Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

1022 S. 48th St.

Springdale

Cracker Barrel menus boast of “good country cookin'” and we couldn’t agree more. This is down-home cooking almost as good as you’d get at home, that is, if anybody cooks at your house.

By all accounts, Cracker Barrel has been doing a bang-up business since opening a couple of months ago in Springdale. The atmosphere is comfortable and familiar — reminds us of those Cracker Barrels we’ve eaten at in places like Branson and Alma.

But we were here for the food. We weren’t disappointed.

The roast beef dinner ($8) features slow-roasted chuck roast, served under fresh-made gravy and “Genuine Idaho” mashed potatoes. As if that generous-sized plate wasn’t enough, diners get their choice of two more vegetables. The vegetable menu itself is impressive: whole-kernel corn, country green beans, sweet whole baby carrots, pinto beans, turnip greens, coleslaw, fried apples, dumplings, steak fries, hashbrown casserole, breaded fried okra, mashed potatoes and a featured vegetable of the day (boiled red potatoes the day we dined).

The Chicken n’ Dumplins dish ($5) was deemed “the best in the region” by our group. And why shouldn’t it? According to the menu, the dumplings are made-from-scratch daily and slow-simmered with chicken tenderloin in chicken stock. As our dumpling expert noted, “The texture was perfect.”

That dish, too, comes with a choice of two vegetables.

All the entrees are also served with cornbread and buttermilk biscuits.

For dessert, we had the carrot cake ($2). Our verdict? Moist, not too rich, tasty icing, In other words, delicious.

Serve all this food with Cracker Barrel’s sweet tea — sweetened to perfection, we might add — and this is the perfect place for lunch. Or dinner. Or breakfast.

Don’t forget to save time for a little browsing through Cracker Barrel’s gift shop. Only someone with the ultimate in willpower will be able to resist trying out some of these nifty toys and gadgets.