I was really looking forward to my first visit to the Cracker Barrel. We arrived Friday night at 5:30 and were surprised we had to wait 20 minutes to be seated, but that wasn't so bad. My first impression when I entered the dining room was that it was like a school cafeteria with rows of long tables. Turns out there are separate tables but jammed so tightly together there's barely room to walk.
What impressed me the most was the horrendous noise. We couldn't talk, we had to shout at each other. With wooden floors and wooden ceilings there's obviously no effort made to reduce the sound. This is a brand new building, and you would think that whoever designed it would have considered the noise and crowding factors, but apparently not. Seems the plan was to jam as many people in the dining room as possible and forget about comfort. If you're looking for charming ambiance and "a fine dining experience," do not go here.
I liked my chicken fried chicken, and our waitress was fine. We didn't have to wait very long for our food, and it was warm upon arrival, but because of the noise, we'll never go back.