Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

I love Cracker Barrel but I don’t like to eat at this one in Mechanicsville. There is no quality control. Food is just slapped on the plate & in the smallest portions. This is not just a one time experience. It’s every time I’ve gone. So I stopped going. Someone is not doing their job to ensure the franchise standards are being maintained. Disappointing.

I came with a friend around 1pm on a Sunday. We were seated with a reasonable rate, with a young server named Crystal. I thought she was very good. Very pleasant and just the right amount of attentiveness. Food came out quickly, it was hot enough. the homestyle chicken was the best thing on the table by a country mile. Food was decent. I had sawmill gravy with biscuits and sausage, she had homestyle chicken, mac n cheese, and greens. The rest of the items were pretty average. It’s not a place I would frequent, but it’s a very nice change of place and the atmosphere was very welcoming.

At least my last visit here was great. Our server was warm and friendly and struck that perfect balance between hovering and disappearing, always keeping our iced tea glasses full. The food was also well prepared and properly portioned. Often times I’ll get the roast beef and they’ll skimp on the portions, but here I got my money’s worth. I also stay away from the steak fries because they’re often undercooked and limp, but these were crispy, golden brown and delicious. Seriously one of the better Cracker Barrel experiences I’ve had recently as they’ve become inconsistent as I’ve traveled around the county the past few years.

I have ordered breakfast at various Cracker Barrel locations more times than I can count. Time to change it up! I came in for lunch today hoping there were some great offerings on the menu.
The sandwich selection was small but I was assured by my waitress that «everything is good» lol.
So I decided to order the Reuben Sandwich. I though even if its average I still like Corned Beef on Rye!
Little did I know this was an experience I would remember for awhile. Once served, my first bite of that sandwich set me free!!! The Corned Beef melted in my mouth! This is one great Grilled Reuben! At Cracker Barrel no less!!!
Good solid customer service, and a great lunch!
I will do lunch more often at my favorite breakfast spot!!!

Service was horrible and had to wait an hour for food after waiting 15 mins for a table.

Meh. This place is interesting because of the souvenir store and the crowds of people on a Sunday morning, but other than that, yuck. The food here is bland and tasteless. I wouldn’t consider coming back, this place is mediocre at best.

Consistently good, as all Cracker Barrels tend to be. I had the meatloaf lunch, which comes with three veggies. The meatloaf had a good flavor of onions. Nice texture that held together well. For the veggies, the carrots were a bit soggy and the green beans were too peppery and were also soggy. However the mac & cheese was fan-​bloody-​tastic. Greamy and tasty with a great zing of flavor. I think next time, I’ll skip the veggies and meatloaf and just have this great mac & cheese. Yum.
Good service. Great price. And as always, consistent.

The worst… not worthy of even a minus 5 stars if that were possible… we were seated… waitress slowly dragged herself over after 20 minutes and asked for our drink request… we asked for coffee.20 minutes later we got what tasted like coffee tinged dishwater. 20 minutes later, she dragged herself (slowly again) to take our order. We (2 of us) ordered the farmer breakfast I believe it was called. minus the grits and asked if we could get hashbrowns in place since neither of us liked grits… she said yes, no problem, 20 minutes later we were able to catch her dragging thru the dining area with as much energy as a snail and let her know the coffee was undrinkable and changed them for tea. 1 hour later another waitress brings our food and first sat down grits, we told her we had not wanted grits and she became defensive and argumentative that grits came with the special anyway… then took them back and dropped down the hashbrowns as though she was annoyed. we both had ordered eggs over medium well, the eggs for us were almost as raw as sucking them right out of the shell, bacon barely cooked, ham slice swimming in grease, sausage gravy dry and thick as wallpaper paste or worse and on top of it all the food was not even hot… barely warm. After we saw the clear mucous running from our eggs, we were so disgusted and had to wait to catch up with our crawling waitress again to tell her we could not eat this and asked for the manager (whom, bt\y the way, we had to go catch up with ourselves because he never even came to the table) and explained to him, he made no apology for the issue, made no impression of any desire to correct it either, then finally said he would make us more… we said NO WAY were we planning on remaining, no less to wait another hour and waste our time further. He said ok. That was it. The worst I have ever seen from wait staff to manager. I have had extensive experience with the restaurant business and know this was not how to handle issues such as this. We were so disgusted by the staff and especially disappointed in the manager, we will NEVER go back again… we now will never ever even try another cracker barrel… totally turned off and disgusted. NOT SUGGESTED!

We went here 2 weekends in a row both of the times we went the biscuits are under cooked my hash browns where cold we sent back the pancakes they also where under cooked the watress was dissty we will not be returning to this location again

My wife and I stopped by on our way north and were first seated in a noisy section of the restaurant. When we asked for a quieter table they opened up the back section (which previously had no customers) and our server was very attentive. I enjoyed the country chef salad which featured lots of turkey, ham and bacon. The biscuits were also warm and tasty. My wife’s said her grilled chicken salad was excellent. The friends who joined us were similarly pleased with their lunches. We will be back!

I adore this Cracker Barrel. The atmosphere is always very comforting and homey. The food is always brought out in a timely manner even if they’re busy. Sometimes they don’t cook your eggs right but it’s very rarely. The staff itself is always so friendly and they make you feel comfortable. The store is also a bit hard to move through with all the display stands.

Good olé’ Cracker Barrel! This place is easily my favorite spot for breakfast on the weekend. It’s almost always packed when I drive past it. I’ve been driving past this place for 7 years and it seems like the parking lot is always full. I only go for breakfast and I’ve always had the good fortune of getting great service. I’m not a frequent flyer by any means. Probably 6 times a year and that’s about it.
When I do go, the food is always good. Expect the grits. Those have been cold for 7 years. It’s so sad that a southern style restaurant would leave those poor grits out in the cold. This place is a fat persons dream. Biscuits and gravy, perfectly cooked bacon, big ass pancakes, hashbrown casserole, eggs anyway you want them, country ham, and the list goes on. It’s a good olé’ boy breakfast and it hits the spot every time. I like it down and dirty and Cracker Barrel fits the bill.
Get some.

We were seated quickly but that was the only part that was quick. Our waiter was very slow, the food took forever, as did our drinks. The biscuits and muffins were good but greasy. My pork chop was dry, broccoli undercooked, sweet potato was excellent, kids hated the gravy on their chicken. Fried apples are amazing! Staff in the store were super helpful and polite!

Love Cracker Barrel! I just cannot decide which I like the best — the shopping or the eating!
Truly, I love the chicken and dumplings and all of the side orders you get. Their green beans taste like the fresh home canned beans and I absolutelly love the fried apples (they are especially good at breakfast mixed into their hearty oatmeal!).
I have tried many items and I am never disappointed! If you are traveling, it is a great break to stretch, shop and eat!

The prototypical Southern cuisine complete with rocking chairs on the «porch» and a country store filled with jams and snacks that whisper sweet nothings in your ear as you await your seat in the restaurant next door. This is an inexpensive way to spend a good time eating so much food that a food coma is not only guaranteed, but required.
So without a further ado, here are the recs:
— Chicken ‘N Dumplings: dumplings are the quintessential flour-​in-​delicious-​gravy along with chicken pieces. Comes with 3 sides.
— Cracker Barrel Sampler: my personal favorite since you get a hearty sampling of sugar cured ham (my choice over the country ham), to-​die-​for meatloaf, and plate-​licking chicken ‘n dumplings. Comes with 3 sides as well.
— Sides: faves include mac ‘n cheese (simple but good), fried apples (not bad), country green beans (love the ham hock taste), breaded fried okra (Southern goodness).
2 of these bad boy dishes total up to $ 23 including tax and tip. What magic craziness is this? All of these come with an additional side of biscuits and/​or cornbread. Although, the biscuit and cornbread aren’t as delicious as they sound, the rest of the food was hearty and downright good. Service was friendly and our waters were constantly refilled. Definitely worth a trip for a second tasting.

This is one of our favorite places! Good food, friendly people and down home southern charm. With a roaring fireplace, glowing lanterns tableside and apple pie with ice cream to send you home, this place has you feeling like you’re at Grandma’s for dinner.
Breakfast is offered all day (YAY!) and they have seasonal specials as well as daily specials, our favorites being Thursday Turkey Dinner (think Thanksgiving) and Sunday Home Style Chicken.
IMHO, everyone should eat here at some point in their life. It only takes one trip to get hooked!

I did carry out for tonight’s dinner for myself and hubby. The service by lady on the phone taking my order (which I found out when I arrived that she is one of the managers) was very good. She made sure she was going to give me exactly what I wanted. 5 stars to her for that. The food was brought out to me as soon as I arrived and the same lady was pleasant and asked if I would like more salad dressing. The price was very reasonable. The young man who rang me up kinda asked for a tip which I was a little surprised by but politely informed him that there would be no tip. Good try young one :) The food was very yummy! I will be doing that again.

The food was yummy but service was slow. They brought out my salad and the biscuits and dinner at the same time. Thought that was odd? But the waitress was nice. It wasn’t busy either. Tops of 25 people being in there.

The last time I ate at a Cracker Barrel was in TN like, 10 years ago, and I don’t really remember it so in my head, I’ve always just thought it was some little hick restaurant with subpar food that you basically only stop at on road trips to the beach. Last week, we did stop there on our way back from the beach, but it wasn’t subpar food at all.
Not only was the food good, but it was dirt cheap ($ 20 for 2 entrée’s, several sides, 2 drinks, and freakin delicious biscuits?!). They give you a ton of food. It was impossible for me to finish everything.
On top of the good, cheap, food, the store is has lots of neat items. Haven’t seen Zebra Striped gum since I was like 7, but I was able to buy some here! I also bought some of the delicious apple butter, some Paula Dean salad dressing, Original Moonpies, and some glass bottle Coke.
There aren’t any Cracker Barrel’s within like 40 miles of me, but next time I see one, I will probably be eating there.

We stopped by this version of Cracker Barrel on our way back to VA from OBX NC and it was one of the more surprisingly best road trip meals ever.
Ever since Chicken Fried Steak (or Country Fried Steak) was introduced to me by my long-​lost friend Justeena at Heaven on Seven, Chicago, back in the late 90s, I have been a faithful Chicken Fried Steak eater.
If I see it on the menu, I order it.
What’s even better is that Chicken Fried Steak is completely cholesterol and fat free. Freedom feels so good, don’t it? Hooray for America!
Seriously, the food at Cracker Barrel is simply delicious. Don’t even try to count your calories, since human minds aren’t even designed to count that high — duh, that’s what the computer notebooks is for, silly.
Even though our server looked like a hungover Rocky Horror Picture Show participant who’d decided to commemorate the experience by never removing her make-​up from the night of festivities, she was attentive to our pediatric needs and various requests for random things at unpredictable points of our feeding hour.
The only complaint may have been that the serving size is arguably too small.
I leaned towards appreciating the lower price and smaller quantity combination — are you listening, food purveyors of New York!!! — but for my father who’d ordered Prime Rib, it did seem like like the serving size could have been enlarged by a few ounces (which would have made a significant difference).
Next time you see the great Cracker Barrel sign way up in the sky, sitting on top of the seemingly dangerously high flag pole, make that exit and you won’t be disappointed.