Just a quick note. I like Cracker Barrel. I honestly can’t tell you why.
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CB French toast is legit. I forget which one I get but it is damn good
Popular doesn’t necessarily mean good. The one near Galveston gets 3 Yelp stars and the chicken fried steak draws particular scorn, frozen pre-breaded meat stuff doesn’t fly down here.
I’ve driven by that location at least 500 times and stopped once maybe 25 years ago paying about 8 bucks for pancakes and a meat side which was absurd for 90’s money. I checked the website and pancakes and 2 sausages are 11 dollars, insane.
Never again, once is enough.
@jcostiones, I totally agree with your “popular doesn’t mean good” statement. It’s been many years since we stopped at a CB on one of our road trips south. In my view, the food is barely mediocre.
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I’ll join you in props to Cracker Barrel.
Back in the day, travelers could stop into McDonalds, BK, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, anywhere in this vast land of ours and get a meal that was identical whether bought in Maine, South Carolina, Kansas, Texas, Idaho–wherever. Franchising killed that concept.
IMHO, Cracker Barrel still upholds that value. Chicken Fried Steak will be the same tasting meal if bought in Michigan, Iowa, Oregon, Florida, Texas, or anywhere else.
We all like what we like. And don’t like food fails.
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CB gives you consistent food side food when you are traveling and a chance to pick up another Xmas ornament for the tree.
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Nowhere else to post this so I’ll put it here: had a sub from Jersey Mike’s today for the first time in a hundred years and it was pretty damn good. I’ve been living off Wawa since I started my new job, and while I do love Wawa, there was no comparison.
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I enjoy Jersey Mikes. A local solid deli is always better but they make a good sub. Most places they run have good service and the points add up to a free sub pretty often. Big fan of the 9 and 10
One note, the one in Shrewsbury though is not one of the better ones though.
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Funny you say that, I’ve only been to the Shrewsbury location and I wasn’t that impressed so I’ve never gone back.
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One in plainsboro is my usual stop and quite good. Red bank and wlb are better locations than Shrewsbury
A pleasant memory from my childhood is driving from Toms River to Point Pleasant to the original Jersey Mike’s (now corporate headquarters). I would stuff my face in the bag of subs and inhale the aroma, drooling all the way home. It pleases me that they’re still in business and that I can find them around the country. My Dad has one in Amarillo! Now that I’m older, I’m pleased that they offer whole wheat bread and “minis.”
We strongly prefer the one in Shrewsbury to the one in Ursula Plaza, Long Branch, though the LB location has gotten their act more together lately.
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I may have been misleading- I prefer the one in West Long Branch by Shoprite on 36 where that new butcher shop is. Also - the bagel place across 36 on same side as ShopRite (across from Aldi) is actually good too.
Recycled food: I worked as a server for about 7 years and I saw this first hand. Bread baskets were the worst. The bread was sorted by the buspeople after the table was cleaned and thrown back into the warmer to be re-served to someone else. I always make sure to destroy the bread that’s left over. It’s getting thrown out anyway, right? The butter was another thing that was recycled.
Another thing they served: wedges of lettuce on top of mixed greens in the bottom of the bowl. The mixed greens part was ALWAYS recycled. Just put some new lettuce wedges on top. This place was really popular back in the day but is now closed.
Went to a Chinese food place in Monmouth. SERVER noticed that they made my rice dish with a wrong ingredient (I think it was almonds). I told them it was fine, I didn’t want it to go back because, well, I knew they would just pick out the ‘wrong’ pieces and serve me the same salad. He assured me they wouldn’t. Got my salad back, offending pieces gone, except that once I dug around a bit, I found more pieces towards the bottom. I just imagined some worker in the back picking through my salad with his hands. They took it off the bill.
But yeah, I’m sure I’ve eaten quite a few recycled items.
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Exactly!! Pickles in diners is another hugely recycled item. I’m pretty sure there are pickles still in circulation for the Nixon era (or error), so every time… I mean EVERY-TIME I eat at a diner I either take at least one bite, or if it just looks too recycled then I just cut the pickle…EVERY-TIME.
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I understood you. I just added the LB location to the conversation of Jersey Mike yay/neighs.
I’ve never had Jersey Mike’s, but what I’ve heard is that the quality is completely dependent upon the location, so thanks for confirming that!
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That really does surprise me because one of the key factors to getting a franchise off the ground the way they have is consistent quality between locations. Let’s face it we are talking sandwiches here:
Bread / cold cuts / toppings. They should all be using the same bread and cold cuts supplier, meat/cheese/topping ratios should be standard between location where is the room for variance? (Consistency in the portion ie. amount of meat per sandwich is critical for a franchisee to maintain his margins…so I can’t see that some stores use more meat vs. others)
Unless does each store control their own pricing? (I know I’m responding to you Curlz and you haven’t been there so that’s a question I’m just throwing out into the cyberverse)
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my issues have more so been with cleanliness and service. The Shrewsbury location was my first experience and I was turned off and prob took a year or more between my next visit. Went to the one in Plainsboro/Princeton and it was night and day. Much cleaner, much better service; guessing b/c manager or owner is usually on site that the standards are higher. I to am puzzled why the Shrewsbury location is held in much lesser regards than the others mentioned here. Clearly all of us here have had same experience with that location. I guess b/c every time I go it’s three teenagers standing around with no adult on site to supervise? Ageist I know, but having worked in this space for a number of years in HS and college I lose my sh&t when I walk into a poorly run spot like this. It almost universally involves unsupervised employees on phones or standing around; clearly they’re not cleaning if they can’t be bothered to actually work when a customer is in the store.
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Agreed with that. There was about 5 years in between visits for me. Last time was abominable. Took a chance this time and it was very good.
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Performing a resurrection on this thread since it has been so long without a response.
Now that we are dining in very different times from when it was created, has anything changed for anyone? Or any new pet peeves when dining out?
