My FIRST Cracker Barrel BREAKFAST...I Was NOT Ready for This!

Hey guys, good morning from around Orlando, Florida. With all the rocking chairs outside, this looks like the Amish buffet I was at. Anyway, trying to find some breakfast early in the morning. And this is another place I haven't been to in probably over a decade. Cracker Barrel. Let's go have some breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Whoa. Oh, you walk right into a gift shop. I kind of remember this. This is all like super random stuff. Like a cow in a barn snow globe right next to baby shoes. And quilts. This is so random. And records? Whoa. This is like a toy store and a nursery and a music store all at the same time. And a clothing store. And a jewelry store. And a Christmas store. And a Halloween store. And a candy store. Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about all the random stuff here. I think the last time I was here, it was during a snowstorm in Pennsylvania. And Cracker Barrel was like the only place open. Definitely never been here for breakfast before. I thought this would just be like a regular breakfast place. Where there's only eggs and hash browns and stuff. And they have that stuff too. But they have a cinnamoroll skillet. And they have this loaded hash brown casserole tots that she said is super popular. This is the most popular one. I'm gonna get this. And they also have a biscuit beignet. This looks awesome. And check out their pancakes here. Sweet cream caramel apple french toast. And sweet cream caramel apple pancakes. For size. Again, loaded hash brown casseroles to garlic steak tips. Grandma sampler. Let's see. You got pancakes, eggs, fried apple french toast bake. They're stuffed cheesecake pancakes. What? I think pancake is the thing to get here. I kind of want something savory too. But they got country fried steak as well. There are a lot of choices. Steak and eggs. They got a breakfast burger. Catfish filet. Grilled or fried. You can get fried catfish for breakfast. Oh, this is a really good deal. Right? Meatloaf with mac and cheese. These are all six bucks. You can just take them home. Oh, this place is awesome. There's also onion petals, fried pickles. Oh, crocker barrel is awesome. They also have granny smith apple tea. It's like I'm eating at grandma's kitchen and grandma got really innovative with her food. Vegetable of the day. Cornbread dressing. That's a vegetable? I'll have to get a country fried steak. All right, this is going to be a hearty, hearty breakfast. Which is good because I'm not eating until late afternoon and I'm going to a buffet later. And this is a buffet I went to around 20 years ago in Orlando that I swore I would never go back. But I'm going back and I'm going to show you why. But before the food gets here, a big thank you and shout out to the sponsor of this video, Surfshark. Guys, I've been talking about using Surfshark for a number of years now. Of all the apps on my phone, it's the only one I keep running in the background all the time. 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So if you want to give it a try, go to my link down below. Use my promo code Mikey Chen. We're going to surfshark.com slash Mikey Chen for four extra months. This is my tater tot casserole. They told me that this was on the menu and they took it away for a while. Then people weren't having it. So they brought it back. It's on a skillet. And it's tater tots covered in cheese and bacon with what looks like a cider ranch. So the tater tots looks wonderful. Dip it in some ranch, stick some bacon bits to it. Hold the phone. This is one of the wildest breakfast items I think I've had in the South. Like I thought this was regular tater tots. Let me open one of these things up. I thought this was just a regular tater tot. It does not taste like a regular tater tot. What is in here? This does not taste like a regular tater tot. It's crispy on the outside. Inside, it tastes like creamy, cheesy potatoes. I'll be honest, when I first got these at my table, I was like, all right, it's just tater tots with cheese and bacon. How good could they be? It's like cheesy potatoes inside a crispy, perfectly fried tater tot outer shell. I mean the tater tots themselves are glorious. The bacon and the cheese on the outside is just the cherry on top. It's not the cake. Seriously, inside tastes like cheesy mashed potatoes. It's freaking amazing. I'm so happy whenever food turns out so much better than they look. This 100% turned out way better than it looked. Like they basically battered and fried cheesy mashed potatoes. That's what they did. Genius. They call this onion petals. Like this is deep, deep fried onion petals. Ginormous chicken fried steak with gravy with freshly cooked eggs any way you want. So it comes with a side of biscuits and gravy. This is the side of biscuits and gravy. This is a side. It comes in a basket that's about as big as my chicken fried steak plate. We're not done. It also comes with a side of pancakes. I had to pay two bucks extra to get the pancakes, but beautiful pancakes. Oh, the side is so toasty. And give you your own little bottle of syrup. Not only is this your own little bottle of Cracker Barrel syrup. This is crazy. This is hot. They heated this up for you. What is this place I am at right now? I did not remember it being this good on that snowy day in Pennsylvania. They call this their comeback sauce. This comes with the onion rings. Dip it in here. Oh my gosh. This is the crispiest onion petals. They deep fried the heck out of this. And the batter is awesome. Look how thick this batter is. It's like a fortress wall protecting the onion petals. Like a delicious fortress wall. You're hearing that crunch, right? I'll show you how thick this batter is. Look at that. And usually that might not be a good thing. It's so good. They freshly made this for sure. The sauce, I feel like a little zesty. Maybe a little bit of horseradish in here. That's great. Let me cut into the country fried steak. First of all, this is a thick piece of country fried steak. Like super thick. The country fried steaks I've had, they're super thin and flat. This is ultra thick. And juicy. This is thickest country fried steak I think I've ever seen. And on the side, of course, over easy eggs. Perfect. Dunk that in some extra gravy. This chicken fried steak is crazy. It's so freaking thick and meaty and juicy. Just dunk it into the egg yolk. It's like richness overload in the best way possible. I have to tag team in the pancakes right now. Just because I need to taste this in all its hot syrupy glory before anything else. Have you ever been to a restaurant where they give you pancakes with your own bottle of syrup that's hot? I'm gonna lob off a crispy edge right here. These are nice, fluffy, thick pancakes too. Whoa. They should call this place Crackin' Barrel. What is this awesome pancake? With a crispy edge and fluffy middle. And hot syrup is 100% the way to go. Keep this whole thing piping hot. Oh my gosh. How come no one told me about breakfast at this place? Did I just get the wrong lunch or dinner plate? Oh, this pancake is so Gabriel Iglesias. Freaking phenomenal pancakes. Let's get to the biscuits. I don't even know how this is supposed to work. Am I supposed to dunk the biscuits in here? They did give me a place. Maybe biscuits go in here. The gravy on top. And if that's not rich enough, they also give you butter. The biscuits are great. Tall, thick, buttery. I don't think you need the extra butter. It's already buttery enough. The gravy is awesome. You know what? This all needs to be eaten together. Chicken fried steak, the egg, the biscuits. Eggs are cooked perfectly too. After a bite of the biscuits, chase it with some fried onion rings. Or fried onion petals. This stuff remains crispy even when it's a little cold. That's a testament to its crispy thick batter. I'm so glad it's only like nine o'clock in the morning. I'll definitely need a little time before a buffet. This is the apple cobbler cheesecake. And it's served on an icy plate. They think of everything here. Oh my god. This is amazing. Well, that is a rich, creamy cheesecake. Little slight crunch from the cobbler. There's cinnamon apples inside the cheesecake. This is not just some cheesecake that they threw some cobbler on. This is a legit apple cobbler cheesecake. This is so good. This place is amazing. I would come back here. I want to try this place at dinnertime. I don't want to take home a $6 meal. I'm a fan. This is great. I can't believe I haven't been back here in like at least 10 years, I think. All right. After this, there's a pickleball court about five minutes away. Let's see if I can get a workout in and then see you at the buffet. So this is already super different from when I was here. I remember, I distinctly remember when I came here last time, lobster was not fresh. Live fresh lobster. Not a lot of buffets in America does that. Like there's two in Vegas, one on Rhode Island. I think that might be it. Clam chowder looks good too. Giant pieces of clams. Oh, they know what they're doing. Hot sauce brought to the table without even asking. Try this clam chowder. Let's go clam chowder. Gonna be even better with the hot sauce. Perfection. They do have a lot of lobster dishes. Like there's lobster bisque, there's lobster mac and cheese. There's lobster bisque. Oh, nice big chunks of lobster in here as well. This place is turning into like a, like a second Nordic Lodge. Lemon, oh my gosh, lemon mahi is so juicy. I'll be honest, I've had a lot of mahi in my day. Like a lot of grilled mahi. This is the first time it's actually juicy. Mahi is amazing. There's also some ceviche. This is the scallop ceviche. Wow. I can't believe it was the same buffet I went to all those years ago. This is obviously before I started doing YouTube. I love buffets. So everywhere we went, I always wanted to go to a buffet. I was in Orlando on business. This was the most famous buffet at the time as well. Came here and I said I would never go back. And what a difference. This is the grilled ahi tuna. A little overcooked, but still not bad. Also, I got some octopus salad and lobster mac and cheese. I think the octopus salad just okay. Lobster mac and cheese, huh? That's not bad. Okay, that's a really good first plate. Round one is not done yet. Fresh, fresh live lobster. Yeah, that's 100% fresh lobster. Claws are good too. Snow crab is just okay. My advice, focus on the lobster. The lobster is so good. Like it's so crazy. How did I not know this place now has fresh lobster? I mean, they probably had fresh lobster for years. I don't know. 69 bucks for all you can eat live lobster? Just the lobster itself is worth it. 69 bucks. That'd be like the price of like two lobsters at a restaurant. Oh, they got chill lobster claws too. Let's try some shrimp scampi. Why not? Let's try everything on this buffet. Whoa, steamer clams. Look at the size of these things. Wow, crazy looking. Seafood casserole. Mussel and garlic sauce. This mussel looks fresh too. Cornbread casserole. Croissant, sure. All this fresh seafood. This is actually a steal for 69 bucks. Look at the size of these clams. It's the biggest steamer I've ever seen. How gnarly this thing looks. Scoop up some butter. Delicious clam, but really sandy. Oh my gosh, they really didn't clean this very well. That's so good though. That's such a sweet clam. That's so much sand. Even with all the sand, I don't even care. It's too good. Nope, it's sandy everywhere. I don't know if you guys can hear that. Literally crunching down on sand right now. If they fix that, those might be some of the best steamer clams ever. This looks like a fresh mussel. Wow, I'm still tasting sand. That's a good mussel actually. The sauce is good. Shrimp scampi. Not bad. For a buffet croissant, it's not bad. This tastes like a croissant dinner roll combo. This is the seafood casserole. I mean, it's seafood drowned in cheese. How could it not be good? This is their crab cake. It's also kind of covered in my cheesy seafood casserole now. I think the crab cake is just okay. You don't really taste too much of the crab in that. Cornbread casserole is awesome. Especially these toasty edge bits right here. That's really good. Best thing on the plate, even with the sand, the steamer clams. It's so good and so sandy. There's definitely a lot of stuff on this buffet to try out. Get some jambalaya. Put some sausage and peppers over that. Breaded oyster looks good. Fried codfish looks good. Oh, there's fried clams too. I feel like I'm back in Long John Silver's. That's an absolute ginormous piece of prime rib. This place is an absolute buffet paradise. I got some fried fish. Fried cod. Fried cod is okay. And I'm a sucker for jambalaya, even if it is buffet jambalaya. One thing I do love is fried clams. Some tartar sauce. That's really good fried clams. You know how like Long John Silver's fried clams kind of taste like fried rubber bands? This actually tastes like really tender clams. They even have fried oysters. Fresh fried oysters. 100% fresh. This prime rib is 100% on the rare side. Actually, that might be a little too rare for me. I'm gonna cut the two rare parts off. It's a legit prime rib. Like a super tasty legit prime rib. Especially with some creamy horseradish. Yeah, this prime rib isn't just sitting there for show. It's a legit show stopper. That's super tender prime rib. All right, more lobster. This buffet has something I've never seen attached to a buffet before. I'll show you after this. Got a oyster rockefeller London boil. Look at these potatoes. Cajun potatoes. The rockefeller is great. Fresh oysters. This is really good. That London boil is actually not bad. It's not as tender as the prime rib, but a lot more flavor. Cajun potato is good. Let's keep it going with the lobster. There's nothing like fresh lobster. Also, I feel like a lot of their stuff they make in-house. Like their chowders, their soups, like their mashed potatoes. You can taste the difference. I got a fresh oyster rockefeller. Another reason why this buffet is really awesome is here in Florida, like the lobsters that you do normally see are spiny lobsters, which in my opinion is not as sweet as the main lobsters. So to be able to get main lobsters down here, all you can eat fresh, live. We don't see that a lot. I think this is lobster number six. Also got some lobster mac and cheese. It's pretty good. I mean, come for the lobster, stay for the other stuff too. Also, I ran into a gentleman who told me that if you think your lobster is not fresh enough, they'll like freshly boil one for you. Because I think this lobster, I've didn't cook it. It's obviously sitting on the buffet a little bit. He said they'll just cook another one fresh for you. It's pretty cool. I think maybe one more, two more after this. I think I'm going to go. Really not much of a dessert section. Not a lot on the buffet, but they did have key lime pie. And it looks and tastes like authentic key lime pie. This is good. The key lime pie is excellent. I think if there's an award for most improved buffet, this place will win it. Like that 20 years ago, I haven't been to many lobster buffets. So it wasn't even like I could compare it to like some really fancy, super awesome lobster buffet somewhere. And I love the buffets. I would go to old country buffet like every week. And I remember coming to Orlando, finding a lobster buffet and feeling so excited coming in here. All I remember was that after I left, I said I would never come back here again. And that's why like even having stayed in Florida for such a long time, I never been back here. It was only recently I was looking around at the buffets and saw how well rated this place was. I was thinking no way. That's why I had to come and try this place again. I'm glad I did. What a value. 69 bucks. Fresh lobster for sure. Again, that right there is worth it already. 69 bucks for that is worth it. Plus the food is pretty good. The prime ribs good. The soups are good. Oyster is good. There's fresh oysters. You got snow crab. Key lime pie is good. Pleasantly surprised. I'm very happy that I came here again. Because as many times as I've been in Orlando and as famous as this place is, the fact that I never came here should tell you how traumatized I was 20 years ago after eating here. But now, oh yeah, I'll come back for sure. I'll come back next week. All right, let's talk about tomorrow. So I couldn't really go to this buffet and the place I wanted to go to tomorrow on the same day because it'd just be too crazy. But the Italian restaurant I'm going to tomorrow, like it's gonna be mind-blowing. You gotta check it out. Okay, this is the thing I've never seen attached to a buffet restaurant before. A gift shop. Well, it's not the buffet restaurant gift shop, but it's a Disney gift shop. So, you know, eat a lobster, buy some swag. It's Orlando, you know. You see cool stuff. Look at that. Is that the lobster buffet mobile? So lunch today is at this Brazilian-Italian restaurant that's minutes from the theme parks. I think everything's minutes from the theme parks here in Orlando. Paparella Trattoria. This is actually not the first time I've been to a Italian-Brazilian place. I was at a Italian-Brazilian buffet over in Dallas and this place has some crazy dishes that is on the menu. Pizza looks good. They got a giant pizza oven sitting over there. So the food today, it's gonna be huge. Really huge. This might be my only meal of the day or until late, late tonight. 30-month-age prosciutto, sliced fresh for you, table-sized. Parmesan cheese, house bread. I don't know, actually, second thought. I feel hungry enough to take this whole course down. And by the way, this is nothing compared to the entree I ordered. Olive oil, freshly ground salt and pepper. Oh yeah, that's freshly baked bread for sure. That bread is so good. 30-month-age prosciutto, sliced absolutely paper-thin. That tastes like a thin layer of quirky snowfall that melts as soon as it touches the tip of your tongue. The parmesan cheese is so good too. So nutty and nice. Pair that up with a thin slice of the pork. Invite the bread to the party. This bread is just amazing. So light, crunchy on the outside. Super spongy inside with the olive oil, a little pepper. Just perfect with that cheese and ham. I mean, I got this mainly because it's kind of cool to prosciutto, sliced for your table side, but this is really, really delicious. This was so freaking good. This might be the best board of cheese and meat and bread in the food kingdom. That's also happened to be near the animal kingdom. The flavor of the pork is just ridiculously pronounced. Pork combined with the cheese will make the nutty professor seem just like a regular professor. This is the gnarliest chicken parm I've ever seen. It's a giant pot of chicken parm and pasta. It's not just chicken parm. Chicken parm with a side of pasta. And even more parmesan cheese for you to sprinkle on top. I like how they leave the jar of cheese with you. This way you don't feel as bad asking. Let's just keep dumping the cheese on. Parmesan cheese for me. It's kind of like that song, you know, let it snow. Just keep letting it snow. Beautifully presented. Everything about this pasta is good. Look how much cheese is on this chicken parm. Whoa. Okay, this is freaking awesome chicken parm. This chicken parm is phenomenal. This is one of the greatest chicken parms I have ever had in my life for sure. And I've lived in New York City where there's a lot of great chicken parm. I'm so glad they gave you the pasta to eat with the chicken parm because trust me you'll need it. You know the fireworks show they do at the end of the day at Disney? It tastes like that. Yeah, I just said it. The fireworks show at the end of Disney tastes like chicken parm. There's so much flavor. Oh wow, that cheese is crazy. So with the parmesan and mozzarella on top of the chicken parm, it just absolutely blasted with that nutty savory goodness. At the same time that chicken parm is fried perfectly. It's so crispy on the outside. Inside is tender. The breading on the outside is soaking up all that delicious sauce and yet it's still crispy. The sauce is absolutely balancing out the deep rich flavor of the cheese on top of the chicken cutlet. And so is the pasta. This tastes like a dish that expect more in Las Vegas where it's just so bold and aggressive. Like absolute extreme flavor. Yeah, this place is not just about the optics. It backs it up with flavor. What they plated for me was about half of everything. And honestly after the cheese board I was like, yeah I'll probably just eat half, take the other half home. You might see the whole thing. Because I really feel like wasting the crispiness of that chicken parm is such a travesty. Feel like you need to be trained in heavy machinery to be able to operate this chicken parm. And that checks off a couple of the places I really wanted to go to here in Orlando. Lobster buffet yesterday was so much better than I expected and this too. I was like, yeah it looks good. How good could it actually taste? It tastes really really good. Yeah, come here and get the chicken parm. They also had a sirloin or filet mignon parm or something. I bet that would have been good as well. Their pizzas here look really good too. The table next to me has got a pizza. It looks like really legit Neapolitan pizza. I'll come back here and try more stuff. And of course, as always, I'll place a link to this down below for you guys. Thank you all so much for watching. It's How We Eat Again. See you later.