9 Cracker Barrel Dishes You Should Avoid Completely

We all love the cozy atmosphere and country charm of Cracker Barrel, but not everything on their menu deserves your hard-earned dollars.

I’ve spent countless family road trips stopping at these roadside staples, sampling nearly everything they offer.

While many dishes hit the spot after a long drive, some left me with serious food regrets.

Here’s my honest take on nine Cracker Barrel offerings that might be better left unordered.

1. Country Fried Steak: A Heart Attack On A Plate

Oh boy, I still remember ordering this behemoth during a cross-country drive with my college buddies. The golden-brown coating looked promising, but underneath lurked a mystery meat drowning in thick gravy that could probably double as wallpaper paste.

The calorie count is astronomical—we’re talking nearly a full day’s worth in one sitting. The sodium content? Through the roof! Your poor arteries will be working overtime just to process this deep-fried disaster.

What makes this dish particularly troublesome is how the heavy breading and gravy completely mask any beef flavor that might have existed. You’re essentially paying for the privilege of consuming oil, flour, and salt shaped to resemble food.

2. Fried Chicken Livers: An Organ Meat Catastrophe

During a rainy afternoon stop in Tennessee, I bravely ordered these on a dare from my brother. First bite? Pure regret. These little nuggets of doom have a metallic, gamey flavor that lingers in your mouth for hours after eating—no amount of sweet tea can wash it away.

Nutritionally speaking, chicken livers actually contain beneficial vitamins and minerals. However, Cracker Barrel’s preparation method—heavy breading and deep-frying—transforms any potential health benefits into a greasy gut bomb.

The texture presents another problem entirely: slightly mushy centers with occasionally gritty bits that remind you exactly what organ you’re consuming. Unless you grew up eating and loving liver, this dish will likely end up mostly uneaten on your plate.

3. Sunday Homestyle Chicken: Weekend Disappointment

Last Sunday, I brought my in-laws here for what I hoped would be a crowd-pleasing meal. The Sunday Homestyle Chicken arrived looking picture-perfect but delivered a bland experience that left everyone reaching for the salt shaker. The breading lacks seasoning, and the chicken itself often turns out dry as sawdust.

For a dish that’s supposed to be their signature weekend offering, it’s shockingly mediocre. The portion size misleads you into thinking you’re getting a good value, but quality trumps quantity every time.

What really grinds my gears is how this dish takes up valuable stomach real estate that could be filled with something actually flavorful. When you factor in the calorie count—approaching 1,000 calories with sides—this Sunday special becomes a special kind of regret.

4. Macaroni n’ Cheese: Neon Disappointment

Growing up, mac and cheese was my comfort food gold standard. So imagine my disappointment when Cracker Barrel’s version arrived at our table during a family reunion lunch. The color was suspiciously bright—like something that might glow under blacklight—and the texture resembled paste more than cheese sauce.

The pasta typically arrives overcooked to the point of mushiness, creating an unpleasant texture that’s hard to overlook. Real cheese? Barely detectable under the salt-forward flavor profile that seems designed to mask the absence of quality ingredients.

Kids might not notice the difference, but anyone with functioning taste buds certainly will. This side dish exemplifies how corner-cutting in simple dishes becomes glaringly obvious. For a restaurant built on homestyle cooking, this mac fails to deliver even basic homemade quality.

5. Double Cheeseburger: Fast Food Masquerading As Country Cooking

During a road trip pit stop last summer, I made the rookie mistake of ordering this monstrosity. My first bite revealed the sad truth: this burger wouldn’t pass muster at a highway gas station, let alone a restaurant charging premium prices for it.

The patties themselves taste suspiciously uniform, like they’ve never seen the inside of Cracker Barrel’s kitchen until final assembly. Often overcooked to the point of resembling hockey pucks, these beef patties lack any juiciness or flavor that makes a burger worth ordering.

The cheese barely melts, the vegetables frequently appear limp and lifeless, and the bun absorbs grease like a sponge. When you’re at a restaurant known for country specialties, ordering their subpar burger feels like asking for sushi at a steakhouse—technically available but fundamentally wrong.

6. Biscuit Beignets: Sugar Bombs That Miss The Mark

My sweet tooth convinced me to try these after dinner during a holiday visit. Big mistake! These so-called beignets are nothing like the New Orleans classic—they’re essentially repurposed biscuit dough deep-fried and buried under an avalanche of powdered sugar to hide their shortcomings.

The texture reveals their biscuit origins immediately: dense and heavy instead of light and airy. True beignets should have a slight chew with a delicate interior, but these imposters are all wrong from first bite to last.

The overwhelming sweetness attempts to distract you from the fact that you’re eating fried biscuit dough. The accompanying dipping sauce is cloyingly sweet without adding any complexity. For the calories and sugar content, you deserve a genuinely delicious dessert—not this identity-confused creation.

7. Chicken n’ Dumplins: Sodium Soup With Dough Lumps

My grandmother made legendary chicken and dumplings, so I foolishly ordered this on a nostalgic whim. The bowl arrived looking like wallpaper paste with floating bread lumps—nothing like the homemade version I cherished growing up.

Salt is the predominant flavor here, not chicken or herbs or anything resembling homestyle cooking. The dumplings themselves have a strange, gummy texture that sticks to your teeth and defies the laws of proper dumpling physics. Where’s the tenderness? The fluffy interior? Nowhere to be found.

The chicken pieces are sparse and often dry, making you wonder if they’re leftovers repurposed from other dishes. For a restaurant that hangs its hat on country cooking, this signature dish falls embarrassingly short of even basic expectations. Skip this sad soup and save your dumpling cravings for somewhere that respects the classic dish.

8. Loaded Hashbrown Casserole: Grease Trap Disguised As Breakfast

During a family breakfast meetup, I watched this artery-clogging disaster arrive at our table with alarming amounts of oil pooling on top. One bite confirmed my suspicions—this wasn’t food so much as a science experiment in how much cheese and grease could be packed into one dish.

The potatoes lack any crispness, instead taking on a mushy quality that suggests they’ve been sitting in warming trays for hours. The cheese doesn’t taste like real cheese but rather a processed approximation that coats your mouth with an artificial aftertaste.

Most concerning is how this side dish alone contains more calories than many complete meals should have. The bacon bits and green onions sprinkled on top are merely token gestures toward flavor complexity. Your digestive system will be sending angry complaint letters for hours after consuming this greasy mess.

9. Country Fried Shrimp: Seafood Sacrilege

Seafood at Cracker Barrel? I made this rookie mistake during a coastal road trip when I should have known better. The shrimp arrive looking like they’ve been dipped in concrete before frying—the breading is so thick you’ll struggle to find the actual seafood hiding inside.

The taste is predominantly oil and batter, with the delicate shrimp flavor completely obliterated. If you’re actually craving seafood, this imposter will leave you deeply unsatisfied. Worse still, the breading often separates from the shrimp with the first bite, creating a structural failure that sends crumbs everywhere.

For a landlocked restaurant chain, perhaps seafood should remain off the menu entirely. These poor shrimp died in vain, only to be rendered unrecognizable under a heavy armor of greasy breading. Your money and appetite deserve better treatment than this deep-fried disappointment.