Black Bear Diner McAllen — Restaurant in McAllen

It was my birthday, I sat at the bar where I could see basically the cooks in the back all the plates going out. Because it was just myself and I’m new to the area I recently moved from DFW to RGV. 1st my waiter was Luz, a sweet girl that I seen basically serving, cleaning tables and pulling orders that were pilled on the cooks vent bar for pick up. There was a cook named Joseph who was very friendly welcoming ppl coming in and the sat and was like a Great Cheer person shouting out in the back positive feedback to his coworkers! Now that’s amazing! Unfortunately I seen so much cross contamination going on that now I know why ppl get sick eating out. A worker had gloves on retrieved plates I think like a bacon fell off the plate to the floor she literally bent down picked it up put it in the trash and continued to take the plates to whatever table she was serving!!! Gross! I seen a few waittress basically touching food without gloves after scratching their head or face! Gross! Mind you I couldn’t help not to look while I waited for my food! Then when I recieved my food it WAS COLD!!! The serving of biscuits and gravy was extremely big BUT COLD and not even tasty! I only ate my piece of ham and a few eggs and a little if the biscuits then left, I felt nauseous many things disgusted me. Mind you I worked in the Medical Field over 25 years and for OSHA! I would’ve be surprised if an Heath Inspector has been in there! Obviously not! There were cooks placing orders for pick up and waitresses I believe taking the wrong plates because I over heard a waitress tell a young man “where’s the —-“ I don’t remember what plate she asked for then she said never mind I’ll just take this… that’s how orders and food gets delayed when you take what’s not yours, many waitresses didn’t have gloves on, most stood there and talked or walked to the front and back empty handed, it was like there was no structure. Literally they had no “bus boy” designated to pick up dirty plates and clean tables because I seen Luz the waitress doing it all!!! I had to turn around as she cleaned a table with someone else and tell her I needed my ticket and paid her she politely asked if I wanted to take to go because I left nearly all the food I said no thank you I’ll be writing a review. I will NEVER go back to this place nor will I ever recommend. Sorry, but it’s so disgusting and sad because it gets so busy in this restaurant ppl nowadays don’t care about the sanitary part of an establishment or even all the cross contamination going on. I will say this, if they had designated “ bus boys” , waitresses designated for certain areas ( like most restaurants do) and a organized clean constructive atmosphere it wouldn’t look so chaotic and waitresses NEED TO REVIEW A CODE COMPLIANCE Health video and sign off on it! People beware of places like this for your overall health...

I took my wife to dinner at the Black Bear Diner. It is located on 6th St and the expressway frontage Rd. Once seated I ordered my usual iced tea my wife ordered coffee,both were really good. As I looked over the menu, I noticed that they have a good selection. I had trouble deciding. I noticed Black bear heads next to several selections, this is an indicator for large portions. My wife chose a small volcano plate, 2 pancakes, 2 bacon, and one egg. I chose the blackened Salmon with green beans and fries as my sides. I also added a cup of the soup of the day. It happened to be broccoli and cheese. I also ordered a side of cream gravy for my fries. My wife liked her meal, I tried her pancakes, they were pretty good. I was happy with my food except for a couple of issues. The soup was way too thick, one notch away from pudding, the same can be said about the cream gravy. My Salmon was not blackened, lightly seasoned at best. However, it was cooked perfectly, seared outside and moist on the inside. I like the way it was presented atop sauteed spinach and cherry tomatoes. The spinach was a nice compliment to the Salmon. The green beans were canned, I'm OK with that, but I'm not raving about them. The fries were pretty good, hot, and a decent portion I felt like a dinner roll would have been nice, but none offered. We ordered the chocolate cream pie and a bread pudding with ice cream for dessert. We enjoyed them both and again the portion size. We ended up taking half the pie home for my son. I finished the bread pudding like it was my last meal. The service at the diner was great, and I liked that the manager stopped by to check up on us. Also, I was impressed with all the in house branding, like on the mugs and the tea glasses. The ketchup, and the steak sauce also features their brand, and especially their delicious hot sauces, like the Habenero one that kicked up the cream gravy. I want to go back again and try the meatloaf, the Turkey dinner and the chopped steak, but not all at the same time. So, it appears I'll have to make a couple of...

I was not going to post a review but after speaking to the manager Oscar I felt it was needed. We dined there for the first time today & was disappointed with the quality of the food, the cleanliness of the restaurant and the poor customer service. We sat on table 24, middle of restaurant and luckily had an empty seat so I was able to move as the AC was dripping on the table. I mentioned to the waitress the table was getting wet but she simply smiled & handed us menus. We later noticed that my son’s coffee cup had lipstick all over the rim. When I got the waitress attention she was holding a cup of coffee to deliver to a different table. She proceeded to go to the other customers table then to us which was fine. However, she was still holding the cup of coffee she had in her hand so when we tell her about my sons cup being dirty she just says, “here you go” and hands him the cup of coffee she was holding & walks away. Didn’t ask if my son was drinking decaf or regular & we had no clue if the other people had given it back or what which made me feel like she didn’t care. When we were getting our check I asked my other son why he hadn’t eaten his eggs. He mentioned that they were full of eggshells but he didn’t want to bring this to the waitress attention as she hadn’t even slightly apologized for the dirty cup so he simply chose not to eat the eggs. I decided to call the restaurant to provide the feedback in private to the manager on duty. I spoke to Oscar who had nothing to say, didn’t apologize didn’t ask anything he heard me speak as I was being very polite and explained it was our first time dining there and were expecting a better experience. He simply said, thank you and hung up. Very disappointed as now I see why the waitress had no interest in even saying I’m sorry let me fix that for you or anything as they are probably seeing this from management. Needless to say first and last time for us. They can...