I tried Cracker Barrel’s new menu items. The food was tasty, but the chain still has work to do.

Cracker Barrel’s turnaround effort is in full swing.

A year ago, CEO Julie Masino said that the restaurant chain was “not as relevant as we once were.” Since then, Masino and other Cracker Barrel executives have outlined plans for big changes at the chain’s locations, from refreshed decor to new menu items.

After Masino’s “relevant” comment last year, I visited a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Northern Virginia to see what she was talking about. Back then, I found the food underwhelming, from middling fried chicken to disappointing biscuits and gravy.

My story about that visit prompted many reader responses, including a few dozen messages from people who said they loved the food and old-timey decor. A few others, including some Cracker Barrel fans who had been going to the chain for decades, said that they had noticed the food quality slip in recent years.

One year later, Cracker Barrel has introduced several new menu items, so I decided it was time to go back and see if any of them were better than what I ordered last time. Here’s what I found:

I visited this Cracker Barrel location in Sterling, Virginia.

Like many Cracker Barrel restaurants, this one is located near multiple major highways and freeways, including some leading into and out of Washington, DC. It’s the same location I visited last year.

As I entered through the gift shop, the decor at this Cracker Barrel seemed unchanged.

Cracker Barrel has said it’s renovated a fraction of its 660 locations. These reset stores still feature antiques and other objects meant to provide a sense of nostalgia, but with a brighter paint job and a little less clutter.

When I visited in early July, none of the stores near where I live in Washington, DC, had been renovated.

There were lots of Halloween decorations — a potential sign of the impact of tariffs on retail.

Cracker Barrel said in June that higher costs from tariffs would hit results from its gift shop sales. About one-third of the stuff the chain sells in its shops comes from China. Tariffs have also influenced how early the chain is bringing in some seasonal merchandise this year, CEO Masino said.

While I’ve gotten used to seeing fall and winter decorations at stores in summer, these Halloween items seemed especially early, given that I was visiting Cracker Barrel during the first full week of July.

I got a table right away.

The restaurant seemed a little less than half full when I stopped by at 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday.

I focused on Cracker Barrel’s new menu items.

Cracker Barrel’s menu highlighted several new or limited-time items. A card on the table, for instance, advertised a S’mores Latte, Cinnamon Roll Skillet, and S’mores Brownie Skillet, which are part of the summer Campfire Menu.

I ordered several items that Cracker Barrel has introduced recently.

After looking over the menu, I settled on a few new menu items: The S’mores Latte, a Cinnamon Roll Skillet, a Signature Pancake Plate with Blueberry Pancakes, and a Campfire Meal with Beef.

First up was the S’mores Latte.

The latte came generously topped with whipped cream — notice the cream dripping down the sides of the mug — and graham cracker crumbs.

Overall, the latte was a little on the sweet side.

The whipped cream topping was sweet — a little too sweet for my taste. Once I worked my way through all that whipped cream, the underlying coffee wasn’t nearly as sweet.

I wish that the flavor had been more consistent and less sweet throughout the entire drink.

Next came the Cinnamon Roll Skillet.

The skillet came with six cinnamon rolls. With the cast-iron skillet and faux-gingham paper, Cracker Barrel seemed to be trying to make it feel homemade.

The cinnamon rolls themselves were unremarkable.

The cinnamon rolls tasted a lot like store-bought ones you can buy in the refrigerated section of a grocery store, and make yourself at home.

Next came my platter of blueberry pancakes.

About 10 minutes after I ordered, my blueberry pancakes arrived with syrup on the side, three strips of bacon, and two eggs.

The pancakes were some of the best I’ve ever had anywhere.

Cracker Barrel started serving these pancake platters earlier this year.

I don’t know for sure whether these pancakes were made with fresh buttermilk, but they sure tasted like it. The syrup, unlike a lot of pancake syrups, tasted more fruity than sweet. I would order these again in a heartbeat.

I ordered some biscuits to finish off the sit-down portion of my Cracker Barrel meal.

Around 30 minutes after I sat down, my server came over with a check and asked me if I was ready to pay or if I wanted something else. After looking at the menu again, I decided to try Cracker Barrel’s biscuits, which had been a low point of my previous visit.

The biscuits showed up about five minutes later in a to-go bag, even though I hadn’t asked for them to go.

Overall, it felt like my server wanted me to pay and leave as soon as possible. I thought that was odd, given that the restaurant wasn’t that busy and there were plenty of open tables for anyone who walked in.

Cracker Barrel’s biscuits were a letdown, even fresh out of the bag.

The biscuits were warm out of the bag, which raised my hopes that they would be better than on my last visit. On that occasion, they were served room temperature and alongside gravy that tasted like it was out of a can.

Sadly, these biscuits were no better than the last ones. They had a slightly sour taste, and after a couple of bites, I had had enough.

Making biscuits at scale in a commercial kitchen isn’t the same as making them at home. Yet, given how foundational biscuits are to Southern cooking, I wondered why Cracker Barrel couldn’t make better ones.

I picked up a Campfire Meal on my way out.

As I finished my breakfast dishes, it was nearly 11 a.m. That’s when Cracker Barrel started serving some lunch and dinner items, including the Campfire Meals. At the location I visited, the Campfire options included either chicken or beef served with slow-cooked potatoes and vegetables in a foil-lined dish.

The Campfire Meals intrigued me because Cracker Barrel hasn’t served them since 2018 and recently brought them back as a limited-time offer. “We heard loud and clear for both guests and employees that they deeply missed these unique and delicious foil-wrapped meals,” Masino said on the company’s latest earnings call in June.

Given the hype, I figured I had to try one.

I took my Cracker Barrel Campfire Meal to go.

After paying for my sit-down meal, I ordered a Campfire Meal with beef for pick-up. It took about 15 minutes for my meal to be ready. It came with the meat and vegetables wrapped in aluminum foil, as well as two small pieces of cornbread in a separate paper bag.

I enjoyed the Campfire Meal with beef.

The beef and vegetables were tender. Of anything I’ve ever eaten at Cracker Barrel, this meal tasted the most like home cooking.

Some longtime Cracker Barrel fans told me last year that the chain should bring back some discontinued items to increase sales. Cracker Barrel’s return of the Campfire Meals — for the summer, at least — suggests that they are listening to customers.

The cornbread, while moist, needed a little more flavor.

This cornbread came warm, and it was clearly buttery when I took it out of the bag. But it needed a little more flavor — it wasn’t particularly sweet or salty. Soaking it in the meal’s beef juices helped.

Overall, I enjoyed Cracker Barrel’s food more than last time, though there’s still room for improvement.

In my opinion, Cracker Barrel’s new menu items are better than some of the staples that I tried one year ago. The pancakes, in particular, were a standout, and the Campfire Meal was a nice alternative to the usual fried or sweet fare you find at many restaurants.

There were also items that still needed work, including the biscuits.

Cracker Barrel is definitely making progress on its menu. But if it wants to win diners over with memorable food, the latest changes look more like a starting point than a complete solution.

A Cracker Barrel spokesperson told me in a statement that the company is “committed to ongoing menu innovation” and that the seasonal items “help keep the menu fresh and encourage repeat visits.”

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