Black Bear Diner Tarzana — Restaurant in Los Angeles

My experience was so bad, I don't see how this particular Black Bear Diner has any positive reviews. The problem wasn't just an "off day" excuse - the issues are systemic of the way this restaurant is managed. I will not be back, but in posting this review I hope to save someone from this poorly managed restaurant with its poorly trained staff of bitter and frustrated employees (I'm assuming that's what it is because I don't want to believe that our waitress was gleeful about the miserable service she was providing). I had breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Emeryville last week. It wasn't bad, a little overpriced but I had no complaints. In Tarzana, however, we saw our waitress three times in the hour and a half we were waiting and we had to flag her down the last two times. The first time we flagged her down was about twenty minutes after she dropped a cold, yet somehow charred black waffle at our table. The waffle was inedible, dense and over-cooked, but rather than wait another thirty minutes for a new one that might be just as bad, I decided I would just ask for an english muffin to eat the two "over-easy" eggs that came on the side (the egg yolks might as well have been hard-boiled). Not surprisingly, an english muffin was unceremoniously dropped at our table during a conversation-less drive-by. It too was burnt and mysteriously cold. Worst yet, the english muffin sides did not match and one half was buttered, but the bread was not warm enough to melt the butter, which appeared to be slathered over one side to hide some issue. Was this bread retrieved from someone else's plate or plates? I shudder to think. Now, I am not a complainer (believe it or not). I typically just don't go back to a place if I didn't enjoy it. There's no point calling a manager when the gawd-awful service and terrible food prep is so blatant that they must surely know it. After another twenty minutes of waiting for our bill (with mostly full plates of barely touched food), I went to the front to pay. By the way, I still left a tip. I always do, but in this case I would have been fully justified in not dropping seven bucks for what should have been a $35 bill. In the meantime, my wife flagged down our waitress for the third time to get our check. In frustration from waiting several minutes at the counter for someone to retrieve our bill, I handed over my credit card without reviewing the bill. The total came to forty-nine bucks. I signed and started to leave, but then had a chance to look at the copy of the bill that had been given to my wife. I expected to be charged for the english muffin, but I wasn't expecting it to be $5 when you can buy an entire pack of nine at Ralph's for $2.69. I spoke briefly to the manager, who confirmed the charge and (I want to be completely fair) she offered to remove it from the bill after I explained that the only reason I ordered it was because the waffle that I didn't eat was delivered charred black - so charred, I explained, that you couldn't identify the cute signature bear from the custom Black Bear Diner waffle-iron. I declined spending another minute in a place whose printed prices do not match their online menu (which we had used to order our food) and whose managers are willing to let charred black waffles leave their kitchens with overcooked eggs and sketchy...

Three of us went for dinner March 8, 2016, Thursday evening about 5:15 pm. Server was friendly. Ordered bacon sandwich, a hamburger, add avocado, and a waffle with extra powdered sugar. We sat and watched the kitchen place several orders up and they sat and sat. One of them was my bacon sandwich which arrived with cold french fries. The hamburger came at the same time, but the server said the fires were on their way. The hamburger had a small chunk of avocado stuck in the middle of the bottom bun, not sliced, but what appeared to be a wedge. Shortly after, a separate plate of hot fires came. The waiter said the waffle was on its way. The waffle comes, with one tiny container of powdered sugar and we asked for more. The server brings a sprinkling container and begins to shake out some powdered sugar which kept getting plugged up. My wife, irritated, said that's enough and he left. Her waffle was under-cooked and she left it. My bacon sandwich and my daughter's hamburger looked like they were assembled by idiots. Large pieces of lettuce hanging off and little or no condiments. My daughter requested some additional mayonnaise and the server brought a bowl, which he should have used for the powdered sugar. The burger was tasteless, sadly assembled, and lacked the condiments. My bacon sandwich had cold bacon, cold toasted bread and limp lettuce which was obviously slapped together by a novice. Just pitiful. Must be inexperienced staff on all levels.

All in all, I am not mad but very disappointed. I have eaten at other Black Bear Diners a few years ago, and it was great. Fresh, hot and with a home cooked feel. I have to say their breakfast I had a few weeks ago, chicken-fried steak and eggs was good.

Here we thought there was a new, local restaurant we could count on for traditional American grub, and it is pitiful as it currently stands. If they want to survive in Tarzana, they better step up their game and provide the kind of dishes that made them successful in the first place. We are not likely to try it again unless someone tells us there is improvement....

Second time coming here. First time was great, this time was so bad that I’m unsure that I will return. Server Christian was overwhelmed with three tables and incompetent. We sat down first in his section, watched his other two tables that came after us be served before us. When we got our food it had obviously been sitting under a heat lamp for a while. My sons strawberries were dried out, his waffle was soggy, and our chicken fried steak was mushy and gravy was coagulated. Ordered our eggs scrambled, they came out fried and had to be remade. Asked for extra napkins when drink order was placed, did not receive them until requested from a different server who dropped off our food. Got them almost halfway through our meal. Listened to everyone of Christians tables have problems with their orders coming out correctly. Never received drink refills or even questioned if we wanted them. Told our server when we first ordered that we wanted to share a dessert at the end. He took one dirty plate off the table and never returned. No one asked us if we wanted dessert. No one busses our other dirty plates. We took leftovers to go and plates were stacked at the end of table visible for at least 15 minutes waiting for anyone to stop by. Check was never dropped off, so we had to go to the front to get it. Once we received our check we had originally been charged for the adult portion for our two year old, not off the kids menu. So the manager had to correct it. Was not asked about our experience by the manager/cashier. Dirty dishes never bussed out of servers section. Was staring at a melting 1/2 empty soda on the wall by our table the whole time. Really considering never returning based on this experience. Too many other choices in the area that don’t have these problems or at least would have a manager aware enough to follow up once they started happening. Will not recommend to anyone else to waste their time or money...