9 Popular Cracker Barrel Breakfast Menu Items, Ranked

Anyone who's ever been on a long road trip knows the special kind of hunger-induced anticipation that bubbles up deep in your empty stomach when a billboard with the Cracker Barrel logo slowly comes into view. It promises that you won't have to settle for a breakfast of mixed nuts from the gas station, because a hot, hearty meal awaits. There's something uniquely cozy about the food and decor (although it's due to modernize its iconic look) in a Cracker Barrel that makes it a home-away-from-home on the road.

If there's one place that knows how to whip up a classic, stick-to-your-ribs American breakfast, it's Cracker Barrel. Whether you're stopping by to take a break on a long drive or you're just craving a proper Sunday morning feast, few off-the-highway diners can compare. In order to take a deep dive into the rustic, homestyle world of Cracker Barrel breakfasts, I stopped by an Upstate New York location and ordered some of the most popular items on the menu with the intention of ranking them from worst to first. I was on the hunt for the most well-executed breakfast from the venerable chain — a daunting task, to say the least. So let's dive into some of the most popular Cracker Barrel breakfast foods and find out which are worth the stop and which will have you wishing you had stopped at a gas station for one of those eggs wrapped in plastic and some mixed nuts instead.

Few breakfast dishes scream "Americana" more than biscuits and gravy. But, I implore you, please don't assume that this Southern-inspired chain cranks out a delicious, homestyle take on this American breakfast classic — what Cracker Barrel does to biscuits and gravy is a breakfast trainwreck.

We've already made it clear in the past that Cracker Barrel's fresh biscuits are the worst, but they aren't even the most egregious part of this dish, which unfortunately comes with many of the homestyle breakfast entrees. The biscuits were on the dry side — although they were quite light and fluffy — and completely flavorless. I wish I could say that the gravy was as bland as the biscuits. I would have preferred an absence of all flavor over the overly salty and intensely smokey taste of Cracker Barrel's sawmill gravy; an insult to the working-class folks who developed sausage gravy. They're likely rolling in their graves as we speak.

Instead of the slightly sweet and peppery flavor that sawmill gravy is known for, the gravy in Cracker Barrel's biscuits and gravy breakfast tasted more like Alabama BBQ sauce. It had thin, ground-up bits of too-smokey sausage instead of the delectable chunks of rich, salty-sweet meat that sausage gravy is known for. The thin, watery sauce made the gross meat flavor even more prominent and disturbing, which was the metaphorical cherry on top of every horrible quality that landed this breakfast in last place.

After you're done shopping in the unnecessarily humongous adjacent store, you'll likely want to settle in at a Cracker Barrel table and prepare for a hearty meal of sweet breakfast bread and a liberal side of meat — newly acquired kitschy knick-knacks and retro candies in tow. If this sounds like you, then the Homestyle Chicken & French Toast dish might appear to be right up your alley, but looks can be deceiving. On paper, this breakfast dish appears to be an inventive spin on iconic Southern chicken and waffles, but in this instance, the idea was more impressive than the execution.

The chicken in the Homestyle Chicken & French Toast dish wasn't the worst part of the meal, but it wasn't particularly enjoyable, either. It was juicy and tender, and there was plenty of crispy coating on the outside. However, the coating lacked any sort of seasoning, so it read as bland to my taste buds. The French toast didn't do much to make up for the lackluster chicken. It was tough and chewy and seemed to be flavored with nothing but too much cinnamon. However, I appreciated that Cracker Barrel provided me with the good syrup (if you know, you know) without having to request it. The syrup did a little to bring everything together, but the excessive cinnamon didn't pair well with the chicken. I think chicken should stick with waffles as its best breakfast bread friend.

It's no secret that Cracker Barrel is particularly popular with older folks, so the chain offers a classic breakfast meal to satisfy the golden agers among us. Those who have been around the block a few times are usually after something simple — just the staples, nothing too greasy, and nothing loaded up with wild flavors. That's where the Old Timer's Breakfast comes into play, and I'll be honest: I think the wisest members of the population deserve something better.

This meal comes with two eggs, a choice of breakfast meat, and a choice of side, plus biscuits and gravy. I opted for the fried apples as my side choice, plus sausage and over-easy eggs. The eggs were closer to over-medium rather than over-easy, but since there wasn't any toast to dip in my yolks, I didn't mind. We already know my feelings on the biscuits and gravy, but the fried apples were delicious (more on those later). And despite being a little overcooked, the eggs were cooked evenly and the yolks were deeply savory.

My biggest qualm with this simple breakfast dish was with the sausage. Although it's intended to have a smokey flavor, Cracker Barrel took it way, way too far, making it clear that this is the same sausage used in the egregious gravy. There's nothing to balance out the robust, intense smokiness, like a touch of sweetness or a hint of spice. It tastes like the meat was dunked into a vat of liquid smoke — not the best flavor to wake up to, if you ask me.

It isn't an extravagant dish, but Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast isn't the kind of meal you'll find on any old diner menu — it's full of Cracker Barrel's iconic Southern charm. This is the breakfast that the Old Timer's meal wishes it was. It comes with two eggs (any style), biscuits and gravy, and a breakfast side of your choice; I opted for more fried apples as my side. However, instead of a choice of standard, boring breakfast meats, this meal comes with gravy-smothered fried chicken to provide the heft and protein that will keep you going all day long.

Fried chicken for breakfast is a comfort food custom that I wholeheartedly believe the entire country should adopt from the Southeast. Who's to say that only bacon, ham, and sausage should be for breakfast? In this Cracker Barrel dish, the eggs — which were cooked perfectly to over-easy status — gave the chicken, which was admittedly a bit bland, a much-needed dose of savory flavor. Dipping the chicken, with its moist, tender meat and delectably crunchy coating, into the gooey yolk was pure breakfast bliss. This dish would have been better with a savory side (I made the wrong choice here) to complement the entire vibe of the meal, but I was at least able to save the apples for a sort of breakfast-time dessert.

Every breakfast menu needs at least one overly decadent pancake creation. Cracker Barrel has, well, a lot. But few are as dessert-for-breakfast worthy as the Strawberry Stuffed Cheesecake Pancakes. Sweet cream cheese is already pretty breakfast-y, so with pancakes, it's an over-the-top combo that just works as a morning indulgence. It has gooey cream cheese filling inside folded pancakes, fresh berries, powdered sugar, and strawberry syrup on the side for a double dose of tangy, sweet berries.

There's a lot to love about this not-so-classic breakfast treat. The pancakes are perfectly sweetened and dosed with a light amount of spicy cinnamon that wakes up all the other flavors in the dish. Strawberries were in no short supply here: There was more than enough for a huge chunk of strawberry in every bite. I only used a tiny bit of my syrup (which was loaded with fresh fruit flavor), because the sweetness from fresh berries and cheesecake filling was more than enough to make this dish a flavor bomb.

Tart berries are an ideal pairing with rich, palate-coating cream cheese filling, which was much runnier than it would be in an actual cheesecake. I would have liked to see something a bit more akin to the texture of real cheesecake filling; soft and fluffy, but just dense enough to be decadent. Although the texture was more sauce-like, it had the slight tang and bold sweetness that cheesecake is known for.

Sometimes you want a sweet breakfast treat that isn't bread-based or a boring cup of plain fruit. Fried apples are the answer to your morning sugar craving. At Cracker Barrel, the fried apples aren't even fried, but they're delicious enough that I pretended not to notice how blatant this breakfast faux pas was. The apples walk the line between breakfast food and dessert (let's be honest, it's certainly more of a dessert), but something about the gelatinous compote and slightly chewy apples that very clearly came out of a can makes them the ultimate indulgent comfort food.

The not-so-fried apples at Cracker Barrel taste identical to apple pie filling, cinnamon-sugar and all. They come as an optional side dish with breakfast entrees or piled on top of pancakes, or you can swallow your pride and order just a side of apples to munch on for breakfast. They make an excellent addition to pancakes, either as a side or dumped right on, and are a great finisher to one of Cracker Barrel's many deliciously savory breakfast plates.

Although the apples were everything I wanted them to be, in a way, I couldn't bear to rank them any higher just for the fact that they didn't taste fried whatsoever. They were also clearly not fresh, but the fact that they came out of a can gives them authentic Southern charm, at the very least.

Although the Loaded Hashbrown Casserole is intended to be a side, joining eggs and meat on breakfast plates, or maybe tacked on to a side of pancakes, it could work as a meal all on its own — maybe if you weren't particularly hungry. It's made with shredded potatoes, melted Colby cheese, and bacon bits — that's it. The cheese and bacon crumbles act as simple additions that turn a decent plate of potatoes into a savory side that's a must for any Cracker Barrel breakfast feast.

A lot of chain restaurants are skimpy with the side dishes, but not Cracker Barrel. Instead of donning these hashbrowns with a thin slice of cheese and a few measly bacon crumbles — just enough to say that it technically has meat and cheese on top — Cracker Barrel doesn't hold back. There's plenty of gooey cheese, which is sufficiently melted all over all of the potatoes, so I got a decent amount in every bite. The bacon certainly wasn't the fake, vegan kind of bacon bits; it had all the greasy saltiness and crunch of real, bona fide bacon.

Despite the tasty additions on the potatoes, the shredded potatoes themselves were lackluster. They were quite mushy, lacking the signature crunch and butteriness of excellent hashbrowns. However, the substantial amount of cheese and crunch from bacon made up for it enough to give Waffle House a run for its money.

Steak and eggs are the Lennon and McCartney of breakfast food combos: It's not so bougie that it's out of place at a humble spot like Cracker Barrel, but it's not your average, garden-variety breakfast either. It tows the line between rustic and elevated in a way that makes it one of my personal favorite morning meals. Cracker Barrel's Country Boy Breakfast does the classic combo right with eggs, two breakfast sides, biscuits and gravy, and steak tips. You can opt for ham over steak tips, but according to my server, most Cracker Barrel patrons favor the steak.

Although they're both simple classics, unlike the Old Timer's Breakfast, the Country Boy Breakfast has much more elevated meat choices, plus an extra side. I chose to have my eggs scrambled, plus pancakes and loaded hashbrowns as my side dishes. This breakfast constitutes a meal of epic proportions, so make sure you're hungry if you choose to take this beast on.

My steak was cooked medium-well (perfect for steak and eggs, if you ask me), and the scrambled eggs were just like those at most classic American diners — a cross between fluffy and dense. The steak was salty and much more tender than I had expected it to be. It had a peppery seasoning that gave it plenty of flavor to complement the eggs, while the meat itself was rich, only slightly oily, and plenty savory. Next time, I'd opt for over-easy eggs so that I could dip the steak tips in the yolks; that was a major oversight on my part.

They say that even a bad pancake is a good pancake (okay, maybe I'm the only one that says that) because, with enough syrup, even the saddest, droopiest pancake can be delicious. But — and I know this is hard to believe — Cracker Barrel's pancakes are so good that they don't even need syrup. At first glance, they don't look like much. They aren't an inch thick, with a cakey, fluffy texture, or anything that screams that they're some of the best chain restaurant pancakes out there. But it's their thin texture that makes them so irresistible, and worthy of the number one spot on this list, believe it or not.

Pancakes at Cracker Barrel are better than those you make at home (and maybe even the pancakes from your favorite neighborhood diner) thanks to a unique recipe that includes buttermilk powder, yellow cornmeal, rye flour, and — most importantly — plenty of butter. The outside, especially the edges, of each flapjack was slightly crispy, while the interior was soft and melted in my mouth. I spread around the generous scoop of butter that came on top and doused the pancakes in warmed, pure maple syrup, but they really didn't need any extra butter, and just a little drizzle of maple syrup would have sufficed. Each bite had a touch of zestiness from the buttermilk, but it didn't overshadow the decadent flavor of high-quality butter and a touch of cinnamon and vanilla. Cracker Barrel offers its buttermilk pancakes with loads of topping options, but I'm willing to bet that these pancakes are best served unadulterated.

In order to choose and rank these breakfast items from Cracker Barrel, I started with classic dishes that I knew to be popular at the chain based on online reviews and discussions on Internet forums. I stopped into an Upstate New York restaurant while on a road trip (to get an authentic Cracker Barrel experience, of course) and ordered nine of what appeared to be the most popular breakfast dishes so I could try them for myself.

I based this ranking on general quality and flavor as opposed to my personal taste preferences to create as unbiased a review as possible. I factored in aspects like the texture of the pancakes and French toast, the quality of the meat and eggs, and the preparation of the breakfast plates in order to determine which meals were objectively higher in quality than others. The meals that ranked worst on this list all had unpleasant or conflicting flavors and ingredients or were prepared without regard to quality and authenticity (looking at you, sawmill gravy). Those at the winning end of the list were crafted with care and expertise, and a uniquely delicious recipe with balanced, harmonious flavors and ingredients.