Ole Cracker Barrel...if you know, then you know! Sitting directly on Bullsboro Drive between the Chick Fil A and O'Charleys, this Cracker Barrel offers all the things that make folks flock morning, afternoon and night...including the famed rocking chairs, oversized checkers, gift and candy store that just has too many things, old school decor, golf tee table top brain teaser game, the sweetest of teas and the southern food staples such as chicken and dumplings, fried chicken and that hashbrown casserole!
This particular CB was one of the first restaurants to line Bullsboro and to be in this area before it all became known as Ashley Park. My family and I have been here many times over the years, mainly because it is one of the only places my dad enjoys eating outside of the kitchen table. We have done breakfasts, brunches, lunches and dinners on both weekends and weekdays, and for the most part it is always a great experience. However the last couple times and most importantly our most recent visit turned out to be a little disappointing on the service side of things.
This latest trip was just like all the other trips in with my dad and myself arriving for lunch. We got our go-to dishes, Country Fried Steak for me and Hamburger Steak for pops along with the usual suspects on the side. We came on a weekday, as the weekends can get crazy, so given that there was not a lot going on in the restaurant we anticipated decent and somewhat timely service...expectations did not meet reality on this day. Our server was not the most friendly or expedient.
I get folks have off days, so the service could have have been overlooked for the most part until the end of our meal. Sadly my father found a hair that was cooked into his casserole and he didn't notice until he only had about 2 bites left in this side. He had finished a little over half of his full meal by this point and as you would imagine finding that was the stopping point. Once our server came back over we let her know what we had found. At this time we did not ask for anything in the form of a new meal or a discount or complimentary meal. She stated that she would go talk to her Manager and see what she could do.
She then returned to the table with a full priced check and let us know that the Manager stated that since we were essentially done and didn't want new food, that they were sorry for the issue and that was it. At this point it was principle and I requested that she either get the Manager or go back and talk to them again as I did not feel this was right. She rudely walked back off as if it was an inconvenience that we were upset we found a whole hair baked into our side dish. She came back over and stated that he was placing a discount on my fathers meal and she would process our new check shortly. The check came back out and we received a little over $1 off as they placed a 10% discount for our issue. At this point I was not interested in going back and forth, so we took the check up front and paid.
Again, we were not looking for a comp meal or a massive discount, we would have been ok with the 10% IF the waitress and Manager would have taken the fact that we found a hair in our food seriously. As a restaurant, that seems like one of those things you never want to happen, but these two almost made it out like it is a regular and they were annoyed that someone found one and they were dealing with it again. As a service professional and long term customer, it was very disappointing to see how they handled.
Overall, we have always came to this location because of the memories just as much as the food over the years. But after the latest visit, the memories have shifted a bit for the family. I opted to give 2 stars instead of 1 because this is just one bad experience, but it was a pretty heavy one. Given that, I don't really think this location is on our list of Newnan favorites anymore. read more