Cracker Barrel is a haven of comfort food on a Sunday morning or when you're needing a taste of home during a road trip. Along with down-home Southern hospitality, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store offers an all-day breakfast menu to ensure you can get those buttermilk pancakes or eggs n' sausage whenever the craving hits. As tasty as the Cracker Barrel breakfast menu is, however, there are certain menu items to avoid if you're looking to eat healthy and feel energized after your meal.
Cracker Barrel's lunch and dinner options are what immediately come to mind when one thinks of this yummy fast food joint, like their Southern fried chicken, catfish, country fried steak, country ham n' biscuit, and sirloin steak. However, their breakfast menu is equally delicious! Menu prices and availability vary by location, but these are classics you'll find at most Cracker Barrel locations.
Here are the best and worst breakfast menu items to get at Cracker Barrel.
Worst Breakfast Menu Items
Momma's French Toast Breakfast
As tasty as it sounds, Momm's French Toast Breakfast is one of the worst items to get on the Cracker Barrel menu if you're looking out for your health. The meal includes four slices of Sourdough bread dipped in eggs and grilled, then topped with butter and served with two eggs. Then, thick-sliced bacon or sausage along with 100% Pure Natural Syrup are added on.
This adds up to 1000 calories, half of what one should eat in a day based on the 2000 calorie diet. To give you some perspective, you can consume the same amount of fat and sodium by drinking three small McDonald's vanilla shakes.
Momma's Pancake Breakfast
?Another one to avoid is Momma's Pancake Breakfast, which can be found in the pancakes n' such category of the menu. This includes three buttermilk pancakes with butter, two eggs, thick-sliced bacon or sausage, and 100% Pure Natural Syrup.
If you go for blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup, it equals 760 calories, while the pecan pancakes with maple syrup are 1130. If you add on a drink like a soft drink, hot tea or iced tea, that puts your calorie count through the roof. This just isn't worth it, especially since the majority of those calories come from carbs and sugar.
Cracker Barrel's Country Boy Breakfast
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As enticing as the Country Boy Breakfast may sound, it's probably not worth all of the calories and fat it contains. The three eggs, fried apples, hash brown casserole and grits add up to 670 calories, 26 grams of fat and 9 grams of saturated fat.
The country ham side adds 80 percent more calories and 33 percent more saturated fat, adding up to 1,210 calories, 52 g fat, 4,100 sodium, and 92 g carbs. If you add a side like corn muffins or hashbrown casserole tots, it's even more calories. If you eat this, you better be eating salad for the rest of the day.
Egg Sandwich With Country Ham
Another menu item to stay away from it you're aiming for a healthy (or just not terrible) diet is the Egg Sandwich with Country Ham, containing an egg, cheese, mayo, farmhouse bread, country ham and hash brown casserole. About 50 more than in the Sunrise Sampler, this is 970 calories, with the same amount of carbs as five slices of bread. Plus, with 2,810 mg of sodium, this adds up to 122% of your daily recommended salt.
Gravy n' Biscuits
This is just meant to be a side, but it contains 710 calories! When you add on the 1,420 mg sodium and 86 g carbs, it's hard to imagine justifying adding this to any meal, no matter how healthy. This contains about half of the maximum recommended amount of sodium in a day, and will probably leave you in an uncomfortable food coma that'll make you wish you'd read this article sooner.
Uncle Herschel's Favorite
Uncle Herschel's favorite is full of tasty breakfast classics, contain two eggs n grits plus you choice of fried apples or hash brown casserole. Plus, you can add your choice of sugar cured ham, hamburger steak, fried chicken tenders, hickory-smoked country ham, and then all the fixins- buttermilk biscuits, sawmill gravy, butter, and preserves n' jam.
Although each menu item is fine on it's own, these add up to a ridiculous amount of calories, comparable to the smokehouse breakfast but without the smoked sausage patties. Even if you choose the healthier options of the available choices, you're looking at about 1000 calories. If you go for the highest-calorie choices, it's over 1,400 calories, about 75% of the amount you should eat in an entire day.
Best Breakfast Menu Items
Country Morning Breakfast
You know what not go get, but which items can you enjoy for breakfast without ruining your calorie count or eating goals for the day? Fortunately, the Cracker Barrel breakfast menu is full of delicious and healthy options as well. The Country Morning Breakfast adds up to 550 calories and consists of two farm fresh eggs, grits, biscuits, and sawmill gravy. You can still enjoy All the Fixin's without eating a ridiculous amount of calories and carbs!
Scrambled Egg n' Biscuit
?The Scrambled Egg n' Biscuit is another great option, adding up to only 400 calories. Although this is technically on the kid's menu, it's a breakfast meal that all ages can enjoy. This dish includes a biscuit with butter and jelly, a scrambled egg, and tater tots. You still get some fried potatoes and a buttermilk biscuit, but you can feel energized and full rather than bloated and lethargic.
Good Morning Breakfast
This breakfast option still has all the Southern comfort you could wish for, but it provides fewer calories than any other breakfast option, comparable to the homestyle chicken salad for lunch. With two egg whites, grits, tomatoes, and seasonal fruit, Cracker Barrel's Good Morning Breakfast adds up to 310 calories and provides the vitamins and nutrients that one gets from fruits and veggies. The sodium is about a third of the daily recommended amount, which is perfect if you eat three meals.
Apple n' Cinnamon Oatmeal
If you're feeling whole grains and fresh fruit, the Apple n' Cinnamon Oatmeal is an excellent option for a well-balanced breakfast. If you get reduced-fat milk, your meal will be 340 calories, 6 g fat, 250 mg sodium, 64 g carbs, and 8 g protein. This is an especially healthy option because of the fiber, which is an essential part of a healthy diet. As for the sugar on the side to be extra health-conscious.
Egg-in-the-Basket
Egg-in-the-Basket is a classic breakfast choice that is yummy without being too high-calorie. This Cracker Barrel favorite consists of two slices of sourdough with two eggs, along with turkey sausage patties. We recommend skipping the fried apples and hash brown casserole. This adds up to 540 calories, 27 g fat, 810 mg sodium, 42 g carbs, and 33 g protein, which is totally doable for the first meal of the day!
Egg Sandwich
Last but not least, the Egg Sandwich is one of the healthiest breakfast items on the Cracker Barrel menu, adding up to 470 calories. You'll get two farm fresh eggs, seared sourdough bread with tomato and mayonnaise, and a choice of fried apples or hash brown casserole. Yum!
