The Cracker Barrel Restaurant is the kind of restaurant where you bring the whole family. The homestyle cooking and kid-friendly atmostphere of the Cracker Barrel, is appealing to guests of all ages. The signature Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is a great place to visit before or after dining at the Cracker Barrel. The store is attached to the restaurant part of Cracker Barrel, near the main entrance and lobby.
There are a total of 540 Cracker Barrel Restaurants currently opened in the United States. Cracker Barrel Restaurant first opened in Tennessee, and the chain soon spread across the South, and eventually to 41 states. All Cracker Barrel Restaurants are company owned, and feature the same country style design, complete with a front porch lined with old fashioned wooden rockers.
Cracker Barrel Specialties
Cracker Barrel has an extensive menu, with a seperate full menu for breakfast, and another for lunch and dinner. Many of the specialties at Cracker Barrel are made daily from scratch. Breakfast choices are include a variety of meals and combinations. Buttermilk pancakes are served with small, 1.7 ounce bottles of pure maple syrup, and cornbread and buttermilk buscuits are served to the table in a basket. Dining at the Cracker Barrel feels like having a large home cooked breakfast or dinner, made by your favorite southern cook.
Menu prices at Cracker Barrel Restaurants are affordable and less than one would imagine for the large portions of food served with each meal choice. The Cracker Barrel “Old Timers Breakfast,” is only $5.99 and includes two eggs, grits, sawmill gravy, homemade buttermilk biscuits, and a breakfast meat.
Dinner choices range from large dinner platters to salads and low carb dining options. The “Fancy Fixin’s” dinner choices include homestyle dinner favorites such as Country Fried Steak, Meatloaf, and Fried Chicken. A variety of side dishes are offered with each full dinner meal. Fried okra, macaroni and chees, mashed potatoes, green beans, and hash brown casserole, are some of the side options at Cracker Barrel.
The children’s menu includes meals for kids that include a beverage for between $3.29 and about $4.79. The meals are listed in the full menu, as well as by picture on the special kids’ coloring and activity book that children are given to work on at the table.
Dining at the Cracker Barrel
My latest dining experience at the Cracker Barrel was at the Lancaster, New York location, on Transit Road, just outside of the Buffalo area. On a Thursday evening, there was no wait at 7:00 pm, though weekends and prime dining hours tend to be much busier. The large dining room was decorated with antique decor, old photographs, and unique country style keepsakes.
The extensive menu made it difficult to decide on a dinner choice, but I opted for the Chicken Fried Chicken entreee from the “Fancy Fixin’s” section of the Cracker Barrel menu. The meal came with a choice of three side dishes, cornbread, and buttermilk biscuits. This was the ultimate choice in “comfort food.” The chicken breast was crispy and battered, with a white, creamy sawmill gravy on top. The fried okra was fresh and lightly battered, and the macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes tasted homemade.
If I could have finished my dinner, I would have splurged for one of the delicious looking desserts. For only $2.59 I could have finished with a large sundae in a frozen mug, or the house specialty cobbler dish. The portion sizes at Cracker Barrel are large, and even the children’s two-pancake meal for $3.29, could have satisfied some adults.
On the way out, I purchased a few bags of old fashioned candy for $1.29 a bag, and considered purchasing some of the Cracker Barrel cobbler fruit jars for $3.99, and Cracker Barrel pancake mix for $2.99. All of these items were located near the cash register. Overall, Cracker Barrel was a great restaurant to dine at for some homestyle comfort food at a pleasantly reasonable price.
