Black Bear Diner Glendale — Restaurant in Glendale

My boyfriend and I ate here on Friday March 17th, 2023 around 8:30pm. This was also St. patty's day. Once arriving we were greeted immediately. Staff informed us that they were out of corned beef and that there was a 15 min wait to be seated. We were okay with waiting and we were fine that there was no corned beef.

While waiting to be seated, I observed 1 party of three people and a single person whom came in after us. They did not get any acknowledgment from ANY of your staff for at least 10 mins. While they were standing at the counter, 2 of the servers standing behind the counter apologized to the single person that had been waiting for their un-work related "small talk" and left the counter to finish talking somewhere else; still not acknowledging that there are new customers that have been standing and waiting. After someone finally returned to the counter, the people waiting still had not been greeted. The hostess blatantly ignored them and cashed out multiple people before even acknowledging either of these people. At this moment I knew how our experience was going to unfold.

After being sat, the server came and got our drink order. We ordered 2 coffees. She brought our coffees, creamer and 2 straws. (why did she give us straws? we have no idea, we didn't even have water) We didn't have any silverware to mix our coffees with so we had to use to straws. I am assuming she noticed we didn't have any silverware at the time that she took our order because she brought the silverware almost immediately after she took our order.

We received our food, and everything looked and smelt amazing! We asked our server for hot sauce because 2 out of the 3 bottles on the table were completely empty as well as the ketchup bottle. Completely empty..(as if no-one maintains any condiment fills at the end of their shift)

Our server forgot to bring these items to us. I ended up having to interrupt the table next and ask to "barrow" their ketchup. (they were understanding because ironically they were one of the parties that the hostess ignored when we were waiting to be seated) By the time I asked for the ketchup I was practically completely done with my meal and my boyfriend had not even started his. The server didn't come back to check on us till I was done. At this time my boyfriend, again, asked for the hot sauce in which she realized she forgot and immediately brought it over. Not once did she refill our coffees either.

While finishing our meal the server got seated a party of 7 and another table of 2 back to back. The server - in the middle of the dinning room expressed that she was sat the party and the other table, the hostess just laughed it off. This is completely unacceptable behavior. As a server, I would never address in front of my customers that I am unhappy/too busy to accept another table. This should be address in the back of the house NOT in the middle of the floor. Also the hostess laughing that she over sat the server, completely unacceptable. Where is the team work?

I would normally still tip my server 20% regardless of the service I receive because dining out is a TEAM effort but clearly there was no team at this establishment or any management.

20% tip of my bill would have been $9.80. We gave our server 10% - $5.00 and we whole heartedly feel that the tip should belongs to the cook. This was solely because the service was absolutely horrible but the food saved the experience.

We decided we will give this place another opportunity to WOW us but maybe in the morning when management is...

I just want to start out by saying the manager Amanda makes it seem when you explain a issue to her that she could care less and that your bugging or taking up her time. I went into the bell road location on 01/24/25 our server was Serina and right off the bat she messed up our order ok no problem just get it fixed which we some what did. She didn’t get two drinks right and she didn’t get fruit on the pancakes. My advice is slow down and listen to your customers and get the order right so there are no mistakes. Well me and my buddy ordered the fish fry as we used to always go there for the fish fry and wanted to come back and try it because they had frozen for a longtime and now they have fresh battered fish. Well I will tell you the fish I got I wouldn’t give to my dog it was so bad. It seemed there in the market to serve fish jerky as this stuff was very tuff and burnt and so dried out. We talked with the Asst Manager Gilbert and he personally told us as he put it “ I swear under god I watch our cook bread it by himself” as I told him it still looked frozen. He did offer to get us something different but nothing came of it. Well they brought out different fish and there was no change. Amanda the manager came out and said she personally bread the fish and now here is the problem you have two managers giving us different stories and I myself find that very unethical. We asked if they tried their own fish and Amanda said “ I don’t eat fish” and Gilbert said “ He has never had it”. I feel they should try all food going out of their kitchen to know the quality of their food which wasn’t there. To me honestly is big and I didn’t get it here and I’m very disappointed in the management staff at Black Bear Diner on bell rd. They even said they would take the fish dinners off and when I went to pay they were still on. In the end I will say I’m not impressed with the changes made here and I was hoping it got better. They’re far from the message and image they portray on there placemats you see and reads in their restaurant. And in the end I hope corporate reads my review as I once was a longtime customer and wanted to give Black Bear a new try after not going there for a while. Sadly a lot has changed at this restaurant and to me and my group of family & friends I was with seems it’s only getting worse

**Update••••••••••••••••••••••••• I ended up writing two emails as they wanted to talk to me and they never wrote back. So I called there Corporation and left a message with the receptionist to have who ever call or email me back. Sadly corporate is just as bad as the restaurant. I will never visit a Black Bear Diner again. Thanks for...

My partner has dined at the Black Bear in Goodyear on numerous occasions with his co-workers and had a quite positive perception of Black Bear Diner as a culinary option. He had wanted to try out the Friday Night Prime Rib and All You Can Eat Fish Fry. We finally had the opportunity to do so.

However our experience, from the onset, was dismal at best. We waited far too long, along with 2 other groups (2 and 3 guests in each party) to be greeted or seated. Now I will aver at this point this 'Diner' was far from busy, maybe 6 other tables occupied.

Our server came by in an acceptable time, initially, took our drink order and brought 2 glasses of water and after about 10=12 minutes brought Sonny his beer he ordered. From then on our server became as visible as 'Big Foot'. Never apprising us of any issue with our dinner or the preparation thereof and after about 25 minutes of this we decided to go elsewhere for our dinner.

We went up to the register to pay for the beer and advised the person who was cleaning the entryway, and a young lady in an Orange/Red shirt who stated she was a close to a Manager as there was, as "the Manager just left". I just simply advised that the wait time for our dinner was unacceptable and more so because no one ever came by to advise there was an issue in the preparation of our dinner, thereof.

I felt for the young lady as she stated "this happens every Friday". I replied that she needs to let someone, who can 'fix it/cares' know, which she replied she has but nothing gets done.

Most who know my reviews are aware that I have 22+ years experience in foodservice, from fast-food to fine dining, the majority in Leadership/Management capacity. In as such I am quite aware of situations such as this....and to have a 'Manager' walk away from a store that is not operating as it should is inexcusable. Again, very familiar with that mindset/attitude..."I work my 40-50 hours and even if the place were burning down or grossly in chaos...they are outta there. I spent a good part of my career, "fixing" these establishments that had been allow to decline to such a state.

We went just a stones throw down the street to Popo's, which was about as different from this experience as could be. Even though unbeknownst to us they were about top close, but were immediately greeted and seated at the entryway, had chips and salsa delivered to our table LESS THAN 30 SECONDS after being sat. Order was taken within 5 minutes (at our pace) and food delivered in a quite acceptable/desirable...