You Should Avoid Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast At Cracker Barrel. Here's Why

Cracker Barrel, the ubiquitous Southern has charmed many fans over the years. The eatery has around 630 locations in the U.S., according to Thrillist's Lee Breslouer. The chain is known for its nostalgic and comforting vibes. "If I had to guess why Cracker Barrel remains a hugely popular, profitable enterprise without changing in seemingly forever ... it'd be because CB offers cheap, plentiful comfort food in a convenient location, along with numerous entertainment possibilities," Breslouer wrote. 

This thought is echoed by others who dine at the restaurant. A Reddit post spoke about the fact that Cracker Barrel has authentic ornaments on its walls. Quite a few commenters wrote about the nostalgia value attached to. "Cracker Barrel is the go-to restaurant whenever my family [takes] road trips," a commentator wrote. "I always enjoy looking at the artifacts on the walls. Each restaurant looks the same, but those artifacts are always different." 

Cracker Barrel offers various options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including breakfast platters, pot pies, desserts, and more. However, when it comes to Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast, you may want to skip it entirely.

Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast includes a lot of components such as eggs; a choice between fried apples and hashbrown casserole; your pick of country fried steak or fried chicken tenders with sawmill gravy; buttermilk biscuits, butter, and preserves n' jam. Whew. As you've probably guessed by now, this dish is far from healthy. But you might not get that impression at first from looking at the product page, which separates the calorie counts for each portion of the breakfast. So while it initially says the dish has 230 calories, that's just for the two eggs and grits that come with the meal. 

According to Cracker Barrel's nutritional guide, consuming the entire Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast even without the preserves will cost you over 1,000 calories at the very least. There is far too much saturated fat in the dish. Choosing the least fatty options – fried apples and country fried steak – will still load your meal with a total of about 12 grams of saturated fat. Going with the hashbrown casserole and gravy-soaked tenders will bump up the total to about 18 grams. Gulp. You're better off going for something like the Apple n' Cinnamon Oatmeal that's just around 310 calories with seven grams of fat (1.5 grams saturated). After all, you don't want to use a major amount of your daily calorie intake on breakfast, do you?