the floor when it could have been swept up in five minutes. Didn’t take long for the waitress to take our order. I looked around and noticed four empty tables in our section. I guess it wasn’t as busy as I thought. Food came out about 20 mins later, but we still had no silverware to eat it with. When asked if we needed anything else, we had to remind the waitress that we needed silverware and one missing item. Portions were smaller than I remembered. Our entrees were sloppily prepared with mac and cheese almost falling off one plate, fried chicken that was not evenly coated, and about a spoonful of gravy on the country fried steak. We didn’t see the waitress again until she saw that we were done with dinner. Not once did anyone check to see if we needed anything. Our empty cups sat on our table as staff after staff passed by. I caught the supervisor scanning over the tables before we finished our meals, but not once were we approached. When the waitress finally showed up I asked for napkins, yes napkins at the end of our meal and the check. We quickly paid and got out of there. I had no interest to stick around any longer than I had to. Bless my wife and her kind heart for adding 25% to the check, despite the level of service and lack of quality. Before I left I saw there were still empty tables so I cannot accept the excuse that it was extremely busy as justification for poor service. I don’t think we’ll have a repeat visit. Definitely not worth the hour long drive. Cracker Barrel has always presented the classic home style, easy going, family atmosphere. The Wrentham location was the complete opposite and a classic example of how to...

I ordered chicken and dumplings with three sides; mac and cheese, pinto beans and carrots. My girlfriend also ordered the chicken and dumplings, her sides were mashed potatoes and the loaded baked sweet potato. The chicken and dumplings were grey and sad and the only seasonings present were the salt and pepper we added at the table. The ratio of dumpling to chicken was obscure and it felt like the meal was shipped frozen, prepared in large volume and kept warm. The mashed potatoes were likely potato flake and water and had an unpleasant consistency which I've never experienced. The pinto beans tasted as if the line cook opened a can of beans and a can of precooked pork, mixed the two and microwaved for 3 minutes. It was dry and without seasoning and the only flavor came from the beans. The sweet potato came with two giant melted marshmallows that made it difficult for my girlfriend to eat. Watching her navigate the giant heap of gooey marshmallows made me laugh, but she felt uncomfortable, awkward and messy. The mac and cheese was cafeteria style and was similar to what you could find in a microwave dinner. It wasn't bad and I actually finished it. The carrots were the best part of my meal. This was cheap food in two senses: 1. Cost, this food was literally cheap. 2. Quality, this food was figuratively cheap. I'm not a fine dining expert or master chef but I can tell that the quality of this food was less than what I'd consider to be satisfactory. Even my waiter seems to know that the food was unreasonable. He was a very kind, polite and attentive young man but at the conclusion of our meal he didn't even ask if we wanted to take anything home. Almost as if he knew we wanted to distance ourselves from the food and the restaurant and forget the entire experience. Simply, I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to a single person I know, I wouldn't return to this establishment or any other restaurants belonging to this chain and I'd actively advocate to my friends and family to not dine here.

UPDATE: I was contacted by corporate who apologized profusely and emailed me a free meal voucher. I don't plan...

I was sitting down eating with two other people and I had heard not once but twice one of the managers yell and scream at three employees. The first time was when I first sat down and the waitress was coming over to grab our order, the waitress had to stop talking because of how loud the manager was yelling at the employee. What she said to the employee almost made me get up and say something to her and leave. I heard her say to the busser, “if you can’t do your job then leave. I saw that the young busser was working extremely hard and diligent. And not only were they doing a great job, they are moving and carrying heavy buckets of dirty dishes. I asked the waitress who that was yelling and she said where, I point to where I could hear and she said that is our general manager, Stacy. I was absouletly disgusted and shocked beyond belief. I could only hear bits and pieces of what she was saying the first time. But the second time was when my food came out and I was eating and I looked up and heard the way she was speaking to another employee. But this time I heard everything. The waitress brought a concern to her and she snapped on her. “WHAT WHATT IS THE DAMN PROBLEM. WHAT IS IT THAT YOU WANT.” I heard the waitress speak back and say, a customers is requesting a manager about an issue with their food. She yelled if not screamed back, urghhhh, TELL THEM I WILL BE RIGHT OVER. Then she proceeded to say what hell, these people can’t ever do their job. It looked like the waitress was about to start crying and I know the second time I heard this the tables next to use looked up and heard it all as well. That is extremely unprofessional and not ANYYWAYYY to speak to your employees. That is exactly how you loose good employees. No manager I have ever worked with, would ever to the employees like that. And if they did they would be reprimanded, if not fired. That behavior and additude is unacceptable. I will be contacting Cracker Barrel’s customer service line to make upper management aware of the atmosphere that this “general manager” is creating. It seems extremely...