For The Best Cracker Barrel Breakfast, Order This Savory Menu Mash-Up

When it comes to breakfast, do you prefer a savory meal such as eggs and sausage, or something sweet, like French toast, pancakes, or the like? Whatever your answer, Cracker Barrel's extensive, all-day breakfast menu is sure to have an option to please. And if you're having trouble choosing between offerings such as the Shrimp N' Grits Skillet, the Old Timer's Breakfast, or its selection of decadent stuffed pancakes, Chowhound has helpfully ranked 14 Cracker Barrel breakfast items to aid in your decision-making.

The very best Cracker Barrel breakfast item, according to the ranking, is the chain's Bacon N' Egg Hashbrown Casserole. This dish is served in an attractive ceramic bowl and consists of a hashbrown casserole topped with scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, fried onions, melted cheese, diced tomato, and green onion. It's a perfect blend of contrasting textures — crispy, gooey, juicy — and complementary flavors.

In fact, it was so delicious, Chowhound considers it to be not just Cracker Barrel's top breakfast item, but one of its better menu offerings overall. Given the size of its menu, that's saying something!

Interestingly, considering how tasty the bacon and egg hashbrown casserole was, Cracker Barrel's other hashbrown casserole dish, which is essentially identical other than one key ingredient, ranked much lower on the list. This other option comes with steak tips rather than bacon. And unfortunately, the steak switcheroo made the dish far more difficult to eat (due to the large steak pieces), and much too salty.

In fact, the steak version of the hashbrown casserole comes with a whopping 3,370 milligrams of sodium — assuming you finish the two biscuits on the side. In contrast, the bacon hashbrown casserole, while still plenty salty, has 2,680 milligrams of sodium. Those 690 milligrams are apparently enough to make a difference between a blue-ribbon-worthy dish and one that is more of a miss.

An imbalance of flavor seems to be one of Cracker Barrel's main setbacks. Of the 14 ranked breakfast items, the loser was the Oreo Stuffed Cheesecake Pancake Breakfast. While the pancakes themselves weren't bad, the overwhelming sweetness makes the dish difficult for a person to finish on their own. And Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast, which ranked second-to-last, was also deemed too salty.

But despite these struggles, Cracker Barrel still has a solid breakfast menu overall. Just remember to order the Bacon 'N Egg Hashbrown Casserole if you want the best of the best.