Bear's Food Shack — Restaurant in Lake Worth Beach

Bear's Food Shack is owned by a man who goes by the name of Bear who also owns 22 other restaurants in Washington, D.C. and Hawaii. You can find the small restaurant on Atlantic Ave just outside of the downtown area. They are on the I-95 side of Swinton Avenue. They opened in 2017 to bring healthy dining to Delray in the form of smoothies, acai bowls, sandwiches, wraps, coffee bagels, and other items.

I passed this place so many times on my way to downtown Delray Beach. You can always tell when they are open because they put out large stuffed teddy bears. I was in the area during lunch time and decided to finally check them out.

I love the Hawaiian beach shack vibe of Bear's. Outside is a tiki, surf board table, and the stuffed bears. Inside is cramped with a few tables and an ordering counter. The tables were crafted from Tahitian fishing boat painted the ancestral colors of the village, and hanging from the ceiling are several antique hand blown glass fishing buoys. In the rafters is a surfboard from Hawaii. They have a couple of more tables outside.

They opened on the concept of offering healthy food at reasonable prices. My how prices have skyrocketed since when they first opened. Sandwiches were once offered at a reasonable $10. The Bear Club I ordered with roasted turkey, ham, bacon, cheddar, swiss, tomato, and spring mix was $13.99. Then they added a $1 surcharge! By the time I added tax and tip my sandwich was $18. I considered a smoothie but they were in the $9 range. I ended pairing my lunch with a bottle of water I had with me. After I ordered I was crammed into a corner to wait for my food while people bumped and jostled into me. It was very unpleasant.

If the sandwich had been out of the world delicious it might have justified the high price but the bread was dry and the sandwich had no flavor beyond the overwhelming salt of the meat. They did give me a small free cookie for checking on Facebook and if I had checked into Yelp in time I could have gotten 15 percent off. Bottom line, it is a cute place but it is a one and...

We came to this place because it had good reviews. When we got here there was maybe 3 small groups ahead of us. My mom ordered her food separate and my girlfriend and I were right behind her with our order. My moms food came within 10 minutes or so. We were still waiting for ours. Other people came to order and have received their food. So we went inside to check on it and they couldn’t find our order and asked what we had ordered. We continued waiting for our food while others came in and waited and got theirs in a timely manner. About 35 minutes later we had to ask, yet again about our food and they said it would be right out. 10 more minutes went by and we finally got our order. No apologies, no discount offers or anything. They weren’t even going to mention anything until my girlfriend asked what happened with our order. The waiter, Max, said oh, well things get busy, and we stated that there was about 4 other people who came in and ordered and got there food super fast. He then said well our food speaks for itself. Yes the food was decent, but it was the service we are complaining about. They acted like it was no big deal that we have been waiting for our food for over 45 minutes when it wasn’t even busy. They did offer us a free cookie for the inconvenience. But that was after we had to mention it and complain. It’s unfortunate because good service is what makes people want to come back, and the fact that they think that nothing wrong happened is where the problem is. We had to ask about our order more than 2 times! Wouldn’t you think that you would come out apologizing or literally SOMETHING!! NOPE, we had to mention it. Tisk tisk tisk. 3 stars cuz the...

I'm super sad to be leaving such a bummer review. I absolutely love supporting local businesses and local people so I'm not happy to be leaving this. We came here because my husband has been going almost daily after work for smoothies or acai bowls and we thought we would try the rest of the menu but maybe they should ditch the food menu and stick to bowls & smoothies instead (do what you're good at). Positives: super sweet staff, cool vibes local place & great location. Yummy smoothies with no sugar fillers. Cons: I ordered 2 seperate meals and was totally disappointed in both. First I ordered the Big Bear Ramon... It was advertised to have rice noodles, bean sprouts, carrots, cilantro (the cilantro i ordered without), radish in a homemade broth. It came with rice noodles, carrots, no bean sprouts, no radish but for some reason they added two different peppers and chives in a extra bland broth. 😞

So, I ordered a second dish to-go. I picked the Pulled Pork Sliders which the lady as the register recommended. It came with 4 sliders which is a nice sized serving but the pulled pork is more like blended unseasoned pork with canned chunked pineapple and bbq sause on the side. The texture of the pork mush was a big turnoff (as was the flavor).

We'll go back for the smoothies and a great staff but I'll avoid the...