The Bear Paw Inn — Restaurant in Portland

My friend’s partner and I stopped in this past Sunday evening around 8 p.m. after dinner for a couple of drinks in what we hoped would be a relaxed atmosphere. We had never been before but had heard positive things from friends.

Unfortunately, our experience was far from that. Upon walking in, we weren’t greeted or acknowledged—instead, we were met with a dismissive and irritated attitude from the bartender. At first, we brushed it off, assuming she might be having a rough day. However, after checking our IDs, we spent less than a minute looking at the menu when she became hostile and condescending, barking at us to hurry up and order.

Throughout the interaction, she continued with an aggressive, dismissive tone and even made snide remarks under her breath. As first-time visitors, we wanted to take a moment to look over the menu, but the attitude we received made us feel extremely uncomfortable and unwelcome—as though our presence was an inconvenience.

We ended up leaving and going to another bar nearby, where we had a much more positive experience. Unfortunately, based on this visit, I wouldn’t recommend this establishment unless the service approach changes...

First visit after an Aladdin Theater concert. Fits the dive bar category. Doesn't fit the Irish pub branding on the exterior signage. I enjoy dive bars so they automatically get 1 1/2 stars for doing that well. It was 10:30 pm on a Saturday night so the crowd was hoping and it was primarily a hipster millennial crowd. The atmosphere was fun and friendly with karaoke in the front and pool in the back. A very inviting place that was more like a well organized house-keg-party then your normal bar, which I enjoyed. So they get a star for that. The bar had minimal staff working and the millennials seemed good with foraging for service, that could be their natural way of limiting drink consumption. So another 1/2 star for not over serving. The bathrooms were on par with some of the worst biker bars I've been to and that didn't seem to matter to this crowd because the male to female ratio was almost even. Overall 4 stars for classic look, fun crowd and inviting-fun-party atmosphere. Good...

Really wanted to go here for a while, drive by it all the time... Was absolutely blown away by how big it was inside, but beyond that I don't know maybe I just built it up too big in my head before going here? Thought it would be cheaper, or better, and it wasn't either. Bit of a random spot, yet not much of a local vibe when I went in? And the entire time I was there I just kept thinking of all the bars we were at before that and how I wanted to go back... It wasn't bad, just wasn't good. Was going to give it 3-stars but dropped it down to 2-stars because of the chicken sandwich... I felt like I was on an episode of Bar Rescue eating this thing, it was like literally chicken tenders with cheese or something, idk how to explain it... Portland is like a food city, was just very surprised and...