Black Bear Diner Chico — Restaurant in Chico

Positive things: Holly and Ben. Great people with big nice attitudes, great servers that never wavered in their professional demeanor. Water had no after taste. Apparently their Tomato Cream Soup/Corn Bread impressed my female sidekick regardless of its almost $10 price tag for a well served bowl. The way she started eating it told of a good ending. Coffee and Tea, refillable both, a tad better than most. Was it the norm? The time of the day around 5 PM with 25% full? Guess it was. Not so wonderful: my plate ($20+) consisting of 3 Eggs to order, 2 Sausage Links, 2 Bacon Strips (limp instead of crispy per request), Hash Browns more steamed than crispy, slice of Ham, and 2 hefty Pancakes, Butter and Smuckers Sugar Free per request. Oily eggs, sausage average, bacon better, ham slightly salty but edible. Their supposedly well appreciated Bread Pudding made on the house, $6.99? We shared it later and at the risk of shattering their accolades for their home made concoction, it was average at best, sweet for sure and ingredients barely discernible, an indulgence soon after regretted which seems to be my thing, temptation easily defeating common sense way too often. Oh well. Total $48.99 plus 20% gratuity just because of the good vibes from Holly. 3.5 Stars.

4/7/2023 I always take the side of the customer versus the cook when something(s) need severe attention specially food. We returned one more time to Black Bear Diner to try their Friday All You Can Eat Fish, since this Easter Friday bans meat, and I have developed a certain kind of respect for the tradition. Happy Easter, Chico! Fish plate, $18+? 3 deep (deep!) fried fish, cole slaw, fries, hush puppies, tartar sauce. On paper it looked good that’s why we went. What arrived had one common denominator: overly salty. The batter for the fish, the fries, the hush puppies, is that what they’re called? Aggressively salty, almost like a boycott against the whole group. Had to discard the batter/overly fried crust, and save the little fish inside. The first 3 hush puppies were almost black, and therefore dry solid. Travis?, our fine server, replaced the neglectful fry, and brought 3 in better status. Fries untouchables sodium driven. My friendly partner ordered the Clam Chowder, which was thick but not a winner recipe. Was accompanied by what the first time was an outstanding corn bread, this time around stale, old, the opposite. We arrived around 7:10 PM, and the place was way below full. The staff I have found to be very nice and efficient. My criticism is for what is coming out of the kitchen, for as far as fried fish is concerned it was a terrible show. How hard is to find a willing, prideful chef/cook in Chico? Potentially speaking The Black Bear could be filled to capacity if they only could sustain the pace and quality of all items in the menu. Is not mean spirited on my part, but food thrown away is a defeat of sorts for this and all food places. Why some places are always crowded, while others are dormant! Better to sell fewer items cooked to perfection than allow mediocre...

Summary of the 1st experience was terrible. About 1 year ago we tried it and the service was so bad we sat there for over an hour before someone took our order so we walked out. 2nd time was better. We had a party of 3 were seated quickly again and served quickly. Only issue was the food was slightly under cooked and not seasoned. This was our 3rd and final visit to be completely fair to the restaurant in reviews. We were seated instantly and our server was excellent. Took our order and food was cooked well. We got French Toast which was good not great. Described as cooked well but not top tier. We also got chicken fried steak, with 2 eggs over easy, hash Browns and sourdough toast added 2 slices of bacon and 2 sausage links. This is where things got interesting. Eggs were cooked to specified standard, bacon was cooked but not Crispy. Hash Browns were not Crispy either, chicken fried steak was excellent as was the country gravy. Sausage was excellent as well. I apologize to you all who read this. I forgot to take photos this time. Never got the toast. Server was very nice and helpful until food was served. No one came to check on us to see if food was cooked to our liking or anything. I'm very transparent with my reviews. I went to pay and informed them of the issues and they gave me $10 off. I appreciate the helpful service staff and crew. A fair review comes to 11/15 best of the 3 experiences by a long shot. Hopefully this helps the business see what to fix and helps you guys reading this as what to be on the watch...

First time trying this BBD in Chico and will not be returning.

The food is overpriced, low quality and the service was some of the worst I’ve experienced from a restaurant in a long time.

Our server took forever to get to us, and when she did, she forgot what we asked her to get, every single time. We had to ask her for refills, condiments, etc, and then we had to remind her when she came back to “check on us”. They were out of fries for a kids meal- okay whatever not the end of the world. They forgot my husband’s biscuit that came with his grossly overpriced meal- then the biscuit was inedible and hard as can be. They didn’t provide us with any butter and by the time we finally saw our waitress and received said butter (in a prepackaged container) my husband’s pancakes were cold. How is butter not provided at a diner? I ordered breakfast sliders - pretty hard to mess up, or so I thought. The sausage was Italian sausage so it was like eating little pizza burgers with hashbrowns. Definitely not good, and needless to say I didn’t eat them. I asked very politely to have them removed from the bill, which the server said wouldn’t be a problem. The manager seemed to think it was though, as she snapped at me for asking for the meal I didn’t eat and remained on the table, to be removed from the tab.

I doubt this place will last long with the quality of food, high prices and even worse service. This location in Chico is nothing like the one in Gridley...