10 Cracker Barrel Dishes to Avoid Ordering Based on Reviews
10 Cracker Barrel Dishes to Avoid Ordering Based on Reviews
Cassandra YorgeyTue, March 17, 2026 at 5:01 PM UTC
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It is unrealistic to expect every household to cook three meals a day. Even ancient societies were built around the concept of sharing responsibility for creating food. The idea that going out to eat should be a treat has more to do with stretching your restaurant budget.
The reality is that most of us want the comfort food and the convenience of not having to clean dishes afterwards. Cracker Barrel is one of America's favorite restaurants, offering just that. However, not every dish is a hit, whether for its quality, price, or both.
See which dishes at Cracker Barrel you might want to avoid.
Editor's note: Prices and availability are subject to change and may vary by location.
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1. Friday Fish Fry
Price: $15.99
Cracker Barrel might want to send its seafood menu to sleep with the fish and instead focus on popular menu items. The Friday Fish Fry is ranked as the second-worst menu item by Tasting Table for being soft and mushy. Why is their worst special on the day most people go out to eat? If you're craving fish and chips, skip Cracker Barrel and go to a seafood restaurant.
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2. Lemon Pepper Grilled Rainbow Trout
Price: $14.99
Cracker Barrel serving fish is ike playing jazz at a rock concert, it just doesn't belong. In fact, a Mashed survey found it to be the least popular dish, with over 37% ranking the rainbow trout as the worst item on the menu. You might want to skip anything that's seafood-related when eating at the country-style restaurant.
3. Hashbrown Casserole
Price: $3.09
A lot of customers complain about the hash brown casserole, not because it's bad, but because it used to be amazing. According to employees on Reddit, they switched from frozen potato shreds to a dehydrated option, and now, it just doesn't taste as good.
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4. Biscuit Beignets
Price: $5.49
Putting a new spin on a classic can sometimes backfire, and in the case of using biscuit dough as a beignet base, the verdict is maybe don't. A Mashed poll of Cracker Barrel desserts ranked it as the worst, with over 36% ranking it the last item they would pick.
5. Country Ham
Price: $6.49
Country ham is a specific style of cured ham that is heavily salted and often dry-cured. Over 13% of surveyed Cracker Barrel customers ranked the Country ham as the worst breakfast item, but the main complaint was the salt level.
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It's more like mismatched expectations versus a bad dish. The restaurant could probably clear that up by clarifying the curing process in the menu description.
6. Carrots
Price: $3.09
Several food critics have ranked Cracker Barrel's carrots as the worst side dish. For starters, they use baby carrots, an item designed for snacking. According to Crawford Smith of Mashed, "Babies are the only people we could imagine enjoying this dish since they don't have any teeth and haven't lived long enough to know what good food is yet.
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7. Southern Fried Chicken
Price: $14.49
This might be a popular dish at Cracker Barrel, given that Southern cuisine has a significant influence on country-style dishes. But 24/7 Wall St. analyzed nutritional data provided by Cracker Barrel and determined this dish is the least healthy choice on the entire menu.
Not because it tastes bad, but because it has 2,710 calories after counting the standard mashed potatoes and gravy, beans n' greens, and cornbread. Southern fried chicken is only served on the weekend, though, so it's not an everyday meal.
8. Hashbrown Casserole Shepherd's Pie
Price: $16.49
This new Cracker Barrel menu addition is controversial and hotly debated; you'll either love it or hate it. Several food critics have placed it on the "worst of" lists, arguing that serving fried potatoes over a plate of mashed potatoes is unnecessary.
9. Louisiana Shrimp Skillet
Price: $15.49
Food reviewer Robin Miller of Tasting Table described the shrimp skillet as instantly disappointing: "The shrimp arrived swimming in a sea of sauce; the dish was more soupy than skillet-y. The sauce had the zest of Creole (as advertised), but it left a distinguishable layer of grease on the palate."
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10. Shrimp n' Grits Skillet
Price: N/A
This limited-edition item will hopefully be replaced for 2026, as it's yet another seafood dish that was met with underwhelming reviews. The quality of the shrimp is often described as rubbery, and it's surprisingly bland for a dish that is known for being flavorful.
Bottom line
Cracker Barrel has some great homestyle country comfort cuisine that costs about the same as an equivalent amount of fast food from a drive-through at about $15 to $20, but not every dish is a winner.
It's especially economical for singles looking to beat high grocery costs because homestyle cooking ingredients are often sized for families. Cooking a dish like a pot roast solo means committing to eating the same thing for several meals in a row or wasting food.
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Source: “AOL Money”
