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The Black Bear Diner was so nice, we ate there twice. Friday morning before the long drive home, we stopped in to get breakfast. Talk about timing... get there before 9AM on Friday morning or be prepared to wait for a table! I think we got the last parking space as well as the last open table.
I ordered the corned beef hash, hash browns, two eggs and sourdough toast. It was basic, but wonderful. Their corned beef is home made and not overly seasoned or salty. My son ordered the chicken fried steak, country potatoes, two eggs and a biscuit. We just can't seem to have a bad meal at this place! Yeah!
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Man, did I luck out having the Black Bear Diner across from my motel. I barely had my foot in the… Read more »
Food wasn't bad...but it wasn't particularly good either. I was disappointed with the service and overwhelmed with hella bears EVERYWHERE.
One person ordered a burger with no cheese and his food came out with cheese on it. The waitress took his food away and brought him another burger....with cheese on it. Wth, right? Got his order wrong, twice! Finally, he got his food...cheese free, but by that time, most of us were done with our meal. Also, I never got a refill on my drink until the end of my meal. Even though our waitress was nice, she took too long and made two many mistakes.
Aron O. and Jeff B. said it pretty well, but I'll add my two cents (no pun, re. the 2 cent tip someone left!). I fall in the middle of them, star-wise.
My recent experience seemed a little better than some, but still, I'll echo the statement that they seemed understaffed. The owners/management really need to remedy that. When ordering drinks, I asked for water, twice, once at the beginning of the order and I recapped at the end, 'cause so many servers (in the Bay Area more than elsewhere - sorry guys), seem to remember your non-water drink, but forget the requested water. Sadly, I wasn't surprised when the water didn't come, so I asked again. Then it was there quickly. Our waiter was almost running from table to table - there seemed to be way too much for him to cover.
Our food (for 2 people) arrived very quickly, and was quite good. We both had the cinnamon bun French toast - a smaller order of it. The smaller menu isn't just for seniors, so if you don't like super large portions, check out this section of the breakfast menu. However, it was still a high sugar/calorie item. Coffee was fine.
I would add a star if our waiter had been a little better. However, I don't think there's anything that could get me to give the place five-stars - it's just not a 5-star place for me, but still pretty good. I will be back, but it'll never be a 'regular' place for me.
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I came here with the boyfriend because we were starving while we were shopping at the outlets! And my oh my, it was crowded at 2pm on a Sunday. We ordered right away...I had to try the meatball sandiwch with onion rings and the bf got the 7 grain almond pancakes with eggs and sausage. The food took a bit long to arrive but it was probably because there was so many people. The meatball sandiwch was okay. But the onion rings....were fantastic!! I love onion rings that are huge and lightly breaded. Bf's pancakes were huge and tasty! They were a little thick. I think it would be perfect if they could thin the batter a little. Overall, I would come here again if I was around the area. I would like to try their breakfast menu next time like there corn beef hash! Also, the prices were decent for the amount of food you get. The ambience is also very cool with bears swarming the place!
Three stars for the food. It's okay, nothing to write home about.
MINUS one star for the service -- or, more accurately, the LACK of service.
I got the rib eye steak, and told the waitress that I would drink water because I had been out all day and was dehydrated.
The steak came, and as I said, it was ok. However, once I had drained the water glass, not only did I not get a refill, even after I stopped eating and pushed my plate away, it was HALF AN HOUR before I got any attention, and that was only because I had had enough and asked for a box to take the rest home.
The waitress got the traditional complaint -- I left her a two-cent tip. I doubt very much that I will ever go back. Gilroy has other places to eat, and if I want to be ignored, I'll just call a politician.
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This is my favorite-est favorite-est favorite-est diner in the whole world, EVER! If we're in Gilroy shopping at the outlets, we save room and work up a giant appetite just so we can eat (and make the most of it) at the Black Bear, because like they say on their menu, "If you don't say WOW when your food arrives, you probably ordered toast!" (I paraphrased this, so don't get picky.)
Let's talk about the restaurant and its staff. This is a good time family restaurant. It's country/tongue-in-cheek rustic cute and covered with stuffed toy bears. The atmosphere transports you back to simpler times. Bring the kids (the sweet mild mannered ones, please), bring grandma, bring your friends! The service and wait staff are super friendly and prompt. And a nice plus: the bathrooms are clean!
The food is fabulous diner food. It does not and will not disappoint. The chicken fried steak breakfast is INSANE! The chicken fried steak itself is bigger than your face and perfectly seasoned and crispy. Excellent country gravy with speckles of sausage and black pepper, nice thick consistency. The biscuits...I can only equate their size with D cup breasts--and they give you a pair of them (haha!)...they are warm and fluffy and flakey. Wonderful, well-seasoned and tender pot roast. Meatloaf, as good as mom's.
The desserts! Here is a good strategy: Eat a portion of your entree, box up the rest for breakfast/lunch the next day (they'll still taste good, don't worry), and save room for dessert. The desserts, like everything else in the restaurant, come in gargantuan portions, so share one. The cobblers are amazing. Or take home a bear claw. We love the fruit-filled ones.
I'm kind of glad we don't live that close to Gilroy, because we'd die of coronary heart disease from eating at this place all the time.
This place is cute cute cute and the food is great.
My boyfriend and I try to stop by here whenever we are in the area. Corned beef hash is always delicious as is the Biscuits and gravy. MMM!
Good diner with big portions and friendly service. Can be very busy at peak hours. But well worth the wait!
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For some reason I only at this place one time whenever I went to Gilroy. I went here to eat breakfast here when I came to visit UC Santa Cruz. Before I left for the airport, I wanted to go to Gilroy because I had a rent a car and the shops opened at 9am and I came a little bit early. So I ate at the black bear diner and found it by accident because I had the wrong turn.
But anyways I order the corn beef hash and it was good. The portions are huge and filled me up just like a bear. The prices were good too I think I paid $8.00 for it as well. The service was good from my experience. I would go back and eat there, but for some reason I go to Inn and Out to eat dinner.
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My wife and I both just came back from the Black Bear- I've had the food from there before and my wife always raves about this place, so we decided to go there for an early supper.
The waitress we had (middle aged lady with dark hair) was terrible.
First off, the way she explained the menu to my wife was very condescending.
This lady literally spoke as if we had never been to a restaurant before...even after my wife told her, in fact, she's been there before.
I guess we are clueless foreigners to her.
It's just a dinner entree with a choice of sides, it's not rocket science, lady!
The food took a long time for it to reach our table.
When it got there, it was pretty mediocre, overall.
My wife got a dinner entree : Stuffed Chicken Breast w/Hollandaise Sauce - with some exceedingly salty mashed potatoes.
I got the breakfast special: 5 strips of bacon (awesome), 3 eggs over-easy (good), hash browns ( so-so) , 2 biscuits ( crappy and old-tasting).
We never got to see our waitress after she dumped our food off at our table.
No " How's your meal"
NO " Do you need anything else"
No " Do you need another refill"
No nothing.
After being ignored the whole meal, we were ready to leave.
Crap service, and mediocre food - not a great combination.
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Just had the 2 item combo dinner ($15.95)
A skewer of grilled shrimp, oven roasted chicken 1/4,…
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WOW, want a good BANG for your buck?
GO HERE. After eating here, my boyfriend and I have agreed to our new rule while eating out and saving up: only go places where the portions are HUGE so we are each forced to only eat half of our plates, as leftovers are the next meal!
Grillz breakfast:
2 tasty pancakes (made with sweet cream, and a touch of vanilla)
3 eggs (scrambled to perfection, not too dry or anything!)
4 sausage links (nothing to crazy, but decently good, 2 extra cuz i didn't want the ham thing)
2 bacon strips (thick cut, meaty bacon)
1 order of potato strip has browns (less flavor and less crispy than usual but that's because there's less oil used)
Big Bear Burger:
FAT ASS BURGER, with strips of pickles
the patty was perfectly sized and cooked exactly as we wanted
not much flavor or craziness, but a good hamburger
lots of semi grilled red onions
oh, and choice of many sides, we got garlic fries
Everything is made in house...but I don't think the clam chowder is. Just my opinion. It's okay though, they forgot to charge us for that har har.
Total for 2, plus a big to-go box: 22 bucks!
The ambiance there is SO CUTE, I love it SO MUCH. It's definitely whored out; the whole bear theme, but i love it.
Definitely coming back when I'm at the outlets.
Gluttony at it's best in Gilroy.
Forget Denny's! Forget Carrow's! Forget iHop! Forget Lori's Diner! Forget Mel's Diner! Forget Your Mama's Diner!
Black Bear Diner is on point with their meals and gives you some mighty big portions and uses some healthy fresh ingredients. If you've been to Black Bear Diner before and tried any of their meals, you know what's up.
If someone asks you what's good, they'll usually tell you everything. So eat whatever your stomach desires when you come here. It should be good.
One of Gilroy's few hidden restaurant gems.
Only negative is that it's not open 24/7 like how Denny's is.
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We stopped here at random (it just happened to be the first restaurant we found when we were ready to eat in the middle of a long drive. Had a late breakfast. Was not impressed.
Staff was overwhelmed when 4 or 5 parties happened to walk in the door at the same time, and couldn't seem to manage the situation.
Waiter was chewing gum, and not really paying attention.
Food was mediocre.
honestly, i really wanted to like this place..
actually, i do like the atmosphere.. the decorations are cute..
i came here with the BF we both ordered the same thing..
eggs and corned beef.. the beef was probably the best thing.. everything else was alright..
my BF didn't get much hash browns, on the other hand, i got a lot..
obviously they didn't split it fair enough.. my toast was so burnt!
so i asked for unburned toast and it seriously took 10 minutes for toast. come on!! i finished my whole meal until i got my toast.. i really wanted dessert too.. and was expecting our waitress to ask if we wanted any, but she just dropped the receipt on the table and left.. lame..
she never came back to give me my toast, someone else did.. and she never came back to refill our water..
then i paid some lady (which looked like a manager) she asked how everything was.. i said it was ok.. she didn't bother to ask why or anything.. good job caring about customer satisfaction!
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The ambiance of this place is quite creepy, country style with bears EVERYWHERE. That said, I got the pot roast and I was starving so it wasn't bad, tasted like typical diner food. It was pretty inexpensive, but my dining company seemed far less than satisfied with their food, and the chicken noodle soup looked like it came straight from the can.
I'm not a big breakfast fan, but Black Bear Diner changed all that!
Everything about the menu is BIG. Portions are large enough so people can share; unless you're really hungry and want to pig out as I did. I wanted to live life a little vicariously so I ordered the BIGFOOT. This is a 3/4lb Chicken Fried Steak with three eggs, side of biscuits & gravy... Oh and hash browns.
The waitress had to ask me twice if I really wanted to order that. She couldn't imagine a 135lb skinny Indian guy could finish all that food :)
The food came out on THREE separate plates, and I attacked each plate simultaneously. I was in Heaven, or Hell depending on how you read this review.
The Chicken fried steak was cooked perfectly, and the biscuits & gravy were just divine. 30 minutes into breakfast I still hadn't put a dent into the hash browns or the biscuits & gravy. I shamelessly surrendered my plate 50 minutes into breakfast :(
This was the best breakfast I've had a while, the service was equally as good. I think next time I'll stick to a smaller selection.
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black bear introduced to me a couple of years ago by a close friend of mine. Coming from san jose all the way to gilroy to eat I was thinking what a crazy idea. until i had breakfast at black bear.
tri tip scramble, ny steak sandwich w/garlic fries, bacon burger, california scramble, I have yet to order food that i disliked. the service is always great and black bear is open late 12:00am.
Well worth a drive to gilroy and its always great to walk around the gilroy outlets after eating a huge portion of whatever.
(ed note 1 - I use to live in gilroy and my dad loved black bear diner when it first opened up)
(ed note 2- my sister lived in gilroy and they would take my mother to eat here to make sure she ate)
(ed note 3- Black Bear Diner is doing a fundraiser for my employer)
Okay got those notes so no "Bear"ing down on me and please don't paint me "Black" I was hungry and went to a "Diner"
Seriously folks, I do not know how I forgot to Yelp about this before until last night but I can tell you there is more than great food here. Lest we forget the nicknacks and beautiful wood carving decor or the elegance of the simple menu disguised as a newspaper. The real treat for me was sitting near three cowboys ...modern day cowboys plotting to Shanghai someone. It was priceless...now on to the food...
Salad with carrots many of you remember my trip to Texas where I discovered the orange slices were tomato well there was real carrots and fresh lettuce and just enough dressing on the side to make me want more.
While I was craving coffee at 5pm at night that means I don't go to bed until 3am so I stuck with a great glass of soda ( which I would regret when I enter in the info on my fitday log) yet it was perfectly done.
So the meal ...oh my gosh I am going to start with the red skinned mash potato and gravy ...hi I am a visual person and when you can see - LITERALLY SEE the red skin from the potato's and taste - taste them a full 5 stars.
Next Green beans, not bits of green but REAL from the ground green beans with bacon not speckles of crunchy stuff real bacon sliced up and put wtih the green bean's.
Did i mention my medium rare petite filet Mignon ...hello I am an carnivore and I loved the seasoning of cracked pepper and the juiciest steak.
Okay i talked about the food, the atmosphere what about the price and service...
YOU WILL NOT FIND ANYTHING BETTER. First off the waitress doesn't let me sit alone or still
Secondly the price was worth $150 but I paid much less and the only detractor...
I didn't order dessert fault. so.
you know it...
MUST GO MUST GO!
This is a five-star diner. They have so much kitsch and style that it just pushes it over the edge from just merely having excellent food. Their menu is in newspaper format, as a small example.
I mostly go here for breakfast, because their pancakes are to die for. And I don't say that lightly--the pancakes will probably be my doom. The doctor will be looking at my MRI going, "I'm not sure how it happened, but his arteries are full of pancake batter." They have their standard pancakes, and also sweet cream. If those weren't heavenly enough, they have the monster force of their 7-grain almond granola pancakes. These are _amazing._ Best pancakes I've ever had. It's as if they took fluffy clouds and whipped them up with sweet chunky almond butter and cream. I know I leave uncomfortably full but it is so worth it.
Their scrambles are awesome, their omelets as described, and their eggs benedict is excellent--even better when it's their "country" benedict with sausage gravy instead of hollandaise. Yes, you heard me right. It's biscuits and gravy with ham and eggs between them. Take that, heart!
Their lunch and dinner fare is also excellent. Diner greasy without being overly so. Fried and gravy galore. If you order anything with chili on it, like a burger, you'll need a knife and fork, for example.
But as I said, I'm all about the breakfast, and they serve it all day long.
A fine dining establishment, this is not. They know they're a diner, and to that extent, they are a diner par excellence.
You want reasonably priced great food with large portions...this your place! The tri-tip is delicious....U can't beat their breakfasts...try the cobblers....heated and a la mode! You will be as stuffed as one of the bears sitting outside the restaurant! Male Staff members could be a little more pleasant ..but other than that...this place is a must visit!
If you love breakfast anytime of the day then black bear diner is for you! I crave omelettes all the time and whenever I do, black bear is my go to restaurant for them! Even though I live about 30 miles away I dont mind the drive just to eat there, then drive home. The drive home is usually the worst part because I stuff myself from the huge portions they give you and it ends up giving me food coma. But all in all, its all worth it! From the tri-tip scramble, to the new york steak sandwhich, to the homemade corned beef everything here is good in my opinion!
Try it for yourself if your ever around here. I doubt you'll regret it..
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After my brother's rude experience at Applebees he stopped by Black Bear diner for take-out. When he asked for vegetarian options they kindly offered to make him some veggie burgers.
Hubby and I had breakfast here the next morning. The staff is very friendly. It seemed like a mob scene with so many people waiting. But they told us it would be about 10-15 minutes and it was!
I had a veggie omelet with hash browns and toast. The hash browns were thickly shredded, crispy and seasoned just right with onions and black pepper.
Vegan hubby had oatmeal, toast and Hasbrowns.
We left full and happy.
Lots of bear paintings, photos, posters and knick knacks. There were some carved bear statues outside.
Lots of locals and their families, couples and out-of-towners like us...
everyone was enjoying themselves!
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I stopped by this place because another yelper mentioned their good milkshakes. I have to agree, their milkshakes are like regular ice cream whipped. Very thick and just the way a shake should be.
They also had chicken fried steak, which I had to try. It came with a salad, scallop potatoes and mac & cheese. The salad was fine, scallops were cheesy and the mac & cheese was good. It had a nice crust on top.
On the other hand the chicken fried steak was between 1-3 stars depending on what area you had a piece from. Overall it was a little too salting and some places were just all batter. I barely ate any of it, which is fine because that is the point of trying food. The service was slow at times, even when there were not a lot of people.
The decore of bears all around is cute and reminds me a of a truck stop. It I wanted dessert or a shake I would stop back in here, but not sure if I would eat anything else.
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I've eaten here many times and am almost always thoroughly pleased. My favorite is the country fried steak (aka chicken fried steak) plus biscuits and gravy. Being Southern (think Dixie, not Latin America), I'm always on the lookout for good biscuits and gravy in the Bay Area. So far, this is about as good as I've found.
If you go on the weekend morning, get there early. The place gets busy and there can be a long wait.
a-w-e-s-o-m-e breakfast!
we ate here before a road trip to LA, hella good food, portions are so big that we split breakfast and we still hella full
as for service, it was good, place was busy and we had good service, water was filled up and drinks re-filled. solid.
def worth a stop if you around the area,
Black Bear used to be good at one time. In the last two or three years however, something changed. I don't know what exactly, but it seems that the quality/taste of the food is a bit lackluster here. Service can be slow, too. On my last visit, I had to wait nearly 30 minutes for a French Dip sandwich, and found that the roast beef was GREEN around the edges! It also tasted like leather, and very bland.
The wait staff is also a bit odd here... They are not as friendly and a bit "cheesy". Believe it or not, Denny's just down the road has better food and service.
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Haven't been here in awhile, but I've been craving it for the past couple weeks. So, I decided that Yelping it would be the next best thing.
Walking in, I felt like I was in Tahoe. Bears are everywhere and I can't help but feel like I'm in a cabin or something.
I usually go here with the GF when we visit her hometown on the weekends. I absolutely love the corned beef hash here. The corned beef is pulled apart and not put through a meat grinder. The portions are generious. Huge biscuits, huge bear claws and huge plates.
Always left here stuffed with food leftover and I always left satisfied. Love it. Try it out sometime.
2.5 stars to an occasional 3 because they are inconsistent.
We usually go there for breakfast, and sometimes it's good and sometime's it's not so good. I guess I go there because I think 'maybe this time this is going to be the day!'. The servers are nice but the service is s l o w.
It's better than Denny's and I go there to people watch and at the same time catch up with the people I know. I guess that's the draw for the locals. But for out-of-towner's, go for it. It's big and hearty and gives you a bit of Gilroy at the same time. We're friendly!
I just go there because I prefer to patronize the local establishments, but my fellow 'yelper's' have a few more local b-fast places for me to try.
While it is just serves classic American food, Black Bear Diner was a nice treat during my excursion to Gilroy. We ate lunch about 2 pm so had all the breakfast, lunch, and dinner options (except baked potato) open to us. I had a very nice tri-tip steak with a skewer of shrimp, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, garlic bread, and salad. Needless to say that I had left-overs for dinner. Everyone else was also satisfied with their meals. My only complaint is that the service was initially a little slow, mostly the delivery of drinks and initial order, which was notable given how hungry and dehydrated we were after being on the go since 5:30 in the morning.
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After shopping for hours at the Gilroy outlet, my friends and I decided to go eat dinner at this place instead of risking to get caught in traffic on the freeway.
What I found interesting was the menu because it was in a form of a mini-newspaper. I was wondering where the menu was until my friend told me to open the newspaper. Haha!
I tried the Choice Cowboy Cut Top Sirloin with side orders of french fries and fresh red-skinned mashed potatoes with gravy and a salad. It was worth the money because I was so full after finishing it. The waitress gave us A1 steak sauce and I tried it but didn't really like it. I was never too fond of the A1 steak sauce. Fortunately, Black Bear Diners has their own gourmet steak sauce bottle that's on every table. I tried it out and I loved it! It was a lot better than the A1 steak sauce.
I'd say the prices aren't too expensive and for the amount of food you get, it's just about right. If you want something other than McDonald's, Burger King, or In-N-Out, then you should come try this place out.
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I have to admit I LOVE breakfast foods....really seriously love 'um!
So anytime I find a place that serves kickass breakfast food I'm there!
Only problem...My bf hates breakfast foods ACK! So we always need to find a happy medium. What better place then here ;-p
Black Bear is usually busy (a good sign) and yes you will have to wait a bit. But it's worth it! Ive tried many of the items from there menu and ha vent had a bad meal. There menu is standard diner fare but it is prepared well, the service is decent and the prices are good.
There garlic fries and the huge bear claws kick mando butt ;-p
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One of my favorite places to eat. The food (general American mix) is top notch, and the atmosphere is unique and fun. The whole place is decked out like an old cabin, and there is a person in a Bear costume that walks around and takes pictures with people. They also sell t-shirts and such.
First I want to state that the Black Bear Diner in Sonoma and in Walnut Creek are real good places to eat breakfast. The experience here in Gilroy was very lackluster. Slow, slow service and a funny waitress, not funny in a good way but with a weird sense of humor. She(the waitress) took our beverage order an asked my 9 year old daughter if she wanted coffee, my daughter looked puzzled and said no thanks, then the waitress asked if she wanted Vodka Instead(laughing). Is this funny or something???? Anyway, we finally got our food, ate and left.
So I'm biased about this place because Black Bear speaks to me on so many different levels:
At the start of outlet shopping, it says enjoy now because you're in for a long day.
Or at the end of outlet shopping, it says you've survived such a hard day you should get a steak and maybe some dessert.
And especially after a long road trip from SoCal, it says welcome home.
Black Bear is a cozy diner that serves big portions of good comfort food. I'm a big fan of their breakfast and the chocolate cream pie. Although, I was pleasantly surprised by their prime rib.
The wait staff is friendly as are most the patrons.
The only thing is this place can get crowded so be prepared to wait.
The food isn't great, but it is good and comforting and sometimes that's all I want.
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Awesome food with awesome decor!
Had the chicken fried steak and pecan-crusted trout for dinner for 2. The chicken fried steak was bigger than my face! Each dinner entree comes with a soup/salad, a slice of garlic bread, and TWO sides. The cole slaw was the best and freshest I have ever had. The portions were more than generous.
The decor is lovely--it brings you back to wild bear country--and the menu, as mentioned by another reviewer, looks like a 1950s newspaper.
I am so glad that I found this place and don't have to be stuck with In-n-out or crappy Applebee's when I go shopping at Gilroy.
The only downsides of this place are: it does not have outdoor seating (what if you have a pet cub to bring along?) and the wait could be pretty long on holidays/weekends (but this just means the food is great, right?).
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Black Bear is a great place to get a bite and sit down and chill after driving back to the Bay from L.A. If you can resist the In-N-Out temptation on the other side of Leavesley and drive under the freeway to Black Bear you won't be disappointed.
The food is pretty much standard American Diner food, but the real stand out was the desserts. Their cobblers are great as are the milkshakes and you should definitely leave some room for them.
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I took my family here back in April when they were visiting from Canada. We stopped here for dessert after visiting the Gilroy Outlets. All the dessert was very good! A great place for all ages... we had my 2 yr old, my 9 & 11 yr. old sons, my parents, myself (pregnant) and my 80+ yrs grandmother along -- I think we got all age categories well covered, from fetus through to granny! ;) And, we were all very pleased with our food and overall experience. The ambiance is very nice. The place was packed. I'd love to go back soon to have a complete meal next time. Not fair to throw up a 5-Star without first having the full meal experience :)
By the end of 2007 - I've been here several times with various friends and we have always had a good experience here. The menu has a great selection, and the food is really tasty! It's so nice inside too! I think it's a great family style restaurant... great for all ages! I'm bumping it up to a 5 star.... not that it's a high-end type, best of the best restaurant... but it is a solid 4.5 star for a family restaurant! :) Since there are no 1/2 points... I'll go with the "5" :)
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I thought I had written a review for this thing, but it appears to have been lost.
This is one of my father-in-law's favorite places, and so he takes people out there really often.
On top of that, on some recent commemorative occasion, he gave us a Black Bear Gift Card that had an inordinate amount of money on it, like over a hundred dollars.
I really can't say that I like this place terribly much.
I did about four-hundred years working in a joint like this (american diner-style cuisine and kitschy-cutsie decor,) and the charm of it is rather lost on me.
It's apparent from the other reviews that this business of serving large portions garners a lot of respect and admiration.
I have very high regard for a lot of the folks who made a similar observation, so I'm not going to kick it around as though giving people plenty to eat when they are HUNGRY is some sort of low-class criminal conspiracy. When I am hungry, you are best advised to keep your hands and feet away from my face.
So here's my major deal about BBD, and the reason a restaurant that serves HUGE portions for a good price got three stars instead of ALL FIVE of them:
I have had a few good meals there. Good tasting and well prepared. I have had meals that were, for lack of a better way to say it, GREASY, (I know that meats and such are going to have fat, there's just sometimes more than necessary and a good cook simply never sends out a plate looking that way.)
I also saw that one reviewer experienced some OUTLANDISHLY terrible service. That hasn't happened to me, but it most certainly is sometimes not very good, and it is also sometimes perfectly OK.
So the problem I have is an inconsistancy of service and food quality. It is, simply put, a roll of the dice to go in there and sit down for a meal, such that I NEVER really look forward to going, and I LOVE going to restaurants.
So those folks who went to BBD and were totally blown away by portions and service and taste very likely hit it right on the money.
And those folks who thought it was sub-standard with crappy servicve were totally accurate with their reviews as well. And that's the rub....
It's in a great location and people go there really often, so they are probably here to stay. No problem for me.
We still have forty bucks or so on the gift card, so I know I'll be back again. But maybe not too much after that.
For the kind of food I want from a place like this (please don't look for me here during the hours of dinner,) OD's does this a LOT better.
I wonder if they have gift cards?
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The bread pudding is to die for! I get it to-go, and the staff helpfully writes warming instructions on the container.
Great comfort food, HUGE portions. You will not leave hungry. Service can be slow at times.
I really enjoy Black Bear Diners, although the one in Gilroy is a pretty nice stop if you're going up and down the 101. It's cute inside, and while I've only gotten breakfast there, I'm sure other meals are just as good. I love the huge portions, and the biscuits are great. The prices are reasonable, and the newspaper-style menus are great to read while you wait.
Gilroy, CA
Category: Restaurants
Gilroy, CA
Category: Mexican
Gilroy, CA
Category: Mexican
Gilroy, CA
Category: Italian
Gilroy, CA
Category: Bagels
When I traveled up to the San Jose area and back…
Ways to expand your waistline and add shape to…
Some of my favorite dining destinations in the…
My local dry cleaner, watering hole, deli, cafe,…
It's almost always homefries or hash browns for me…
