Black Bear Diner Humble — Restaurant in Humble

The food was beyond amazing! I had the chicken fried steak and my husband got the hot turkey dinner. Both were made with high quality ingredients, and they were some of the best dishes I've ever had! My mother had the chicken pot pie, my grandma had the hot turkey plate as well, and my niece had a kid's burger. My mom wasn't impressed with the pot pie, but I found it to be pretty good and my grandmother said it tasted better than Cracker Barrel's. The portions are huge, and the prices are really great. Nothing on the menu was above $20, even the steak and salmon!

The downside is the service. While our waitress was nice, she constantly disappeared and would not be seen for most of the duration of our time here. She brought out our soups and salads literally a minute before our entrées arrived. Even the guy who brought our food out acknowledged it was weird because when he brought our food he said, "Did she JUST bring out your guy's salads?" We stated that she had and he just shook his head and said, "I told her!"

I only had my drink refilled once, and that was because I had to ask another employee if I could have one. My grandmother asked for an order to go, and it took about 7 employees inquiring about it and 30 minutes before she received it. With so many people working at this location I am genuinely confused as to why the service was lacking.

I did also find a few things lacking. Black Bear has a lot of the same feeling of restaurants like Cracker Barrel, basically Homestyle cooking. While I think the food here is actually better than at Cracker Barrel, I was disappointed they didn't have typical country sides like Mac & Cheese.

They also don't give you any free or complimentary items like bread that Cracker barrel gives you. My husband and my meal came with a cornbread muffin, but my mom's meal did not. It was a shame because they were really delicious and far better than the ones at cracker barrel. I just think it'd nice to have a basket at the table for customers to enjoy.

Another weird thing is that they sell their own huckleberry flavored items in the gift shop, but none of it is at the tables or on the menu. I admit it has me intrigued, but I'd like to try something before I buy it. I expected to see the huckleberry honey bottles at the table so we could try it on our bread, or even the jam. I just find it strange that they make all of their own products, but the ones for sale are not available to sample in the restaurant.

I was really impressed that the owner stopped by to ask us about our meal. I wanted to be honest, but I felt bad getting our waitress in trouble so I just focused on the positive things. She may have been new, or even just having an off day. I initially thought it was just because they were so busy, but they have so many employees walking around that I don't think that's the case. That's the only reason why I took a star off, otherwise it would have been a perfect 5. Hopefully we have a better...

We decided to go to Black Bear Diner a few nights ago for dinner. While we haven’t frequented this location often, we have enjoyed the few previous times we have dined here. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot we questioned if it was even open anymore due to how empty the parking lot was. We noticed two tables where people were seated and went in. We stood at the front for 7 minutes, waiting for someone to notice us and seat us. A male waiter seated us, and explained he would be our waiter. He took our drink orders immediately upon seating us. When our drinks were brought to us we requested a few more minutes to select our entrees, as we had my blind elderly mother with us and we were reading her the menu. A few minutes passed and that turned into 15 minutes. Finally a different waitress approached us and asked if anyone took our orders yet. We said no, and she offered to put our orders in. It took another 20 minutes for them to bring us our food. The food here is still good, steaks are cooked perfectly, but my sons wanted to order several items on the menu that weren’t in stock, which was disappointing for them. By the time our meal was wrapping up, our original waiter dropped off our ticket and while I attempted to hand him my card immediately, he said we needed to pay up front at the un~manned front desk. So we stood up there and waited another 10 minutes for someone to notice us standing at the front desk, waiting to pay. There wasn’t more than four tables occupied during our entire dining experience there, so the service and promptness from the two waitstaff, that would disappear into the kitchen for long periods of time, left little to be desired from our point of view. I told the waitress checking us out that we needed her to hurry up, as my mother was blind & disabled and she couldn’t stand there much longer waiting to check out when it took them 10 minutes to notice us standing there. We all left stating to each other that this place would probably shut down before we ever came back; it had all the signs that the kiss of death was upon them. It’s too bad, as their food has always been good and served in...

We had not tried a Black Bear Diner, even though there are some here in San Antonio, but on Saturday, 19 July, we were looking for a decent meal with veggies after having been traveling for 10 days while waiting for our delayed luggage on another inbound flight to Bush. We decided to grab dinner here before getting the bags and going to our hotel, since it was not far from the airport.

Our overall experience was okay. The front greeter was not very friendly, never smiled, and frankly the nose ring was off-putting, even through that has become so common now, along with all the tattoos. We don't treat anyone with those things any differently. Just not our cup of tea, and we feel for employers....

Our server was friendly, but we only saw her for our order and the check. The server who brought our food never actually spoke to us at all. Just dropped the food and left. He later happened to pass by and literally threw a small pile of extra napkins on our table without a word and kept going. That was just weird.

The food itself was "okay.' We both got the pesto salmon, green beans, and mashed red potatoes. The salmon was decent, though nothing special, green beans overcooked (but tasted good), as expected in a restaurant like this, and the mashed potatoes were okay, though the gravy had an aftertaste that was a little off. Not sure what the mix is but wasn't really that great-tasting. Presentation was not bad, though.

The restaurant is one of those like so many 90s-era chains that is in need of major reinvestment to update, though this one supposedly only opened in 2018! Hard to believe based on the wear and tear it, as it was very worn-looking. It also was not clean. Maybe we were catching the end of a very busy Saturday and the limited staff was behind on getting all clean, but it did not inspire confidence.

I'd like to try one for breakfast, as I think that is where their main focus is. Until then, while it was okay, many improvements...