Black Bear Diner St Charles — Restaurant in Saint Charles

AMENDED REVIEW October 2023

Black Bear has improved significantly lately, and has justified my returning it to a 5-star review. The front of the house and back of the house seem to be running a lot better now, and our regular server, Drew, knows that when I order steak and eggs for breakfast, I really mean "rare" when I order my steak that way...and it consistently comes out that way now. We're back to dining here weekly again.

The food was delicious and in very generous portions. The menu is diverse, with many unique dishes that you won't find on most of the typical chain restaurants in the area. They offer breakfast, lunch and dinner menu items all day.

The service from all employees was friendly and attentive when they first opened, but I'm starting to see some problems with both the front and back of the house. From the kitchen side of things, they seem to have a tendency to overcook beef. The last few times I have been there, I've ordered my beef rare, but it's come out medium to medium well. The last time I was in there, I specifically told the server that I truly wanted my New York Steak done rare. It came out a rather dried-out medium well. If this were a one-time thing, I can understand it, but it happens more often than not. In this most recent case, we were one of only a few people in the restaurant, and we could see on the monitor that ours was the only order in the kitchen at the time.

From the front of the house, it seems that they often have a large number of people waiting to be seated when there are a lot of visibly clean and empty tables and booths available. Food service seems to be declining as well. I was sitting at the counter where I could see all the food orders on the kitchen monitor. I saw what looked like ours, but my order was wrong. I asked the server what she put in for me, and she confirmed that she got my order wrong. Rather than do a rush order to get mine out along with my wife's, she just rang it up so that my order came up in the regular queue. My wife was long finished with her meal before mine was served.

The food is really good here, which is why we keep coming back, but the service has been in a steady decline and if it gets much worse we may just stop going. I would hate to see this, and I hope that someone in management takes notice of this review, receives it as constructive criticism and makes some improvements.

So, for now, my formerly 5-star rating is lowered to a 3. I hope this will go back up, because there is such potential...

The food was great, but don’t expect good hospitality/customer service from the management at the St. Charles Missouri location. Not sure what the name of the tall, slim, middle-aged, curly-haired manager is, but she handled this situation horribly, I should know, because am in customer service management myself.

We went out to dinner with friends and I went to use the restroom. I did my business and went to pull my pants up, and found that my pants were soaked.

The restaurants toilet was leaking, I had toilet water soaking the part of my pants that were low enough to touch the floor when I was sitting down doing my business.

I was stuck in the stall for a good 5-10 minutes, and luckily this place sold pajama pants, so I called my friend, and had her explain what happened to our waitress, and my friend grabbed a pair of the PJ pants they had for sale there for me to wear.

I figured since it was the restaurants fault that my pants were soaked due to a leaky toilet that they neglected, they would comp the PJ pants which were $26, since mine were soaked and I couldn’t wear them.

I wore the PJ pants as I went up to the counter to pay for my meal, hoping they would offer me some sort of compensation (like not having to pay for the pants or comping my meal or at least offering a discount), but the manager gaslit me and said “there was just condensation” on the toilet and no puddle. I said “Um, yeah because my pants soaked it up. They are still very wet. (I offered for her to feel them)”. She offered nothing in terms of compensation for this humiliation, and just argued, saying she found no puddle, that there was “barely anything” on the floor. I said “yeah, because it’s all in my pants, and also because I literally just watched an employee go in there and mop the rest up while I was changing into these PJs, before you even went in to check it out for yourself.”

So not only did they not comp my meal or the pants, (I paid FULL PRICE for my meal AND the pants), they didn’t even offer a discount.

I enjoyed the food, but this was a horribly embarrassing experience, and I will never go to the St. Charles location again, nor will I recommend...

Omg... what's happening at my beloved Blackbear? I bragged to out of town family and took them here. I can no longer do that. The food is horrible. What changed? I got my bacon or 20 minute prior to the rest of the food. Ordered the Meat Lovers omelet that I usually get with pepper jack cheese. They no longer have this cheese, so to give it a little spice I asked for a few jalapeño. Once I got my omelet it didn't look well cooked. I bit into it and felt like someone poured a whole jar of soggy jalapeños into my omelet. That's all you could taste. And soggy? Are you kidding me? I ate 1/4 took it home and trashed the rest. And the country potatoes which had always been prepared with a slight outside crunch and a semi soft inside are now like eating mash potatoes cubes. I was so disappointed asked staff members why this meal is so horrible. BTW, the servers are the same wonderful people they have always been. I sit at the counter which has always been a great experience, but that kitchen was chaos and it showed in my order. I can only assume there has been a major change in the kitchen staff and that has impacted the whole experience. Particularly the taste of the food. I'm going to give it 1 month before I go back again. If the food looks like it did and taste like it did I can no longer support this business. Additionally, I will share with all I know to stay away from Blackbear because it is no longer the fine eatery that it was just months ago. Blackbear please go back to what you were doing and allow me to brag on your food and service again. Please return to you glory days just months removed so that I can recommend your diner to do many others.

Sincerely no longer yours, Mr. Greatly disappointed and...