Black Bear Diner Sequim — Restaurant in Sequim

Where to start?? I will try to keep it chronological. Upon arrival we asked to sit outside and the hostess replied, “yeah I guess you can.” We were seated and shortly greeted by our server who was sweet and cheery. She managed to get our beverage orders correct but everything kind of went downhill from there. It took quite awhile to wave her down again when we were ready to order our food. We placed our food order but my crispy chicken chop salad arrived without dressing or chicken. She swooped it back up before I could stop her or answer the question about what KIND of dressing I wanted and before my husband could remind her about the missing onions from his meal. She then took someone else’s order and eventually returned the salad with very soggy chicken and still no dressing but left before I could tell her I wanted blue cheese. We snacked on my husband’s 6 small onion rings but didn’t have enough ketchup to dip them as the bottle was empty and sticky with residue from the label which had been removed. After waiting awhile, my husband got up to go inside to get the dressing while I waited and listened to the table behind us as the wife asked her husband, “do you think they forgot about us?” (They had a different server). While the onions and dressing were delivered, another employee was watering the hanging baskets above my head and complaining about having to water them twice due to the heat. Of course she wanted to give them a good drink, enough that they would drip soil-strained water onto the railing and splash not just me but the entire line of tables. I commenced eating my chop salad on the warm plate but had to cut multiple full leafs of lettuce and peel my own avocado slice. We couldn’t help but notice when a 3rd server debated with a customer stating, “that’s not a bug, it doesn’t have legs, it’s just protein” as she rolled their piece of food around between her fingers. Unfortunately the loudly panting dog next to us didn’t settle panting even after the server used her water pitcher for humans to fill the dog bowl. Another dog must have been jealous as I jumped when it started barking. Literally as my husband was asking me what more could happen, our server pulled up a chair and said, “we’re going to have a little chat, the table before you paid your bill so your bill is wrong, but don’t worry it’s like a $10 discount.” When we looked at the new bill, the total was over $10 MORE than what we had spent and included beer. My husband went inside a second time to talk to the manager but had to wait as the manager was talking to another customer about their incorrect bill. When he was eventually able to speak to the manager, the manager told him, “no that’s correct, I put that in there myself, you had 2 beers.” My husband told him, “we did not have beer” and the manager reluctantly removed the beer from the bill. We went back to the front for a final time to pay and it was not until the manager asked us, “was everything ok?” And I replied, “no not really” that he offered any actually discount. He did not, however ask what the concerns were (so they won’t be addressed, consider yourself warned!) and he proceeded to blame his staff saying, “yeah sometimes the trainees have a hard time.”

You can’t make this stuff up. We will be laughing about today’s dining experience for...

We’re staying at the Holiday Inn next door to this Black Bear Diner. It’s convenient to the hotel, and we were tired on the first night, so we ordered takeout: chicken fried steak and turkey. It was pretty good (with the exception that only some of the dinners have 1000 island dressing as a choice, so we had to order one with bleu cheese). The portions were HUGE though (one dinner was easily enough for two).

It was good enough that we tried it again a couple nights later when we got back to the hotel after a long day of hiking. We split a tri-tip steak meal and added an extra side salad (again, we could only order 1000 island for one of the salads, so we ordered the other with bleu cheese). The baked potato didn’t have any butter or sour cream on it, but otherwise it was a decent meal. One dinner plus the extra salad was plenty for both of us.

Tonight is our last night on the Peninsula, so we’re packing to leave. We decided to give it one more try, and it was pretty much a disaster. We ordered the meatloaf, an piece of carrot cake, and an extra salad (again only one salad could be ordered with 1000 island, so we ordered one with bleu cheese, which at this point was honestly getting tiresome). We picked up the bag and returned to our room only to find that they hadn’t included the carrot cake. We went back for the carrot cake and returned to our room.

No butter or sour cream on the baked potato. Whatever. We were used to that by now. No cornbread (but we weren’t about to go back again to complain). We added salt and pepper to the potato and attempted to divide the meatloaf. It was so mushy it fell apart. There really wasn’t a way to serve it while maintaining a loaf-like shape. We scooped some of it onto our plates with a spoon and tried a bite. As expected, it was meat mush. Except when it was crunchy. There were big chunks of raw carrot and celery throughout the mush.

Speechless, we stared at each other before bursting into laughter. We’ve never had a worse meatloaf in our lives. It was disgusting. We threw away all but the two bites we choked down.

The carrot cake (that we had to go back for) was oddly tiny for a place that bills its desserts as big enough to share. It had hardly any frosting and looked nothing like the picture on the website. For the inflated price, we were expecting something more visually appealing. Or at least actually big enough to share.

We cut it in half and tried a bite. Our reaction: carrot cake isn’t supposed to be wet is it? It was so under-baked that it was basically carrot cake batter held together with a thin scraping of frosting.

So, it you decide to eat at the Sequim Black Bear Diner, here’s our advice: don’t order the meatloaf or the carrot cake. Don’t expect butter or sour cream on your baked potato. And definitely don’t hope to be able to get two salads with 1000...

I've eaten black bear numerous times through out the last 10 years. I moved away but always come here for work every year. Black bear is slowly getting worse and worse with regards to food quality. They have doubled their prices, but food quality has gone down....A LOT!! forget about using door dash or any other delivery service to have black bear delivered. The food quality gets even worse. It's like they don't care, because it's being sent out and figure people won't bother to complain. Normally...I wouldnt....BUT, the last 3 times I've ordered from black bear through delivery the food has been terrible and barely edible, if at all. Tonight I ordered soup, turkey and gravy with 2 vegetables. The vegetables were ok, but cold. The turkey was mediocre, cold and had some type of gray coloring on the side that I've never seen on turkey before. I cut around the edges to eat it. The soup they served was SHAMEFUL to say the least!! I guess it was their version of French onion soup...it literally tasted like water with some soy sauce in it and then they dumped a bucket of soggy onions in it!! It was nasty and unedible!! My advice just stay away from black bear diner, unless you are elderly and no longer have your taste buds anymore. That is who they are catering to now a days...and the female manager acts like you are trying to rip them off if you complain or request a refund. At 13 dollars for 2 eggs and $9+ slices of cake and 21 dollar entrees, the food should be warm and edible and taste good. If not, then just get out of the food business!!! I don't see how you can screw up warming turkey!! 3 strikes and your gone. I will not patronize black bear again. Picture will be posted...