Black Bear Diner Washington — Restaurant in Washington

We arrived with a large group, 21 people in total with 10 young children who needed help ordering. The waiter had requested he say a drink and we raise our hands to indicate what drink we wanted. I requested to please go around the table and ask for each persons drink order so the children could be helped and nothing would be missed. He proceeded to have us repeat to him how many of each drink. With this many people I did not feel confident that I could definitively say the count with so many people and so many orders. I requested again at this point to just have each person say their order rather than taking a count as it was too confusing. The waiter was upset that another person from our party ordered a drink that he already had the “count” for. He then proceeded to mutter vulgar language under his breath and laughed and scoffed that we did not have the correct “count”. The rest of our party joined us and I stood up to help to get their drink orders as I was doing so I requested another hot chocolate which someone else had ordered. He asked me to confirm the total count again. I was extremely frustrated as I had already expressed with so many people I could not keep track of the total number in my head. He then laughed and scoffed at me again. I clapped my hands with the tone of my voice telling him that it was not possible for me to keep a running total in my head. I expressed that if he was going to be condescending and rude that I would like to have a new waiter. He then left the table to get a new waiter. We went out to request a manager to speak to, the manager came back to our table and requested that we leave the restaurant. I wanted to explain to the manager what was said and how we were treated by the waiter, he did not want to listen and walked away. As he walked away I got frustration I told him he was unwilling to talk and he was a coward. Another lady working there then approached me, expressed that this was her families business and we needed to get out of the restaurant. The manager was unwilling to hear what had happened or try to come to a resolve at all. I was completely at fault and told I treated his staff like “animals”. All I was requesting was to have everyone say their own drink order. It turned into us all being treated poorly and being talked to in a very vulgar way. There was no patience for our order or the fact that we were trying to help make sure the kids got what they wanted and nothing was forgotten. The managers job is to resolve the situation. There was no care or concern for the customer or for what we experienced. The only thing that mattered was making sure he protected his staff. There are multiple bad reviews on this location directly relative to the service. It might be time to look at what your doing and how your customers feel while dining with you and spending...

We stopped at Black Bear Diner on the way home to Las Vegas on Monday, August 19th after 5 pm. This was one of the worst restaurant experiences we've ever had; it was very different from the service at other Black Bear Diners we've been to. We were seated soon after we arrived but had to wait 25 to 30 minutes before anyone even took out drinks order. A couple who was seated after us left, presumably because they got tired of waiting. Another couple who arrived after us got waited on before us. When the server finally came, he apologized for the wait. He took our drinks and food order.

While waiting, I observed an older woman staff member serve food to 2 tables. She was extremely attentive to those 2 tables but ignored everyone else. The 2 tables were possibly locals. I overheard her complaining that "they" (management) changed the scheduling system to explain to these customers why there were delays with their food.

I ordered a salad with the sandwich. When we were got our food, the server said, "You got your salad, right?" I told him I did not and he said his coworker was supposed to bring it to me. The food was okay. We waited for our check which never came so we walked over to the cashier. The older woman staff member was at the register and on her phone. Upon seeing us, she snapped to the other servers, "Someone help these people" and stalked off without even acknowledging our presence. There was a customer waiting to be seated who was there before us so we told the young man who stepped up to the register to help him first.

The older woman staff member seemed to be some kind of restaurant supervisor-not a very good one! I think she was the problem! She definitely picked who she would serve (people she knew or locals).

The servers were all very young people who needed more guidance and assistance. The bad service was a result of poor management and lack of leadership.

Black Bear Diner's reputation is ruined as far as we are concerned. None of us will ever patronize this restaurant. In addition, I will not recommend this establishment to...

The parking lot was completely packed (as was the restaurant) - and with good reason! That's when you know you're somewhere good! 😊

Even completely full and with a wait-list, we only waited 10 mins max to get a table. There are a LOT of menu items, so be prepared to read and fall into the "I definitely want this... Wait, but THAT sounds good... And so does THIS!" quandary.

(EDIT: this last time we went on a Thursday afternoon, so we missed the crowds, which is fine by me!)

We got the chicken fried steak, the Hobo Joe's Omelette, and the mix and match breakfast option (the blackberry-stuffed french toast is worth the $4.99 upcharge! EDIT: a year or three later, it's now $5.99, but delicious!), and all 3 were delicious!

They also serve actual fresh-squeezed (in-house!) orange juice, which is SO good! The biscuit was as big as a softball, so don't worry about only seeing one biscuit listed - it's definitely no Pillsbury tube biscuit! And the sweet cream pancakes? Heavenly!! I think they'd have been somehow even better with the fruit and whipped cream option 🤤

Definitely worth taking a break from the freeway drive! On a recommendation, we actually double-backed from Hurricane (pronounced locally as "Hurr'kin") to this place, which was the opposite direction that we were traveling, and we're perfectly happy to have done so!

Family friendly with a tiny little giftshop-type area. Also, there was a server or busser who dressed (and spoke!) like an old timey gold-rush pioneer, which was super fun.

You can sign up for their Member club online and at the time of writing this, they reward you for signing up with a free Bear's choice meal - soooo worth it!

Looks like we've found a new "usual" place to eat when we drive through the area! (EDIT: This has definitely not changed! When we were planning a trip, we agreed ahead of time to stop here and were eagerly dreaming of the food before we'd even left home...