Black Bear Diner Reno — Restaurant in Reno

Have not been to a restaurant since COVID-19 started and decided to go today as a treat for a successful meeting in Reno, NV. Decided that we would dine out while in Reno and choose The Black Bear Diner because it has always been great every time we we there. It was not super busy but it took 10 minutes to be seated. We both chose Burgers and it took probably 25 minutes to get our food. My wife's burger was the California Burger and was properly prepared and she enjoyed it. Mine was the Bob's Big Bear and looked delicious when it arrived. First, the bun was huge compared to the patty, which was not in one piece but in several, like it had broken and was pieced together. The bun was dry and falling apart as i tried to pick it up, so i had to cut it up to eat it. The flavor was good, but there was way more bread than meat. The Tomatoes were in small pieces including the ends and the lettuce appeared to be pieces of a lettuce salad medley. 3 drops of special sauce, but there was catsup and mayo as my wife requested her sauce on the side. There were no onions at all and no cheese. I did check menu online when we got home and saw that cheese and bacon were extra, so my fault. The waitress never checked back with us after serving with us and we waited for a container for my wife's leftovers and check for 15 more minutes. We waited to pay and there were 3 ahead of us and another waitress finally started cashing people out from a side register beside counter..I personally watched several people leave due to being ignored to be seated and heard the customer beside us complain about time taken for their food and about never receiving his dessert he ordered. All in all this was the worst experience i have ever had with Black Bear with both service and food.. I really hope this was a one time thing, but we will see.

This is an update on my review. The manager contacted me the same day as my review posted ( see below) and we spoke about my experience. She was very concerned and apologetic and offered me a new meal to prove that this was not normal for this restaurant. I have not been back to Reno to try it yet, but am impressed by the response and am looking forward...

So I’ve been a huge fan until now, actually I’ll never order here again. My experience dine in was great, being that I enjoy the food I’ve been trying to order on doordash since I have dash pass. Every day it says this place is “temporarily unavailable” which I know is not true being it’s open. So I went to their website ordered directly off their site paying $5.99 for delivery come to find it’s through door dash, which if I was able to order through the app would be free. I’m told the restaurant sets their status as temporarily unavailable either due to too many orders or because they prefer people to order directly through their platform. Now I know it’s not busy every day for a month. But I’m like okay fine food is worth it. I wait over an hour and my food never shows up. I call the diner and I am told “we don’t deliver”…..I literally bought the food off your website. I was then told “oh a man did pick up the food I verified it “ but unfortunately there is nothing they can do but a manger will contact me. Unbelievable. I didn’t just wait over an hour and pay $45 on nothing. I then called doordash and said I would like it redelivered but I don’t want to wait another hour. I am told they contacted the manager and was informed that they’re having more customers at this time so they’re unable to replace your order. So basically other customers are more important and I’m garbage. Cool. And isn’t it funny that the manager spoke with door dash but I would “get a call back.”...

Somehow I'd missed this place and never dined here before even though there's locations all throughout California... and I've been missing out! The menu was very creative and credit to whomever though of the idea of making it look like a daily gazette. I've never even seen a menu with so many items I'd like to try. Today I tried the pancakes and they were delicious. I didn't even need any topping or syrup on them and they were so sweet, light and fluffy. I was surprised that I actually ate the sausage here as I don't be normally even really like sausage. The other four people dining with me cleared their plates as well. They have a nice collection of 60s(?) music playing from a jukebox in the entryway. The restaurant was clean and we'll maintained. The prices were very reasonable. The service was fantastic! Our waitress was just on it, she knew their menu and what she was doing. She was our greeter & seater, waitress and cashier as well as the other six tables that afternoon and she did it all seamlessly smooth. I almost forgot to mention that when I was paying I found that there was a case of tiny pies (see picture) next to the register. I will be going back to try one of those for sure. This restaurant deserves more attention. I feel I should have heard of it sooner. 10 out of 10. You should definitely try it...