Black Bear Diner La Habra — Restaurant in La Habra

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...

08/04/25 Our first time going to this restaurant as a family. The wait time was long, although there were tables visibly available. Once we were seated we ordered the lunch special: two chicken sandwich plates for the girls and two burger plates for the boys. Food arrived shortly after: four piping hot chicken sandwiches! 😋 But the order was incorrect and my husband kindly ask that the mistake be corrected. The manager - Desiree, apologized and explained that they were conducting the evening shift change-over and that the kitchen goof off. The burgers arrived some time later, good portions, everything looked fresh. My daughter had handed me her tomatoe slices and there was a moldy seed clearly visible in it. Because it was sandwich in between a good piece of tomato, we didn't mentioned it. (We were hungry 😔. ) I am glad she didn't get sick. Shortly after the manager picked up my food basket with the piece of moldy tomatoe seed and my fork and knife in the shape of an x over it as a gentle expression that this was not right. She kindly offered us a complementary dessert. It was a chocolate chip, cream and chocolate mousse filling with Oreo crust. It was nice for sharing amongs the four of us. A bit too sweet for my taste buds but between the teens and adults, there was nothing left. So it was good! I visited the restroom after lunch while my husband paid for our meals. Perhaps this was the worst mistake ever! The stench in the restroom was horrible!! The stall that I was in was fairly clean, it needed the trash taken out but overall clean. I just couldn't deal with the putrid smell coming from the next stall and I threw up 🤢. I left my area clean as I could considering the bad smelling restroom. Worse experience ever, I cannot think of anything like this happening to me! We will never return to this restaurant.

Sadly, this is not the feedback I like giving establishments. On the defense of the manager, she tried to make things right with the food and the complementary dessert but honestly, someone isn't doing their job. Therefore I am living this feedback so that there can be improvement for those who enjoy to eat at the Black...

Waited and was never seated. My family stopped by to grab something to eat. We’ve been to other Black Bear Diners and knew what to expect, service, atmosphere and food quality which is fairly great. But not today. Today I felt that everyone on the floor except the host that checked us in, the one bus boy the cooks and the server at the bar counter service were the only ones focus and wanting to and being present at their job today. The manager, the two young Latino guys including the one with the black framed glasses and other woman food server had expressions wanting to be somewhere else and a lack of energy. I could see and hear guest coming from the other side of the restaurant asking for their bill and a box for their food because their server disappeared. When I asked the status of being seated after 35 mins but being told it would only be 25 to 30 minutes and with at least 5 groups walking out in the last 10 minutes and no one being seated. One of the young Latino boys looks at me signed and walked away. I was shocked! I turned to the manager (about 25 years old) and told him what happen in both our presence and he just smiled. I explained what just happened to him and again with a big smiled referred me back to the young man that just walked away. As I walked back to my group I see at least 4 tables filthy with plates and cups, no one seated at them. It just made me more upset,( I’m the patient one of my family and I give everyone and opportunity) I walked up to the young man and he picked up his tablet looked and me and walked away. Oh no. Turned to my family and said let’s go. I warned the large group of families outside waiting like me that good luck on being seated. I do not recommend supporting a location that doesn’t care how their presence or lack of puts an bad impression on what the founders seek the opposite for...