Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

I love Cracker Barrel, and as an OTR driver I eat at quite a few of them. I’m usually perfectly happy with the fare as I don’t kid myself, I know most of it comes frozen or from a can. But sometimes it’s nice to just have someone else cook a meal for you. Plus the biscuits are basically laced with crack ;)
However, I felt the need to write a review after a particularly disappointing experience at this location.
Let’s get one thing straight, I order one thing and one thing only when I come here and that’s the chicken and dumplins. It’s simple comfort food and I can’t make it on the truck. So I count myself somewhat of an officianado when it comes to how it should be prepared. Dumplins tender, chicken juicy and everything smothered in gravy.
This time just didn’t cut it. My portion was oddly smaller than usual and so very dry. If I had to bet it was old to boot like yesterday’s batch warmed over. I ended up sacrificing the gravy off my mashed potatoes to compensate which did help. The side of corn was old as well and over cooked.
Biscuits and sweet tea saved the day in the end.
Overall don’t know why they seemed off because most locations I’ve been to are fairly consistent. I would come back if I was in the area… but with reservations. Heck I might even try and order something else! GASP.

Overall this was a great experience. The food came quick and Nicole kept our drinks full the whole time! I had the Chicken BLT which is one of my regulars at the Barrel. It was the best that I’ve ever had (which is a lot of times.) The chicken was fresh and not too dry, the bacon was perfect and so was the temperature. My wife got her usual, the Chicken and Dumplings, which she said was good, but on the dry side. She found herself supplementing the gravy from the mashed potatoes to compensate. We were in and out in 40 minutes with no dessert and we didn’t feel rushed.
I highly recommend this Cracker Barrel location!

Not only are the people nicer than the French, the food is better than you think it will be.
Free hand lotion in the store on the way out. I recommend the crisp pear scent.
I went with 10 of my closest friends and we had great jokes and lots of fun. I don’t know what you and your friends are like but mine are awesome.

Cracker Barrel is pretty much the same at every location — old time, rustic Americana décor, homemade food, and the store where you can buy all kinds of old fashioned goodies. The Carlisle location is no different — you’ll find all the expected menu options and features here that you’d find anywhere.
The service at this location is pretty good (timeliness and table service all depend on the server you get — mostly good). We’ve had pretty good experiences here, though wait time can be long if they’re busy.
Overall, decent quality food for the money — I love their sausage gravy and biscuits! Really, their biscuits are good with anything!

I met my mother and her two friends for dinner tonight. They placed our order and when I arrived our dinners came out. It was great timing. The dinners were good as usual, but the pork dinner was on a small plate compared to the rest of the dinners. One member of our party asked for two desserts to take home but asked to hold it until we were ready to leave. The kitchen packaged it up including the ice cream even though we asked to wait.

If you like CB, you already know that you can go wrong w/​anything on the menu. The buttermilk pancakes are always too much for me to eat in one sitting, but it’s great for leftovers later.
The place was PACKED today, so it took about eight minutes after being seated, for our waitress to come to our table and take our drink orders. Another five minutes to bring them out. we placed our order at 1125 and she brought it to our table at 11
To be fair, she was waiting on a table of 13 when we. sat down.

A lot of my friends rave about Cracker Barrel, and since I had never been and just came back from a five hours drive, I thought it would be the perfect occasion to try it out. I got take-​out and waited inside the store (which is nice). My food was gross, and I realize that maybe it was a day off for them, but I don’t really want to give them another chance. First, the girl didn’t put the lemonade in my order (and she’s the one who suggested a drink). I paid for it, but realized it was missing when I arrived home, and didn’t feel like going back there. For food, I got the sampler; I thought it would mean more yummy things for me. Eh! The country ham was very salty, almost impossible to eat. Disgusting. The meatloaf was dry, and the chicken and dumplings wasn’t what I imagined at all. Flavorless, weird pasta with a poor lonely piece of white chicken. The «seasonal vegetables» tasted like they were out of a freezer. The mac and cheese tasted like straight out of a box. It wasn’t at all the nice country cookin’ experience promised. I am disappointed. The portions were supposed to be hearty, but I had two tiny slices of meatloaf and one small slice of ham. The presentation wasn’t there either. Would not recommend.

Visited 4÷27÷15
Pros: Service was quick and the food came out fast. Gravy was yummy, as was the country fried steak.
Neutral: Mac and cheese wasn’t as creamy as I like, but still had a great flavor.
Cons: The cheese grits were completely flavorless. The corn muffins, which I was most excited about, were almost tasteless; no corn flavor, no sweetness, just bland dough. I did not like how the server gave us the check as we were finishing our entrees, as that made me feel like I should be leaving once I finish instead of staying and ordering dessert or something extra.
The only reason I’d come back here is if they up their corn muffin game. The food was alright, but nothing I really crave enough to return for.

For the first time ever our Cracker Barrel disappointed me today. The biscuits have loved for years were half the size they used to be. I realize that every restaurant I visit is cutting back on portions to maintain their profits, but reducing the size of a biscuit! Compared to the wholesale cost of other things they serve, how much can cutting back on biscuits save the company?!? To top that off, although the biscuit appeared to be baked, it was doughy and stuck to the roof of my mouth. I used to love the country ham and Cracker Barrel is one of the few places I can find it. The ham I ordered was very tough. I had to cut it into tiny slivers to eat it. I felt like a nursing home resident on a chopped diet. I would have complained at that time but for unrelated personal reasons I had to leave rapidly. However cutting back on biscuits must be a corporate wide issue. Unbaked biscuits and ham badly prepared are likely local issues. Perhaps the corporation should look at the Carlisle store is slipping, I al give a restaurant a second chance, maybe the problem was a fluke, but if my next visit isn’t good, it will be a long time before I go back. I’m not a frequent customer, but have always been a loyal customer and have recommended it to others.
Several good things, the store hostess was friendly and delightful, the waitress pleasant and efficient. The restaurant hostess efficient as always.

Yes it is a chain restaurant, but as chains go, CB maintains excellent standards. More important to us they help accommodate necessary requests.
My daughter is allergic to nuts. They made sure that they cleaned the griddle surface to prevent cross-​contamination before making our breakfast.
She ordered blueberry pancakes. It comes with a generous amount of blueberries in the cakes and it also comes with a jar of Dickinsons blueberry syrup. I ordered food covered pancakes. They come with a generous amount of BlackBerries that of been cooked into a syrup.

This was the first time I’ve been to Cracker Barrel and it was amazing. The meals are homey and super cheap and yet nothing like fast food.
When you enter, there’s a Giant store with all sorts of knick knacks, toys, gifts, candies, and overall a glorious gift shop.
The service was slow when we got there and there wasn’t much business but it was super warm and cozy with a fireplace and humid tasty smelling air.
Once we ordered, the food was out in a jiffy. Tons of memorabilia on the walls — lots of old stuff you can stare at.
The food is soooo cheap — like $ 10 per person and its all country style delicious home cooked meals.
My boyfriend got this amazing tasting pot roast; it melted in your mouth and peeled away when your fork touched it — and was sheathed in a juicy gravy. The mash potatoes tasted amazing and home mashed — not boxed kind — with tons of butter. I had a side of Mac and cheese and expected something gross but it was so delicious and cheesy — I wish I could’ve ordered just a giant bowl of that. I got pork chops and they were simply seasoned with pepper and salt, perfectly cooked and very juicy. I also got chicken noodle soup and it was like my mom made it (except better because it had more flavor and chunky goodness — shh don’t tell her!).
This place is now on my top 5 for most delicious food eaten outside my home. I recommend it to everyone and I wish I lived closer to one :(because if I did I’d be eating every single day there.

The chicken dumplins chicken strips and turkey all taste good here. The lemonade is good also. The staff is friendly and the service is always good.

Terrible. We sat for 15 minutes waiting for a waitress to even say hello, then left. The hostess didn’t even bother to apologize when we told her why we were leaving.

Cracker Barrel is consistently a decent meal for about $ 10. I love that I can order off the kids menu and get out for less than $ 7 if I’m not that hungry. It’s not amazing food, but it’s reliable decent and sometimes good. The service tends to be friendly as well, regardless of the location. If you need a dependable place to stop for «home cooking» type food, this is a safe bet.

Came in 11÷19÷12. It had the nice warm Cracker Barrel atmosphere. Our waiter was excellent. He was polite and checked on us regularly. The food was delicious! I got catfish platter. It was fried to perfection. I’d recommend the hash brown casserole as a side. It was excellent. The mashed potatoes had a lot of flavor! The cole slaw left a little to be desired. But maybe I’m just picky. If your looking for some good southern style cooking (I would know. I’m from North Carolina.) stop by here.

I’ve been eating at Cracker Barrel restaurants for over 10 years, across five states, this is the first bad experience. The scrambled eggs came out as a think omelet, and the pancakes had a strange consistency. The turkey sausages were cooked so long, they were like hockey pucks. Oh, and the waitress bought our burnt biscuits. There seems to be poor quality control at this location.

What can I say — It’s a Cracker Barrel. We’ve been eating at Cracker Barrel for YEARS during our travels, and one thing I can say — it’s consistent. That being said, the fact that it’s so consistent makes me realize that it’s not «real» food — how have I been getting the exact same meal for 20+ years with no variation!?! Also, as I’ve gotten older (started eating at CB in my teens, and I’m now 38) my tastes have changed and CB just doesn’t do it for me any more. Yes, it’s inexpensive but really there is no imagination. Plus the «Country Store» part annoys the heck out of me — it’s like a gauntlet of retirees standing in your way to just get to the Hostess stand.
Pros: A consistent meal, for CHEAP.
Cons: Boring food, annoying «Country Store»

Worst breakfast I’ve had in a very long time. I didn’t even know that you could really make breakfast so salty and nasty. I won’t be back.

Rather eat here than Fayes Diner. Great meals, fair prices, nice staff.

I had never in my life seen or heard of a Cracker Barrel until I decided I was driving across the country a few weeks ago, and started seeing them everywhere after getting out of California. My sister is a vegetarian and a picky eater, so the thought of eating at a Cracker Barrel ever again disgusted her, which is why I didn’t get to eat at one until we got to Pennsylvania, lol.
I will agree that it is not the greatest food in the world, but after being on the road for 4 days and eating nothing but Subway and other various forms of fast food, this really hit the spot. I had a hard time deciding on breakfast or all the fried dinner plates. I was so set on breakfast food, but then got a big ass Fried Shrimp dinner instead.
My Fried Shrimp dinner came with a shitload of food, and was so good. It came with shrimp, some fried bread ball things, (I can’t remember what they’re called, lol!) mac n cheese, fried apples, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and biscuits! I was starving when we got there, but yea no way I could eat all of that. I had plenty left over for dinner somewhere else along the road.
All of the waitresses were super nice, and the store is super cute. I didn’t buy anything in the store, but it looked fun. There was lots of candy and other goodies to chose from, lol. It’s basically like a southern Denny’s which is decent food at all hours of the day family style, and in this case Southern style. I actually liked Cracker Barrel way better then Denny’s or even Norm’s. Too bad there aren’t any in California!

Classic road trip stop. Cracker Barrel is good enough for a fast «grab a meal on the way to Grandmom’s» meal, and certainly, you can waste a little time shopping in the store, but I wouldn’t recommend eating here if you were looking for anything more than a road-​stop meal.

Wow so I have never been to one of these, but I was in no way ready for how absolutely terrible the food was. I used to live in Tennessee so I’ve had some southern cooking and wow. This was an abhorrent version of all that I ever appreciated about it. I will never EVER go to one of these again. Why would you subject your taste buds to this!
All that aside the atmosphere is bad the cheesy «gift shop» is full of useless things. I saw for example a fake rubies’ cube that nearly worked and lots of other dumb nicknacks.
Please if you haven’t been don’t go!

Normally I avoid chain restaurants because, quite frankly, I don’t like overly processed food and I’d rather support small businesses. Also, my kids can’t get enough of the gourmet food known as chicken nuggets and I’m always in the drive throughs. Ugh.
We met some extended family here for breakfast the other day and I have to say that it was excellent. I’d eaten here before but I finally decided it was worth posting a review.
We had an eclectic bunch of eaters — the kids did pancakes (with various fruit toppings of which the blackberry was to die for). I did the low carb dish with eggs, double bacon and tomatoes. One person ordered an entrée with biscuits and gravy. One ordered cereal. One ordered eggs, sausage, and grits. All of the food was good.
The coffee was always served hot and it was pretty decent. The best part is that we were able to feed 9 people with different breakfast favorites and nobody had to cook and slave over the stove at 8:30 in the morning.
The service left something to be desired — some things were overlooked — but I don’t usually ding a place on their wait staff — unless it was completely offensive.
So. .. three cheers for Cracker Barrel for breakfast.