Cracker Barrel

Location: 2095 Gallagher Rd, Plymouth Meeting, PA

Price per meal: $8.29 – $15.99

Other Locations: All over the US

Despite it’s seemingly average menu pricing, Cracker Barrel is a great place to get a lot of good food without breaking your budget. Every meal begins with a plate of biscuits and cornbread, which is served on the house. Amazingly, they’ll happily provide you with additional platefuls for the exceptionally reasonable price of *nothing*.

Biscuits and Cornbread

The biscuits are fantastic. If you’ve eaten biscuits at fast food chicken joints like Popeye’s and KFC, you’ll know what to expect. Cover them in butter for maximum enjoyment!

Most of the entrees come with 2-3 side dishes, which include things like mashed potatoes, steak fries, and veggies. My personal favorite combo of side dishes is mac & cheese, dumplings, and fried apples — all are delicious.

The mainstay of the Cracker Barrel repertoire is Chicken Fried Chicken ($8.99).

Chicken Fried Chicken

It may be one of the most delicious meat platters known to man. It consists of a juicy boneless chicken breast, breaded and fried. A healthy smattering of equally delicious sawmill gravy is spread on top, which amplifies the juiciness of the chicken and provides additional flavor.

Shef Steve took a chance with a newer menu item, the Apple Cheddar Chicken. ($8.29)

Apple Cheddar Chicken

It’s similar to the Chicken Fried Chicken, but it’s been baked with sweet apple spices, a cheese sauce, and Ritz Crackers.

Steve’s Assessment

The Cheddar sauce gave plenty of flavor to the dish on it’s own, but the ‘burnt’ Ritz sprinkled about overpowered even the flavor of the chicken. Unless you’re a HUGE cracker fan (or have no working taste buds left), I’d hold the Ritz.

Al chose the Chicken Tenderloins, ($8.99) which are six large hunks of chicken either marinated grilled or breaded and deep fried.

Chicken Tenderloins

Al’s Assessment:

If it’s one thing Cracker Barrel does right, it’s chicken. You absolutely cannot go wrong with any poultry on their menu. I was a little apprehensive to order something other than the mainstay of Chicken Fried Chicken but was immediately satisfied upon the first bite that was dipped in the delicious honey mustard sauce. The tenderloins are just like a bigger and better version of Micky D’s Chicken Nuggets, all white meat and properly covered in goodness. Fried Apples and Mac & Cheese seal the deal. Top notch eatin’.

Portion Size: 8/10

Way more satisfying that it initially appears. Even the most voracious eaters will leave will a full stomach.

Overall Taste: 9/10

Yes, it’s a chain theme restaurant, but hot damn is their food tasty.

Service: 9/10

Though you get the idea they’ve been honed through packaged seminars, the staff is always pleasant and agreeable. The food always comes out *remarkably* quickly.

Value: 8/10

$9 entrees don’t seen like a fantastic deal, but the addition of 2-3 side dishes at no extra cost sweetens the arrangement. Be sure to make use of the recurring biscuits and cornbread!

Ambiance: 6/10

The decor is hokey “olde-timey” fluff, but it’s not particularly offensive. What is offensive, however, is the smoking section. Those who request a non-smoking seat still have a good chance of being seated within the radius of smoketown USA. It can put a damper on an otherwise great eating experience.

OVERALL SCORE: 8/10

10 Responses to “Cracker Barrel”

  1. Mike Says:

    Biscuits AND cornbread — isn’t that a bit redundant — carbs with carbs! That’s like pasta with potatoes. And I can’t imagine eating chicken cooked with fruit topping!!! My granny would be turning in her grave.

    I stopped in for breakfast because I heard you have grits. The result was as expected. I was not surprised to learn that you — like all Yankees — have no concept of how grits are made or served. Mine came in a bowl. THEY ARE NOT OATMEAL. You serve them on the plate like you do mashed taters! They should be as firm as mashed taters — you should be able to stand your fork up in them. They should be seasoned any way you would season taters.

    You should ask if the customer wants shredded onions, peppers and/or cheese with them. You should also offer fried grits. Hush puppies would be another good cornbread variation.

    I miss the South! Down there you don’t order grits — they come with breakfast. And when you order a slab of apple pie, it has a slice of cheese on top. In Louisiana and parts of Texas and Mississippi, the coffee is chickory coffee. That should be an option on your menu too.

  2. Sharon Says:

    Mike, If you don’t like the food then don’t go to CB. Stay at home and cook your own damn food. I can’t stand people like you that never have anything good to say. I bet your the kind of person that goes out to eat and then complains about everything so you can get your meal for free. You suck Cracker Barrel Rocks!

  3. Sharon Says:

    PS go back to south and marry it cause you love it so much.

  4. Tim Says:

    Agreed, cracker barrel is amazing, if you don’t like it don’t eat there, and to call us yanks?, hell i’ll march back down there and woop you again if need be, inconsiderate low life..

  5. Jim Says:

    Die, zombie thread, die!

    Cracker Barrel in Plymouth Meeting is great. The CB down in Buda, TX is not. Slow service, can’t get coffee refilled if you paid them and the manager tells you that he’ll look into it when he has nothing better to do. Oh, and you have to repeatedly ask to get biscuits and cornbread.

    I miss the Northeast! Up there you order grits – they don’t come with breakfast. And when you order a slab of apple pie, it has whipped cream on top. In Pennsylvania and parts of Delaware and Maryland, the coffee is refilled promptly. That should be an option on your menu too.

    and also: die, zombie thread.

    [EDIT]: Do not antagonize the zombie threads. -ShefSteve

  6. paul young Says:

    Nice post Steve, I work at Cracker Barrel

  7. Erick Says:

    I work at cracker barrel and I think their food is great. I’m both a backup cook and grill cook so I deal with pretty much all the food, and I can tell you that the food is top quality :). And with their new Seat-to-Eat program all the orders are ready in less than 10 mins. Except on busy days when we grill cooks have over 60+ orders all at once.. Lol.

  8. sahana Says:

    the food was yuckyyyyyyy!!
    go 2 hell!!

  9. Clint Says:

    A place that prides itself on its breakfast that nevertheless serves pre-mix sausage gravy without a hint of freshly prepared sausage, which is an abomination. Their grits are nothing more than “just add water” powder. They don’t even scramble their eggs and think their customers are too stupid to tell the difference between a flat, over-cooked, plain, no-cheese, omelette and fluffy, properly prepared scrambled eggs. Perhaps worst of all is that they have removed hash browns, or any version of freshly prepared fried potatoes, from their menu, and replaced them with pre-made hash-brown casserole, again in attempts at fooling their customers into thinking their getting something of value, as if the inclusion of cheese is somehow going to make this travesty better than freshly prepared hash browns. Any place that is too lazy to fry some potatoes for their customers is a place that will never see another cent from me. Condescending Corporate Cafeteria slop for ignorant obese people too gluttonessly lustful to notice when they’ve been woefully disrespected by cheap, disgusting short-cuts.

    And this idea that complaining about the performance of a Corporation makes you some kind of maniac or moron is pathetic. Consumers have a right to complain. People who complain about this garbage essentially provide these corporations with FREE market research which should, in theory, help to make these terrible places better.

  10. kimberly Says:

    @Clint, i work at cb, and plain hash browns are definitely still an option. And I’ve watched them cook it so dont even say its premade. Also. Our HBR Casserole is delicious!

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