Bob Evans Vs Cracker Barrel: Which Chain Is The Better Bet For Breakfast?

When you want a good breakfast but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen first thing in the morning, you have a few dine-out choices. Two popular breakfast chain options are Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel — and they appear to have much in common at first glance. Similarities include country stores of varying sizes and a rural theme, alongside some similar dishes.

Bob Evans touts itself as a "farmhouse kitchen" and operates around 500 locations in eighteen different states, primarily on the East Coast and Midwest. Besides their restaurant, Bob Evans also has a line of food you can purchase in grocery stores throughout the nation, which includes some of their most beloved sides and breakfast meats. Cracker Barrel has a variety of breakfast items on offer, and lists itself as an "old country store" rather than a restaurant. You can find these in most states and they have about 660 locations.

If you're lucky enough to live near both restaurants, you may wonder which will offer the best breakfast alongside the best experience. Thankfully, you don't have to go through the hassle of trying them both if you don't want to. I had the opportunity to compare similar breakfast dishes at each restaurant and their dine-in experience. Having spent more than 15 years of experience in the food industry and coming from a rural southern family, I'm uniquely suited to this task. Here are my thoughts on how these two stack up.

Bob Evans' Red, White, and Blueberry Farmer's Choice pancake breakfast features a generous meal of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and hash browns that was honestly challenging to finish because of the portion size. But, of course, that made it perfect for sharing. The pancakes were super fluffy and the fruit on top was fresh, while the sausage patties had a nice umami profile with mild spicy notes. The hash browns had a nice textural combination of soft and crispy, and my only complaint was that it wasn't well-seasoned. Everything was cooked perfectly to order, including the eggs.

Cracker Barrel's pancake breakfast is called the Grandma's Sampler Pancake Breakfast. It includes pancakes with butter and standard syrup, eggs, hash browns, and a piece each of bacon, sausage, and ham. The pancakes are a little flat rather than fluffy, but the pancake syrup is fantastic and comes in a cute little bottle, which I thought was a nice touch — and, you can also creatively upcycle those Cracker Barrel bottles if you take them home. The meat was fine, but the ham was a little overcooked. The eggs were done well, but I was served cheesy hash browns instead of the regular ones I asked for, which was frustrating.

The key difference here is that Cracker Barrel's pancake breakfast comes with three types of meats, while Bob Evans' comes with fresh fruit on the pancakes. I was a little disappointed by the former. Bob Evans won this battle without a doubt.

The Steak Tips and Eggs at Bob Evans featured a nice serving size of steak tips, eggs, and hash browns that was filling without being overwhelmingly large. The eggs were cooked exactly to order and the steak was surprisingly tender. Since they were such large chunks, I thought there might be some toughness or chewiness, but instead, the pieces practically melted in my mouth. The accompanying mushrooms and onions had a nice charred, sweet taste that perfectly complemented the meal, and the hash browns were good but unseasoned.

The Country Boy Breakfast at Cracker Barrel is supposed to come with steak tips, but they didn't have them on my visit so I ended up substituting for sausage — it's an hour's drive for me and I couldn't justify going back soon for a single item. While the meal itself was fine, it's not entirely a fair comparison. However, combined with the other issues from my visit, this is somewhat telling. The eggs were cooked well and the sausage tasted fine, albeit a bit saltier than I normally like. Again, the hash browns were cheesy rather than the standard option I chose.

Here, Bob Evans wins again by a landslide. Truthfully, I still don't feel like it's an entirely fair comparison based on the food alone. However, the confusion around the order and the lack of steak tips only goes against Cracker Barrel, anyway, so I feel confident handing this one to the other breakfast chain.

Bob Evans' Country Fried Steak and Farm Fresh Egg is pretty good, although the gravy has a lighter seasoning profile than I was looking for. While I expect sawmill gravy to have a milder profile, I also expect a little kick of pepper, which this just didn't have. Otherwise, the texture of this and the steak's breading was fantastic. The steak was cooked well, making it tender and easy to eat, with a nice fried umami profile. The home fries were like the hash browns — cooked well, with a great texture, but not seasoned enough for my liking.

Grandpa's Country Fried Steak Breakfast from Cracker Barrel is a mixed bag. The country fried steak itself was fine, with a good flavor profile and adequate seasoning. However, the sawmill gravy was overly thick and lumpy, while once again, I was given the wrong hash browns. The eggs were overdone and closer to being cremated than over hard.

These two meals have very similar offerings, but Bob Evans really outshines the competition. Not only did they make the eggs perfectly to order, but the gravy had a much better consistency. They also got my order right, which gives huge points in their favor.

Bob Evans' Buttermilk Breakfast Sandwich is the one place where the chain's food doesn't hold up to my standards. While the sausage was fantastic, the biscuit was super dry and I couldn't finish it because it kept getting stuck in my throat. According to my waitress, Bob Evans keeps their biscuits in a warmer for hours and they're often crumbly when they're pulled out. This could explain why my breakfast sandwich was so dry I had to leave it uneaten.

Cracker Barrel's Biscuit Breakfast is the one place it did better than Bob Evans — although, to be fair, neither sausage biscuit could be considered award-winning. The biscuit itself was soft and fresh, albeit a bit crumbly. The sausage was well-cooked, and the cheese tasted great but there is just a ton of it on there. The hash browns were okay and actually the standard ones that I ordered. Although they were well cooked, they weren't well seasoned, which I found disappointing.

The biggest difference between these two meals was that Bob Evans' option only comes with one biscuit, whereas Cracker Barrel's has two. Overall, I wasn't thrilled by either chain's breakfast biscuit, but Cracker Barrel was the lesser of two evils. The biscuit itself, in particular, is actually very good at the latter and it's more the presentation and overabundance of cheese that took away from its quality.

Bob Evans' Cinna-Biscuits are a delicious sweet appetizer. The bread itself was warm and fluffy with a predominantly starchy profile heavily accented with buttery notes. The cinnamon and sugar mix on top was a little overpowering, but I don't mind since I love this kind of food. Oh, and the dipping sauce? Absolute mouth-watering perfection. It was a medium-textured cream cheese icing, sweet and rich, perfectly complementing the Cinna-Biscuits.

Cracker Barrel's Biscuit Beignets are warm, light, and airy, with a predominately starchy profile lightly laced with buttery notes. The cinnamon and sugar coated the outside of each bite perfectly and in most aspects, this was largely the same as Bob Evans. The big difference here was the sauce — a rich syrupy butter pecan that perfectly matched the beignets. A pro tip when ordering is to sign up for the Cracker Barrel rewards program so you can score some of these appetizers for free, as a welcome gift. It's really that simple, so it's worth downloading the Cracker Barrel app for the freebies and added conveniences. 

Honestly, this is a hard one to settle and I have to end up saying it's a tie. Whether you get the Cinna-Biscuits or the Biscuit Beignets, you're in for a treat. If you prefer a decadently creamy dipping sauce, you'll likely prefer Bob Evans' option, but if you most enjoy a sweet syrupy dipping sauce, Cracker Barrel is your better bet. 

There are many things I love about Cracker Barrel, but Bob Evans just feels more inviting to me, which is an opinion I've formed after visits to several different locations before this. I've visited Bob Evans in New Jersey, Delaware, and West Virginia. Wherever I go, the staff are always friendly, the restaurant is always clean, and the food is always delicious. Shockingly, they're all absolutely identical without any deviation — walking into the New Jersey location was just like walking into the West Virginia one. This is unique because Cracker Barrels are all similar, but have distinct layout differences across locations.

There's a definitive rural kitchen feel to Bob Evans that feels nostalgic to me because it's representative of how I grew up. However, my partner and children (who didn't grow up in the rural south) agree that the feeling is very welcoming and comforting. Overall, I'd say the atmosphere at Bob Evans is better than Cracker Barrel, although the country store does better at something else.

The thing that Cracker Barrel does better than not only Bob Evans, but every chain restaurant (in my opinion), is their unique vibe. It all starts when you park your car and walk toward the front doors, where you're greeted by rocking chairs and giant cloth checkerboards. Walking inside, you find yourself smack dab in the middle of an old country store with decorations, take-home treats, clothes, and toys. As you wind your way to the back where the host or hostess is, you feel like you're in on a secret reminiscent of prohibition-era speakeasies.

The downhome, eclectic vibe only strengthens once you actually make your way into the dining room. Everywhere you look in Cracker Barrel there are distinctive decorations like vintage signs, washboards, old guitars or banjos, shelves with old tin product containers, and more. Where I'd describe Bob Evans as nostalgic, comforting, and inviting, I'd describe Cracker Barrel as unique, fun, and exciting. It's a vibe I'm always happy to embrace.

Cracker Barrel may have had the better breakfast biscuit and the two chains may have tied for their cinnamon biscuit bites, but Bob Evans largely dominated on the big breakfast dishes. The most obvious thing that stands out to me is that the orders were correct and everything that was on the menu was actually available. Beyond that, the eggs were all cooked perfectly to order, while the pancakes, meats, and potatoes all had a better flavor versus Cracker Barrel's similar options.

At both restaurants, I had really nice servers, but Bob Evans was cleaner with a more welcoming atmosphere. Although it could have simply been the branch of Cracker Barrel I visited, the floors in the dining room were a little dirty and the tables weren't wiped off. If you're looking for overall better food with a better experience, opt for Bob Evans the next time you want to skip making breakfast yourself.