Black Bear Diner Portland — Restaurant in Portland

I wasn't very impressed.

I ordered one of the benedict dishes, and while the eggs were properly cooked, and the avocado and orange slice were perfect, everything else was not what I was expecting.

The English muffin didn't seem entirely fresh. It was hard as if it had been sitting around for too long, I had to actually strain to cut it, meaning I ended up absolutely shredding everything else in the attempt to get a bite. Generally, I order this meal as I am mobility impaired, and it is typically easy to eat independently.

I chose to have fruit with my meal, and it was disappointing. The grapes mostly tasted like they were beginning to ferment. Almost every single one was overly brown at the stem and didn't taste fresh. The strawberries were mostly tasting like they were too told as well. Some were bruised and inedible. The melon pieces were great, although a few pieces weren't ripe enough. My question is, how did someone let this happen? It wasn't hard to tell that the fruit was going bad. I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

My date had ordered pancakes along with their meal. These pancakes were not good. They tasted strongly of uncooked batter despite being cooked all the way. I tasted them because they weren't sure if it was in their head. It was not.

While eating, despite having available tables further away from us, a family with unruly children were placed right behind me. This made our experience even worse. The parents did nothing to control their behavior. We got to listen to a bunch of loud noises, screeching and more, such as the tearing of paper and random outbursts and tossing stuff. It wasn't very peaceful. When we were ready to leave, this family had already left before us, and to my surprise, they had shoved their chair so far back that I had to move it in order to not be trapped in my wheelchair. This actually hurt me due to the nature of my disability. I feel like it was really thoughtless to seat a family like this so close to a handicapped person in a wheelchair, who clearly needs extra space and care.

I feel like better quality control and a bit better planning on where you place certain guests would greatly improve this restaurant. Perhaps even having a couple of tables, which are for the heavily disabled would also greatly improve upon...

Update: We now have changed from our previous 1 star to 5 stars, mostly for the assistance of Julie. I guess our last experience was a very off day. The food was good and came at a decent speed. When we got there the kids didn't want to go in because of last time, but now they want to go back tomorrow lol.. There was a server by the name of Julie, that was amazing, even though she wasn't our server she stayed on top of things and made sure we were well taken care of, if she wouldn't of been there this time this review would probably be close to the last one. Thank you for this second chance to enjoy your restaurant, now we have a good memory and will be back again.

Last visit: I gave 1 star only because there's no option to leave 0 stars. It took 30 minutes to get our order taken (and we had to track her down)... 45 minutes later I stopped the host and asked if he had seen our server because our food had been sitting in the hot window for 15 minutes and the kids keep saying how hungry they are!!!( He tried out of all the staff he was the only one who looked like he was working.) He went to go to try and find her and asked a few other staff to help, but noone helped. When he saw her she said 'it can wait, I'm going to go take this order' (they just walked in are you kidding me.) He went and asked another guy and found out they were were waiting for the fruit cup (that we asked for to come before the rest of the food so the kids could snack). We waited 5 more minutes, then decided to leave, we have never had such horrible service. We decided to go there to celebrate a special occasion... and it...

I am VERY disappointed in the service I received as a "Door Dash" customer. We have been Long time dine in customers in past. I ordered online delivery as I am currently medically unable to drive. There is no online options to customize anything, including allergies. I specifically CALLED diner before ordering. I can not eat cream based dishes. I asked if I give you name and order can you use brown gravy rather than cream on chicken fried steak and potatoes. They assured me it would be done. Order arrived with brown gravy on potatoes, but cream gravy on cfs rendering it unedible for me. Upon calling diner I was told I could either come in an get another one or "deal with it thru doordash." No manager. No assistant manager on site. The lady on phone (same lady I spoke with about my allergy) was EXTREMLY rude and unhelpful. I have now waited for 2 days for someone. Anyone to contact me. Luckily, doordash handled it properly as apparantly Black Bear Diner is not interested if they make customers sick as long as they get the money. My dogs had a good meal that night..I ate a can of soup for 30.00. People have different dietary requirements. You should either fix your listing on doordash to include these, or stop offering delivery services. As much as we love Black bear, I don't know if we are going back..especially with such a lack of detail or concern days after the fact. I hate having to leave...