Black Bear Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of North Elba

Very mixed feelings about this place. I understand Covid is the reason for less servers but it's more then just that. I went with some friends and our waitress didn't even acknowledge us for almost 30 minutes and that was just to give us water which was just in a pitcher. I thought maybe she was overwhelmed so I didn't think much of it since i was enjoying the conversations that were going on. About 15 minutes later she comes back and said she was ready but only wanted our drink order eventhough we told her we had well over 40 minutes to look at the food and ready to put in our orders. So, we just gave her our drinks and waited until she came back to finally give her our food order. It took a while since there was 8 of us but that's not the most upsetting part. When we got our food I made sure to tell our waitress that we did plan on being on separate checks and that i hope that wouldn't be an issue which she said "that's no problem". Fast forward to the end of the meal and we get our check which wasn't divided. So we asked again and her response changed to a rude demeanor and she said it be nice to know at the beginning of the meal and that she could split it by sides of the table (makes no sense because I've worked with the same computer system so I know she's lying). We finally got our bill corrected and I personally feel that for just the average tasting food that could be bought at another place for cheaper that at least the service would be much better to compensate for the lack of thrill that the food...

This place had great reviews, so we decided to try it. When we walked in there was no entry way/welcome area. You could see where there was supposed to be one, but it was jam packed with tables. Way to many tables. And the hostess is also a server and bar tender, so you're going to wait a few minutes to even be greeted and asked how many are in your party. I suggest a reservation if you decide to go. And, everyone one on staff does everything so the staff isn't exactly attentive to your table. I was never once asked if I wanted a refill. The menu had a lot to offer, but the description of the dishes was hard to understand, and the food didn't live up to the reviews here. We ordered the mussels to start and they were the best part of the meal. The bread basket was cold and just a loaf of white bread. The salad that came with the entre was blah, I've had supermarket bag salad that was better. For the main dish I ordered the chicken tortellini, it was ok, but not worth the price. The sauce which is described as a blush cream sauce, is just a vodka sauce, and way to thick. The chicken strips were covered in sauce, and the tortellini which was probably supposed to be cheese and maybe spinach we're covered in so much sauce it only tasted like sauce. It was overpowering. My boyfriend got the pasta primavera and the veggies were big, the pasta was oily and he asked for chicken to be added and it was burned.

The portions are large but the food isn't worth the price. It's too loud and...

Honestly, this should get ZERO stars. But the view at least deserves something, so I gave it one.

We walked in for 30 minutes of break, ordered black coffee and a dessert. We explicitly told the waiters/hostess that we were going to be there for 30 minutes. And thus it began!

First, we were almost forced to seat at the bar, while they had plenty of availability inside and even on their terrace. Somehow we were able to convince them to give us that 2-person table inside. In a bit, I saw more tables freeing up and asked the waitress if they could give us that seat. She said yes and we started moving our stuff there. Then another waitress said: "No, you have to eat if you want to sit there". What?! What do you call getting coffee and desserts? Not even at a dinner time when the restaurant is half empty!

Then the host said okay, and took us outside, but didn't give us the table that got just freed up (that I eyed), and instead tried to sit us in the corner, which wasn't protected from the rain that was pouring that day. When I asked what the problem was, she said, "there are other people waiting to walk in". And when I started being vocal about how trashy that kind of service was, she started apologizing and said she was confused. Honestly, even if they gave us that seat, we wouldn't stay there a second longer.

To be fair, I have to touch the food too. As I said, we ordered a lava cake, which was average, and black coffee with milk. Apparently, milk was a tiny...