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Black Bear Diner - CLOSED
Rating Details »
Category: American (New) [Edit]
14804 NE 24th St(between N 148th Ave & N 151st Pl)
Redmond, WA 98052
(425) 641-5444
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Breakfast
- Alcohol:
- None
22 reviews for Black Bear Diner
Came here with some friends just so we could say we tried it. I wish I could have not and said I did. To borrow a page from BBD's book, the service and food were unBEARable. See what I did there? If not, you should go here to really get the full effect of cramming bear puns into every cubic millimeter of available space.
I got some pork ribs that were bland and greasy, my friend got the Big Bear Burger (or something equally poorly named), which should have been called the "Big Bear Bun with a tiny, not-cooked-to-order-temperature Burger".
The waitstaff was slow and inattentive, and the clientele was uncharacteristic of the area: screaming children, people wearing NASCAR t-shirts (yes, really), and so on. There are way better options nearby. I'm giving them two stars because they have a decent bakery selection, and the prices aren't too awful. Still, avoid this place.
Mediocre food that was always ... wrong. I think I got what I ordered or my first choice of the huge menu ... one time. They were always out of something, and once a manager [a former co-worker of mine] complained to me that the cooks refused to recook the mistake orders, so she had to go in there. What, you're the manager! If they don't listen to you, there's something wrong...
After my boyfriend ordered pancakes and ended up with some wonky corn flake coated french toast [which was okay but not what he ordered... and we didn't have time to send it back to wait another twenty minutes]
We waited six months and tried it again... After that, my third try, I gave up. I ordered the BLAST, a super BLT-club-hybridlike-thing and ended up with a completely different item. I don't think any of these were problems on the server's end, I just think it was the result of a disorganized restaurant [although I agree the server shouldn't take out something they *know* is wrong!].
I'd rather go to IHOP for the same quality -- maybe not the same huge portions, but at least I get what I order :)
No, no, no. You're doing it all wrong. Black Bear, I go out to eat because I'm too lazy to cook food for myself. I want to give you money so you can make me food, and then I eat it, and we're both happy.
But it seems you don't have any food available.
So you just put... whatever that was... on a plate.
And then I give you money?
No, no, no. No amount of chainsaw sculpture or twee gingham knick-knackery will save you from my ire, nor will it make that meatloaf edible. Even if you try and give me LOTS of it - which you do - all I can think, bite after brave little bite, is "This must be what prison loaf is like..."
And then, I move onto the mashed taters, which seem perfectly fine. Hard to screw up, but perfectly (thankfully) fine.
No, no, no.
We haven't been to Black Bear in a long time and we were bored with our other options, so we thought, what the hell, let's try them ONE more time.
It's been a year since they've opened, and things are much better. We were waited on by the manager, Leeanne, who did a good job serving us AND was friendly and kind. She admitted that things sucked for a while there when they first opened; nobody working there had ever worked at the chain's other locations, so everyone was trying to figure things out as they went.
Tonight I had the smaller-plate meatloaf with a side of sweet potato mashers and carrots. My meal started with a giant and fresh salad; between that and the piece of garlic bread, it was too much food for me to eat... good thing I didn't get the larger portion! The meatloaf was actually good, and clearly homemade. It had little bits of onions, celery and potato in it and good meat flavor. The sweet potatoes were perfect, hot and hit with just the right amount of cinnamon (and no sugar!) The carrots were tender but not mushy. It was all a pleasant surprise honestly.
The husband had the smaller-plate salmon and the same sides as I had, though he started with the broccoli cheddar soup. He enjoyed his meal too which is amazing because he's a once-a-year salmon guy and he's picky as hell about it.
The kid had cereal and the fruit bowl. Not much to screw up there.
I want to give it a 4 but past experiences have been too inconsistent. If things go well on another visit or two, I'll give them another star. Right now, color me happily shocked at the improvement.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
7/16/2007
The atmosphere is overwhelming... so many stupid black bears EVERYWHERE.... you can be forgiven for… Read more »
Even though Black Bear has been reviewed plenty of times, I thought I'd add my 2 cents...
Hubby and I finally got up the courage to stop and eat here around brunch-ish on Saturday after passing by it for almost a year now.
The decor was a little to cheesy for me with wooden black bear statues or photos of black bears at every turn. But, to each his own.
The food was just okay. Certainly not better than I can cook at home.
I had a meat lovers omelet (I think that's what it was called). My omelet was a bit runny in the middle, which was annoying and distracting. Also, it appeared that the egg part of the omelet was cooked, then the meat and cheese dumped in after it was all said and done. Poor form.
Hubby's pancakes were a little overdone to the point of being slightly crunchy on the top but he ate them anyway. His eggs were also okay.
The service was excrutiatingly slow, with the server making not one, not two, not three, but four trips to the table just to get the darned thing set up properly: First visit he dropped off napkins (WTF?) and took our order of coffee and waters; Second visit he brought the coffee; Third visit he brought the cream; Fourth visit he brought the spoon. By then, coffee was cold and we had to start all over again. He didn't actually come and take our order until the fifth time at the table.
We could hear people all over the open format restaurant complaining about slow service and missing food items.
I will not be returning. My money would have been better spent at Denny's. I wish the Brown Bag Cafe would come back.
5 stars becaus I had nothing to complain about. They mess up our orders sometimes but their prices and typical american food is at the right level. I mean what else do you expect! Can't be too harsh.
Big Food portions
Price pretty reasonable
Facility is fine
Expected, I did come here the first time they opened and back then they didn't have much to offer but I'm happier now. I only go there sometimes as it doesn't really stand out to my taste.
These guys have someone who knows how to cook a pretty respectable breakfast. Unfortunately, they have a bunch of other people who must be smoking dope, that's the only explanation.
Despite my rating, I eat here at least once a week because I really like breakfast and this place is close. About 3/4 of the time, everything is reasonably okay. Decent food, okay service. But about 1/4 of the time, the wheels come completely off.
On one occasion I was served a steak one quarter of which was still frozen. I turned it over, saw frozen red meat and tapped the frozen beef with my knife... tap, tap, tap... I've been served beautiful, crisp golden brown fries, and I've been served cold chewy, soggy fries. I've been served fresh salad, and I've been served brown salad. I've been served quickly and with a smile, and I've had to walk out after waiting 1/2 hour without even seeing a cup of coffee.
Breakfast is definitely the meal to have here, though. Their dinners are pretty bland, even when done well. Their sandwhiches are okay; I like the club. The fish and chips will do the trick when necessary.
If this place was consistently at it's best, I'd give breakfast 3.5 stars here; dinner 3 stars.
(Note or Microsoft employees: 20% prime card discount here)
I'm not really a fan.
Like others, I wanted to like this place. It's quaint, kitchy, and has a cozy downhome feel. Unfortunately, I almost walked out before being seated because it took about 5 minutes and multiple people walking by without even acknowledging me before someone finally sat me.
The menus were cute - like a newspaper, but not the easiest to read. I think breakfast is all day, but it's not really stated, and FYI, chili is not soup. Don't even think about it! I ordered a turkey, avacado, tomato, cranberry sandwich w/ a cup of chili as my side rather than the standard fries.
You know... there are certain things that I look for; not just in lunch places, but in restaurants in general:
1. The menu has to be easy to read - my cup of chili cost me an upcharge of $1, and even when I brought up the confusion and thought that this would be a great time for them to shine (or atleast save face), they completely dismissed it.
2. I expect that if I get a drink that has free refills offered, I better get one refill (come on..... $2.29 for a single glass of iced tea?!).
3. If it's a weekday during lunchtime, you have to be fast (it was not busy at all and it was 35min into my hour lunch before I got my food!)
4. The food needs to be good (more than one bite was not "well mixed" in my sandwich. One bite alone was completely bread and avocado. Also, the chili was not good either - the "meat" was in a big chunk the size of a golf ball.)
The only way I'm going back here is if I'm with someone that "REALLY" wants to go.
I had read the Yelp reviews before and when asked by my mom, coming in from out of town, asked if I wanted to go there I said "no, it doesn't review well." Well, last week she was in town with my grandma and she wanted to come to the bear again-I couldn't refuse.
The Black Bear Diner is ok-it's not great, but it's not bad. They do what they do alright, if you're into what they do (which is homestyle american food, served up in portions like there will be no tomorrow, so eat it all today!).
They have a waiter there, Mark, who works from Wed-Sat who does a good job cooking up the grub and is a super nice guy. He helped me to get into my car after I had locked the keys in it.
Will I be back to 'the bear'? Only if my parents come in town and ask me to go again. But I have to stress again: if you like homestyle american food, I think you'd like the bear.
Bring your friends. Order big.
The menu here shows prices similar to Denny's/Shari's/Applebee's. Don't let it fool you. The price per lb. of food is negligable.
Imagine, if you will, a plate about the size of a laptop laid out flat. Now, pile imaginary food onto this image about 3-5 inches thick. Add a drink. Now think about fitting this into your stomach.
You'll be eating leftovers unless you're a huge pig-slob like me. Hell, I can barely eat one of their "full sized" meals even if some type of bet with money involved was in the picture.
The leftovers you have will remain tasty, and your first shot at the meal will be filling and, well, real. The food here looks/tastes/smells like it's made right there from it's component ingredients.
I end up going here every couple of weeks at least, and contrary to the more prominent opinions here, have never had a bad time or a bad meal. This, I believe, is due to the first thing I said: "Bring your friends."
When I go here, I'm not in a rush, and I have company. I've never felt like things have taken too long. I don't bring a stopwatch or anything, but it's been a reasonable wait time between the stages of my meals (ordering, getting, eating, checking out) and I've never been rushed out the door, no matter what time of day it was or how busy. So make some conversation, relax, and eat a ton of food for a good price.
As far as the bear motif goes, it's kind of an onslaught when you get in there the first time, but you don't really notice after that. You can just cruise on through the gift stuff when you get seated (I've personally never had to wait more than maybe a minute or two) and if you open the menu (Yes, the outside looks like an olde-timey newspaper) there's plenty of options that don't have a bear joke tied in with them.
Rule of thumb here: If there's a bear connotation attached to the menu item in question, it's probably bigger than you expect.
Don't bring your kids here. It's a great restaurant for families, including children, but I don't want to deal with your rugrats.
I've never left disappointed. Or hungry. Or broke. I have, however, left SO FULL that I needed an immediate nap afterwards.
Pluses:
-- Muchos osos negros
-- Expansive menu
-- Breakfast all day
-- Large portions
-- Food many notches above Denny's
-- Friendly staff
Minuses:
-- Ssssssssssslllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooowwwww wwwwwwww service. Our waitress took our orders and brought our drinks immediately, but our food took for. Ev. Ah. I eventually had to ask her where the fuck our food had gotten to (more politely than that); she immediately brought our food at that point, and the lukewarm nature of my potatoes made it clear that my platter, at least, had been forgotten under the heat lamps.
I might we willing to give it another try, but not for a while.
This is a tough call for me. I give it 3 (average) to compensate the good for the bad. I went for dinner one afternoon and ordered a breakfast menu item. The food was SO BAD I barely ate any. I told the waitress and she was super great about it, made it up, brought me another dish and never charged me.
Bottom line from one experience = Bad food, good service.
I went to eat the first day they opened. Everyone was very nervous about giving us a good time. I think we must have gotten our drinks refilled half a dozen times.
The place is a bit overwhelming at first. There are bears on EVERYTHING from your paper napkin to the ketchup caddy to the back of your chair. And when was the last time you went to a diner that had a gift shop? Maybe at a tourist trap, but not in Bel-Red.
The food is good and artfully arranged on... bear plates. The selection reminds me of a good Denny's or Sharis. I'm not sure it is enough to make me go, "I'm thinkin' Black Bear Diner", but it's cute.
I was driving up 24th on my way to work a few days ago when I noticed that the long abandoned CoCos in the Safeway parking lot had a bunch of weird wooden bear statues around it and a sign proclaiming "OPENING SOON!!!! OMG!". So of course, I have to feed my Yelp addiction and be the first to review this place, and thus the reason why I gave the Black Bear Diner a try as soon as I possibly could.
Black Bear Diner is apparently a regional chain of restaurants west of the Rockies. There are boatloads of these in California. I'd never seen one before personally. The only tip off was the load of bear related merchandise related to the restaurant that'd be a bit much for a mom and pop operation to put out. The merch at the front including disturbing things like a stretchy bear as well as a pair of velcro mittens made to look a bit like bear claws and a fuzzy bear head so that kids can play a rousing game of "Catch the Flying Bear Head". The interior has a similar look and feel as Claim Jumper, but with less emphasis on prospecting and more emphasis on frontier log cabin living.
The menu itself is printed on newsprint, and it's pretty extensive. It appears this place specializes in breakfast but they also have a fairly large lunch and dinner menu. I had a BBQ Pork Sandwich and my friend ordered an omelet. The pork sandwich was pretty good, the meat was tender and juicy but I was disappointed that it didn't have more BBQ Sauce on it. The fries were nothing special. The omelet my friend had looked pretty tasty though. The portions are big, but not quite as big as Claim Jumper. The prices are pretty steep, lunch was $10 before tip and what I got was one of the cheaper items.
Overall, my experience was pretty good and I think this place can do good things, so I'm giving them one more star than I'd probably give it normally because I think once they settle in they've got some potential to be really good.
Update: I've been back a couple of times since I originally posted this review. Each time the service was horrible. Last time I went for instance the food took way too long to come out and when we got our food my friend's cheese omelet didn't have cheese. The food is alright still, but they need to sort their service situation out quickly.
Pros: Uh... huge portions?
Cons: Slow service. \
So what do I say here? I am usually really descriptive with my reviews, but this one is one for the ages. I ordered the Southwest Salad with Salmon. The plates at Black Bear are huge,, and the whole plate is the size of a small pizza. The salad wasn't tossed, and the it was mostly huge pieces of greens that weren't diced. And to add insult to injury, the Salmon was the size of an Ipod.
Another annoying thing was our waiter. The dumbass never filled our drinks and looked like he didn't enjoy working there. It took 10 minutes to get our check.
I know they just opened and are probably working some pains out, but hire some real waiters please and also improve your food quality.
UPDATE (4/12/2009): I just noticed the other day that the Black Bear went out of business. A Mexican place has moved into the building they evacuated. I am not AT ALL surprised. Good riddance.
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I've gone here a few times with my young daughter. I won't repeat what everyone has already stated, but I will agree that the service is weak, the food is marginal, and the place has a nasty smell about it.
Let me tell you two stories that crystalize our experience with Black Bear. The first time I went to the restaurant, I was seated in a booth just south and west of the pie case. I sat down on my side of the booth, and I realized quickly that the seat was not attached to the booth. I could literally lift the entire seat up off the booth's wooden structure. I pointed this out to my waiter, and he gave me this weird look as if I might be at fault. He repositioned the seat and walked away. Did he fix the problem? Nope. But it was good enough for him.
Here's the second story. My daughter and I went in on January 1, 2008. We wanted to have a nice New Year meal. They took 10-15 minutes to seat us even though the place wasn't packed. The waitress told us shortly thereafter that two or three of the cooks had called in sick. They had gone out partying the night before and couldn't make it in. She told us that they were considering just shutting down because one or two of the wait staff was having to go into the kitchen just to keep up with the orders coming in. And I'll tell you that the wait staff was PISSED, perhaps even more than the customers.
You might wonder if we have been back since January 1, 2008. And the answer of course is that we have not. It's not likely we'll ever go back either. Marginal food, service that is disinterested at best, and ambience of a senior center.
Ate at the Black Bear Diner today in Redmond, WA and to be honest wasn't expecting much based on the reviews on this site but my husband loved their Bob's Big Bear Burger when we lived in Redding, CA so we decided to give it a shot anyways. My husband ordered, of course, the "Bob's Big Bear Burger" which is a burger and HUGE he said it tasted awesome. I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak "Hungry Bear" meal which was equally HUGE and was also really tasty. The place was pretty busy so I figured we'd be waiting for a while to be seated but we got a booth right away... the food however took FOREVER to come out and our waiter was not very attentive.
Overall I gave it four stars because the food was great (way better than say, a Denny's), the portions were huge (you won't be able to finish your meal), the prices were very reasonable (around $10 a person), but the food took forever to get to us and the waiter definitely left something to be desired.
If you're hungry and you have some time (just in case your food takes forever to get to you) give this place a try... I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Salty. Greasy. OK in a pinch but otherwise you can do better. I had the meatloaf - gross. We were on our way to Azteca around the corner but were lured in with a "Kids Eat Free" banner on the front. I don't think we'll go to this one again.
Rather than write a separate review I'm going to copy in the feedback I sent to Black Bear via their site. However, I will say this...I'm giving it two stars rather than one because they are a new location and are possibly still 'figuring it out' and because they offer a sugar-free dessert selection, which should be rewarded somehow. And now, the feedback...
This experience was the third and worst experience at Black Bear yet. The first time in was 3 days after opening. We came in for dinner and there was total chaos. The food was boring, but okay. Too much staff. Too many people trying to handle the whole floor and ultimately milling about with no leadership. We had two or three people bringing us drinks such that we each had two full drinks in front of us at any given time. The next trip in was Sunday, a full week after opening. We were in for breakfast. The same story as the first time, but only one of the three people bringing us drinks knew how to make the blackberry lemonade and the food was...weak. That brings us to today. I thought things would be better, since early AM during the week wouldn't be as busy as a weekend or dinner rush. In at 9:00am, ordered at 9:10, ticket entered at 9:16, food arrived at 9:35. A long wait. The party consisted of my wife and I and our 7 year old daughter. I ordered 'The Grizz' with S/F syrup. I got a 'three meat platter' with regular sugar syrup. My wife got a burger the way she ordered it. The kid ordered the kids mini-volcano. She got a full size adult volcano. Even if the waitress heard us incorrectly (we were pretty clear we thought), common sense should tell a person that a small 7 year old girl is not going to be able to eat a giant platter of food like the volcano. The food is dropped off and no drinks are refilled. The check is dropped with the food and the waitress tells us she'll be back to check on us in a minute. About ten minutes go by and my wife who has been coughing and choking on her food still has nothing to drink to get the food down. I had to get up and go hand the cup to someone in the waitress station to get a refill. Only after that did the waitress come back to our table. At that point we asked her about the bill where we'd been charged for the full volcano and three coffees. Only I ordered coffee, and at $2+ for a cup, that was a big mistake. She went off with the bill to have it fixed and we never saw her again until another 10-15 minutes had passed and we had to ask someone to find our waitress. She came back with the bill and it was at that point that I was able to address another issue. I had saved my pancakes for last, then started adding the syrup. That's when I noticed that the syrup looked a great deal like the syrup my daughter had received. I had already poured it on the cakes, so I wasn't going to eat them until I could confirm that the syrup was the sugar-free syrup I had asked for. By the time the waitress came back the cakes were cold and the butter congealed. They wouldn't have been edible at that point anyway, but to top it off, no, she was sorry, she forgot the S/F syrup and, yes, that was regular syrup. So I paid and waited for pancakes that I ultimately had to have thrown out. Because of the location and type of food offered, I may go back to your Redmond, WA location again, but not any time soon, especially if I do not receive a reply to this feedback. There are a lot of problems to work out there. In closing, I'd say that there is not enough training or leadership for the staff, the menu is overwhelmingly big, and the crust on the pies is so hard it can barely be cut, let alone eaten (the wife had chocolate cream pie after dinner one night). I do like the fact that you have a S/F dessert option (peach cobbler), but so far it's not enough to make feel like putting up with the whole experience.
Yes, I'm probably being generous, but I like restaurants that have lots of variety including comfort foods like chicken fried steak and breakfast all day long.
Overall, the food was decent, but like other reviews have already mentioned, the service was slow. It also wasn't very accurate or organized - even with two servers teaming up for each table, they couldn't get it right. They forgot one of our drinks and two of our salads, and it took 15 minutes before they took our credit card to pay for our meal.
The restaurant wasn't very busy; there was no wait and plenty of available tables. Maybe that's not a good sign...
I'm willing to give them another chance, but the trends in the reviews so far should cause the management of this place to be very concerned.
My husband and I have eaten here multiple times (I think in hopes of recreating our first experience), but after the last time I don't think we'll be going back.
The first time we went to this diner was right around the time it opened. Like other reviewers have mentioned they were eager to please, fast service, food was still fresh and hot (imagine that!) and we were able to get in and out within about 45 minutes mid day on a weekend all for under $35.
Sadly, in the four or so times we've gone back since then all of these things have rapidly declined.
Our 45 minute meal has changed to at least an hour, it's taken up to ten minutes for a server to come to our table to take our drink orders, food is served luke warm, and in general it's not as nice of an experience.
On our last visit, it took five minutes for us to be taken to our table (there was no one in front of us, they just didn't seem to notice we were standing there waiting for a table), then, after being shown to our table we sat...and sat...and sat (menus closed and everything). Finally, after twenty minutes we left (oh, did I mention that two other tables also were sitting and left during that time as well?).
So, one might ask why I gave them 2 stars...I gotta say, I thought the food was pretty decent. The portions were huge for what you paid for. The location was great and, if you can actually get them to take your order (and bring it to you while it's still fresh) you might actually enjoy yourself.
I went with my family for a weeknight dinner and what a absolute disaster. It started with a absolutely freezing part of the restaurant with a waitress that did not have the ability to change the temperature and a manager that could change the temperature was only somewhere else and could not be bothered. Our waitress was only able to pass the blame to the kitchen that was no better than the service. I have never had to take food off the warming shelf myself and this was a first. Yes, we had to carry our own food back from the warming shelf to our table. Half of the dinner menu was not available and soda was only dispensed by two liter bottles. The items that were prepared by the kitchen were incorrect and cold and dry. I cannot think of how to provide a worse dining experience than our dinner at the Black Bear Diner. This place is going down and other should be warned to stay away.
