What's your opinion on Cracker Barrel?
Asked by
rockfan (
14632
)
July 1st, 2017
from iPhone
I ate breakfast there today with my family, and an hour later I wrote this review on Yelp:
I ordered 3 scrambled egg whites and a side of plain grits. I’ve always thought that it would be hard to mess up eggs and grits – until now. After eating my awful food I discovered that Cracker Barrel cooks their eggs on a griddle, so you can’t actually make them fluffy, and as a result the eggs always end up flat, dry, and barely edible – which is exactly what I got. I ordered 3 more scrambled eggs (with the yolk) to see if it was just the way they make egg whites. Nope.
Oh, and the grits were a watery soup. I’ve been to a handful of other locations and they’ve been just like this. However, the service was impeccable. But unfortunately, this is the last time I’ll ever go here.
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29 Answers
the chain doesn’t exist here. I thought Cracker Barrel was one of those outfits that sets up a kiosk in the mall at Christmas, selling cheese logs and gift baskets.
Sounds like you went to one of the new ones in yankee country where they don’t know how to cook southern food. In Tennessee they do it right.
I go to one in CT (Yankee country) and they do a good job with the food. It may have a bad store, or a bad day.
“May have been a bad store”...sorry.
Occasionally, you DO get something really awful at Cracker Barrel.
Their “Hobo meal” would make a homeless vagrant puke. And it was over nine dollars. Every time I went to Cracker Barrel, I’d write a warning on their menu. It was basically a cheap watery “stew” cooked in a pouch. The potatoes were virtually uncooked but the carrots were mush and the whole thing was rancid.
I’ve had REALLY BAD hard, cubed “barbecue” and scorched batter on cod.
But most everything else has been good to very good. Like most restaurants, the cost of eating there has made it in the moderately expensive category. In the 1980s you could eat here for about 4–5 dollars which was surprisingly inexpensive even then.
I’ve been to Cracker Barrel a number of times and the only complaint I ever had was that the ham was TOO salty. Other than that it has been good. But maybe my tastes differ from yours.
I was in one once in the South and did not enjoy the food.
It was a Cracker Barrel in Kentucky…
@seawulf575 their ham is Country Ham not City Ham. The difference is Country is salted and air cured in the salt.
Our local (North Carolina) Cracker Barrel makes terrible runny grits.
@rockfan They aren’t known as a good southern food place; just a store attached to a restaurant.
What kind of creature orders scrambled egg whites?
Seriously, you deserved it.
@ragingloli
I love eggs and I eat them 3 or 4 times a week, but there’s usually one day a week when I decide to eat only the whites. Especially if I’m eating bacon or sausage on the side
Your experience is the opposite of mine, and I have been there dozens of times over the years. Of course, I live in the South, which is the heartland for Cracker Barrel.
But feel free to complain. It’s your right as a consumer. And I will feel free to disagree with you.
The Cracker Barrel I went to near the Dallas Metro wasn’t that bad. I was half-asleep due to driving 11 hours from Missouri to Texas, so I don’t remember much. I ordered coffee, but I was too tired to even drink it.
@stanleybmanly, that’s Hickory Farms. (I’m a 3 Christmas survivor, 2 of those as a manager.)
Most of the food that I have had at Cracker Barrel have been very greasy. The only exception was a salad with grilled chicken.
Overall, the food is garbage. If you do hit something that tastes good, you can be sure it’s also unhealthy. I almost never go to one, but when I do I don’t hate it, but I would never choose it myself. Well, I donhate the calories and fat I wind up eating there.
You can ask one whole egg and the rest whites, so you get closer to the real thing without all the cholesterol. You risk them screwing it up.
I ate at one about six months ago. It didn’t taste bad, but I’d say it was cafeteria quality food. I had some kind of baked chicken. I think the atmosphere is kind of trashy. Hectic, maybe short staffed, huge sodas and one person at another table spilled one so the whole table had to be cleaned and a yellow “wet floor” sign set up. Greasy menus. I’d not say it was awful but it was good to go there for my once every ten years visit as a reminder not to go again for another decade.
@jca Large drinks are common in the South. I had never seen free refills on soda and tea until I ate in a chain that was not from the north, I think I was 16 years old, and it was at a Ruby Tuesday’s. Then I saw it in basically every restaurant when I moved to a southern hot climate. I don’t know what it’s like in NY now at most restaurants.
@JLeslie: Large drinks are here in chain restaurants too. I guess I mentioned it because there was this big spill at the Cracker Barrel, which meant they had to put the yellow sign up and come with the mop, which added to the whole hectic trashy atmosphere.
I haven’t been there in years but I did enjoy the times I ate there in the past. We only went for breakfast and I loved their biscuits and gravy.
I’m not a huge fan of chain restaurants but I’ve never had a bad experience at Cracker Barrel. It was clean, great service, I like the old time atmosphere and their gift shop. The gift shop has candy from my 70s childhood that you can’t find unless you search on the internet. Remember the gold nugget bubble gum that came in a pouch? That was a favorite of mine as a child.
@jca Most of the chains probably aren’t headquartered in the northeast was my point. I don’t know how many ounces the glass was at Cracker Barrel. Even in non-chains in hot states the glasses tend to be larger, and refills are free.
@JLeslie: Yeah I won’t order soda in a restaurant unless the refills are free. I’m not into paying 3 dollars or more for a one shot fill of something that costs them pennies of fountain syrup mixed with carbonated water. Even then, I often won’t order soda, especially if they don’t have caffeine free.
Does the Cracker Barrel chain also do a catalog or online business?
Thank you. I have this vague but insistent memory from decades ago of Cracker Barrel and Hickory Farm Christmas equivalency. I seem to recall paging through catalogs of both. My daughter, for reasons I never understood, had this fanatic lust for those huge gift baskets crammed with preservative loaded cheeses, sausages, jams,etc. I swear it was a delight to see her as a little girl delight in the thing with the same fervor her peers would reserve for a pony!
I’ve ate at many over the years in many different locations south to north. Never had any particular complaint with their food. Sure, it’s unhealthy as shit, but if you’re going to Cracker Barrel looking for healthy food then you’re doing it wrong. It’s pretty much pure greasy, fatty, salty, heart-attack-on-a-plate-but-you-still-love-it-anyway comfort food.
That said, any given restaurant chain as big as they are, with the kind of minimally-skilled workers they employ is bound to have a few strike outs.
So then, by my count….
It’s pretty good, except when it isn’t. Just like any other place with a store attached, rocking chairs out front, and half the waitresses are named ‘Flo”....
Food is average, nothing to write home about. I always thought Cracker Barrel was overhyped but for some reason my mom loves it. Whenever we used to travel, she always made it a point to eat at one.
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