Black Bear Diner located just down the street from La Habra Marketplace off of Beach Blvd, is a delightful bear-themed "woodsy" feeling restaurant. On the exterior, an inviting entrance, with carved bear statues and wooden train, immediately transport you to some little far-off mountain cafe. You just want to go in.

Inside is a clean, nicely decorated cafe with beautiful artwork, mostly picturesque bear subjects and more artwork of carved wooden posts. The murals and pictures make this place a fun, visually appealing place to visit and enjoy while you wait, shop and dine. The little gift shop area has official Black Bear Diner goods available; e.g. t-shirts, hats and trinkets for sale.

Once seated, we noticed the places mats with highlights of what Black Bear Diner is all about; philosophy, history, etc. The menu was in the form of a little newspaper, "The Black Bear Gazette," with menu items located in the middle of the paper. Marketing and product awareness of this diner is amazing, maybe even a bit over the top.

The menu items provided lots of breakfast choices and comfort meals for lunch and dinner. They are famous for their chicken fried steak and it is available for breakfast and dinner choices. For breakfast, there are typical eggs dishes; fried, scrambled, omelette dishes are present along with pancake choices. The lunch menu has lots of burger/sandwich options, with everything from cheeseburgers, reuben sandwiches, to open faced turkey sandwiches. Sandwich items come with a side options like; fries, sweet potato fries, potato salad. Several large salads are available for those looking for a lower calorie option. Dinner includes lots of meat, fish and chicken options. A Friday "All You Can Eat Fish Fry" is one of the specials and items like Chicken and Waffles are available as one of the "Diner Deals." Breakfast is available all day, for big breakfast fans like myself.

A melancholy server with framed glasses and suspenders (diner fashion) approached our table, to take our order. I planned on going for one of their fantastic breakfast options, but then decided on filling up with a reuben sandwich. Others at the table ordered up eggs benedict and chicken-fried steak breakfasts. The order arrived quickly and all were generous portions. My reuben sandwich was stacked with meat and it had just the right amount of sauerkraut to make it juicy and delicious! Everyone at the table was quite happy with their meals and take home containers were needed due to the abundant helpings.

Our melancholy server returned and asked if anyone was interested in dessert. When I asked if we could order some pies to take home, we got a bit of a blank stare. Next we asked what flavors of pies were available and the server seemed to get a bit impatient, while our party decided which two pies we would take home.

Overall, we enjoyed our experience at Black Bear Diner. Just a little bit of staff enthusiasm would have made it a better experience, but hey; Maybe the server was just having an off day. We all have 'em.

I would definitely return to try one of their many extraordinary breakfast menu items.