Cracker Barrel Breakfast Items, Ranked

There's nothing quite like a home-cooked breakfast, but if you want the taste and charm of classics like eggs and bacon without the work, a trip to Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is just what you need. Cracker Barrel's iconic look brings together curated antiques with nostalgic favorites in the restaurant and adjoining gift shop. The restaurant has a lengthy menu and serves breakfast all day, making it hard to decide between all of the tasty options. Fortunately for you, we loaded up our (multiple) plates to see which were the best.

We sampled the extensive lineup of breakfast favorites to see what the Old Country Store served up for the first meal of the day, trying combination platters, seasonal offerings, and limited release menu items. There were plenty of options with classics like eggs and bacon, plus a few that are unique to Cracker Barrel that we can't find anywhere else. Sit back and sit a spell in the rocking chairs on the restaurant's porch as we rundown and rank our favorite Cracker Barrel breakfast items.

We were excited to get our forks into the Oreo stuffed cheesecake pancakes on the menu. This super sweet dish is a newer option and comes loaded with cookie crumbles, whipped topping, and a generous drizzle of chocolate syrup. The pancakes themselves are very fluffy and folded over a creamy cheesecake filling. The platter comes with a side of two egg and your choice of breakfast meat, bacon or smoked sausage. 

These are tasty but after a few bites, the richness was more than we wanted. We'd recommend getting them to share with multiple breakfast goers. For most of our breakfasts, though, these would just be too over the top for us to enjoy. If they came in a smaller portion, we might be more tempted, but the giant plate of stuffed pancakes next to eggs and bacon were almost too much too even look at, much less eat.

For a substantial breakfast offering that combines classics, try the chicken with French toast dish. Crispy fried chicken over sweet French toast makes a nice pairing. Add syrup to make it even sweeter or a side of gravy for something a little bit more savory. If you want the fried chicken with gravy and a side of eggs, go with the Grandpa's Country Fried breakfast. It pairs sawmill gravy with fried chicken or country fried steak.

We loved the exterior texture on this fried chicken and the slight pepperiness of the gravy. It comes with three slices of French toast, which is more than enough to pair with the large portion of chicken. The Cracker Barrel fried chicken is pretty salty, however, so it might not work if you're trying to keep your sodium intake low.

We'd recommend this as a tasty brunch option when you're not sure if you want breakfast or lunch. Otherwise, we'll keep it as a dish we'll order from time to time rather than our new go-to favorite.

We have to start by acknowledging that the Cracker Barrel pancakes are simply amazing. They are fluffy with distinct edges, absorb just the right amount of syrup, and come served piping hot with mini bottles of warmed syrup. That being said, it was hard to rank its many options, given the base pancakes are always so good. 

However, the cinnamon apple topping was the least memorable of the standard pancake flavors at Cracker Barrel. It's sweet and syrupy, more like apple pie filling than a crisp, fresh apple topping. You can get it with butter pecan syrup — which makes it even sweeter — or standard syrup. The dish comes with two eggs to order, plus bacon or sausage.

If you disagree and love the fried apple topping, you can get it at Cracker Barrel's iconic gift shop alongside other restaurant mixes, syrups, and sauces. For us, though, it was just okay while the other pancake toppings and flavors were downright delicious.

Hashbrown casserole, which combines shredded potatoes with plenty of cheese and grills the result, is one of the most popular items at Cracker Barrel. Whether it's served at breakfast or any other time during the day, it seems like an order of this tasty side is always making its way out of the kitchen and to a thrilled diner. Load it up with tons of toppings and it's sure to be a hit. The steak and egg version comes with sirloin steak tips, scrambled eggs, melted cheese, crispy fried onions, diced tomatoes, and green onions. 

It was the larger pieces of steak that made this less popular with us than the similar bacon and egg version. It's still very tasty, but a bit harder to eat. Sirloin is a tougher cut of steak, so the pieces were a bit chewy. The overall dish is also very salty — one of the top menu items that is loaded with salt — which is enhanced by the heavily seasoned steak on top. We're big fans of hashbrown casserole, but this version was our least favorite way to enjoy it.

The Old Timer's breakfast is a smaller breakfast platter, but was still more than enough for us to start the day. The platter comes with two eggs, bacon or smoked sausage, biscuits and gravy, plus a breakfast side. You can choose between hashbrown casserole, loaded hashbrown casserole, plain hashbrowns, hashbrown casserole tots, grits, two pancakes, fruit, fried apples, or sliced tomatoes. We liked that this meal included so much customization so that we could get exactly what we wanted from sides to style of eggs.

For people who frequent Cracker Barrel for breakfast, this is likely a top favorite that isn't too filling. We'd order it again to get a true taste of a homestyle country breakfast. You can make it a little lighter by opting for egg whites and a side of fruit. When we're going out for breakfast, however, we like to go with something a bit more special that we couldn't make at home. This moved further down on our list just because it was a breakfast that didn't include anything out of the ordinary.

If you want a larger breakfast platter, go with the Grandma's Sampler. It has more eggs, meat, and tasty pancakes or French toast compared to the Old Timer's breakfast. Like the name suggests, this menu item samples a little bit of everything that you would expect to enjoy at breakfast or brunch. The nice thing about the Grandma's Sampler compared to other platters is that the country ham and sugar ham are both options for your breakfast meat without requiring an upcharge.

Like the Old Timer's breakfast, this platter doesn't have anything that stands out as unique to Cracker Barrel. While all of the items are good and there's plenty of customization available, most of the time, we overlook this menu item unless we're feeling like a basic breakfast. If you want to try a little bit of everything, order one Grandma's Sampler for the table, then pick out other seasonal or limited time offerings to round out a shared family-style meal.

We really enjoyed the Mama's French toast platter, which can be ordered with a strawberry or peach topping. The bright sweetness of the peaches work well with the French toast, but the fresh strawberries were our favorite. You can get the platter with pancakes or French toast, plus eggs and bacon or sausage.

We also liked that we could pick our breakfast meat and style of eggs to keep this meal from getting too sweet overall. It was a good combination, especially when we went with sweeter fruit on the pancakes. You can also get blueberry pancakes for the same price and choose between regular syrup, sugar-free, blueberry syrup, and strawberry syrup. 

This was just the right size and balance of flavors for us to walk away from the breakfast table feeling like we indulged a little, but we also felt fueled up for the day ahead.

It was hard to know just where to place the strawberry cheesecake stuffed pancakes on our list because we loved the flavor and rich creaminess of the filling, but they were also super sweet. While they weren't as intense as the Oreo cheesecake stuffed pancakes, thanks to the fresh strawberries, this was still a very indulgent breakfast item. 

They are a limited release menu item, and we'd recommend everyone who likes stuffed pancakes try them at least once. The strawberry syrup comes on the side and we liked it best as a dipping sauce. This kept the pancakes from getting too overloaded with sugary sweets, but still let us enjoy the flavor. The combo comes with two eggs to order, plus bacon or sausage. You can upgrade your breakfast meat to one of the premium options for a small charge. 

All of the extras work well to round out this meal, but it's the fresh strawberries that put it above other similar stuffed pancakes platters.

The Cracker Barrel blueberry pancakes are fluffy and loaded with berries. They have nice distinct edges, which we liked. The order comes with two massive pancakes, plus blueberry syrup and butter. You can opt for the warmed Cracker Barrel maple syrup or the sugar-free version instead, but we really liked the tart-sweet taste of the specialty syrup. The pancakes are the real star of the show, with tons of fresh blueberries that burst with each bite.

It's worth noting that the Cracker Barrel syrup is thick, sweet, and very tasty, which made it one of our favorite parts of any of the pancake dishes. You can get the 100% pure natural syrup with any of the pancake options and even take a larger bottle home by stopping at the gift shop on your way out.

The blueberry pancake platter comes with two eggs and bacon or sausage. This is a favorite that we'll return to anytime we want a classic breakfast that is delicious with the right balance of sweet, tart, and savory. We liked that we could order our eggs just like we wanted, whether that was over easy, scrambled, or even egg whites. If you like a classic blueberry pancake with other parts of an all-star breakfast lineup, you'll love Cracker Barrel's version.

It's hard to beat a good chocolate chip pancake and Cracker Barrel loads the two on this platter with chips that are melted and gooey in each bite. These had a nice balance of sweet indulgence and fluffy pancake. 

The pancake mix is sold at the adjacent store so that you can replicate them at home. What sets these chocolate chip pancakes apart from some we've tried at other breakfast spots is the amount of actual chips in the batter. Each bite was loaded with chocolate flavor, which also helped keep the interior of the pancake from drying out. The edges were still distinct and the pancakes soaked up just enough syrup. They were very sweet on their own, so we'd recommend going light on the syrup if ordering these.

In our family, breakfast isn't complete without an order of chocolate chip pancakes, which is one reason why they ended up so high on our list. 

The shrimp and grits skillet is an unusual breakfast dish but satisfies that savory taste many of us want. When we ordered, we expected good things given how well Cracker Barrel does grits, but we were surprised by how much flavor this had and how much we liked it for breakfast. The shrimp and grits is an inventive take on Southern-style grits that brings a distinct creole flair to the pairing.

It is a newer breakfast item that made its way to the menu after some testing and good feedback from customers. It has nice spice from the Andouille sausage and creole sauce with a little sweetness thanks to caramelized onions. The grits used in this dish are dinner grits, which tend to be richer and creamier than the breakfast grits served as a side. 

We also liked the grilled Parmesan bread toasts served to wipe the last tasty bites from the skillet. We'd happily enjoy this dish for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner, especially as an alternative to traditional options like eggs, bacon, and pancakes.

The crunchiness of pecans work really well with the pecan pancakes, making them our surprise favorite when we tasted them all side-by-side. Like the chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes, the batter in these pancakes had a lot of mix-ins. Cracker Barrel doesn't skimp on the pecans, which add just the right amount of crunch without being too jarring or hard to chew. Like the other pancake platters, it comes with two eggs to order and bacon or sausage on the side.

Unlike other options, they were also not as sweet on their own, but we could amp up the sweetness if we wanted with a generous amount of syrup to taste. This was the only plate of pancakes where we felt the syrup added something needed rather than just worked on top of already-sweet flavors. Cracker Barrel serves the syrup warmed, a nice touch that keeps the pancakes from cooling at all when you pour the syrup over.

Get your fill of classic breakfast dishes like eggs to order, bacon, sausage, and ham, as well as hashbrowns in the Country Boy breakfast platter. This was our favorite platter that included a little bit of everything that we love for breakfast. 

It comes with three eggs, making it one of the most protein-rich breakfast options on the menu. You can get your eggs to order, just like other Cracker Barrel breakfast platters. Go with sunny side up or a perfect fried egg to keep the yolks runny, the perfect thing to mix with a side of hashbrowns. You can get one of the premium breakfast meats, sirloin tips, sugar ham, or country ham, on the side. It's also served with flaky biscuits and sawmill gravy in a basket.

You get two breakfast sides with this platter, another selling point in our book since Cracker Barrel has so many amazing sides. It is on the larger side, so consider splitting if you're not very hungry, don't want leftovers, or just want to share the goodness.

The bacon and egg hashbrown casserole is not just our top choice for breakfast from Cracker Barrel, but one of our favorite menu items overall. It has a base of cheesy hashbrown casserole, grilled to give the top a crispy texture. The entire dish is then topped with scrambled eggs and crispy bacon, two classic breakfast flavors that add texture and taste to the skillet. Crispy, fried onions, melted Colby cheese, diced tomato, and green onion complete the dish.

It is very similar to the loaded steak and eggs hashbrown casserole, but not as salty, and it's easier to eat. The bacon is crispy enough to go into smaller pieces, so we were able to get all of the flavors together. We had a hard time picking out which part of this dish was our favorite, mainly because all of the ingredients melded so well together in every bite.

To sample the Cracker Barrel breakfasts, we ventured over to the Old Country Store, sat down at one of the largest tables they had, and ordered up everything from eggs to bacon to pancakes and more. Fortunately, we had nostalgic games and fun decor to keep us occupied as we waited, although the kitchen got our breakfast out quick and we were able to dig in. You can get breakfast all day at Cracker Barrel, and we weren't the only ones enjoying eggs and bacon in the middle of the afternoon.

A balanced taste was our top criteria for the best Cracker Barrel breakfast items. Those that had flavors working together and a nice balance between sweet, savory, and salty were our top favorites. However, texture was big as well, especially when it came to pancakes. Some of the dishes that we expected to like the most ended up being too sweet to make the top of our list, even though we enjoy a taste as an indulgent treat.

We also liked those that everyone could customize for a tasty meal. Eggs to order are an essential part of most breakfasts for us, which was one reason we were surprised by how much we liked certain options, like the shrimp and grits and loaded hashbrown casserole, which came as-is without much customization. For a classic breakfast platter, however, we liked ones that had a little bit of everything.