Black Bear Diner Willows — Restaurant in Willows

Came in on 5/17/19 it was very loud so we asked to be seated in smaller area. Trisha was the waitress and is one of the worst I’ve ever had so bad we left no tip and have never not tipped before anywhere! We were seated and drinks brought with menu by hostess. Trisha came and we hadn’t even had time to look at menu so she said she’d come back that it was ok for her to wait on us but not us wait on her. We waited and waited no Trisha half way through our drinks they told her we were waiting. About 5 minutes later she came took our order. Eventually (20-25 min) she came with our order and we asked for napkins. One order was a BLT and fries both under cooked and cold, bacon was not only swimming in grease and undercooked but only three small pieces of bacon on the whole sandwhich. Second order was eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast once again bacon swimming in grease and undercooked. We were finished with the meal and she comes bring napkins, never refilled our drinks and proceeded to tell us we were in the ugly red headed step child area so we were forgotten because we chose not to sit in front. It was our 33 anniversary and we wanted to spend time talking and having our meal together not in a room with loud music, talking, and dishes banging. When we stood up to leave we noticed the floor was cover dropped food and napkins at the tables behind us which a young man had just cleaned tables and knocked it on floor or just failed to clean it up. We couldn’t even get our check so we finally just ask to pay so we could leave. So if you are red headed, ugly, a step child, or want to sit anywhere but the main dining area expect very poor service and to be insulted and served low quality food and take in your own refills...

9-19-22 By the way, don’t believe BBD response at the bottom, I gave my number and they didn’t call, my guess is the same people wrote the response are the ones I referenced in my review. I guess they just don’t care, bummer, I use to love this place.

Wow! I’ve been a Black Bear Diner fan for years, not sure anymore at least at this location. You can tell staff don’t give a rip, complain openly about staffing and when you approach them it’s all excuses and no solutions. Ordered food and coffee, coffee came out then it was gone, no offer of refill while I waited. The blond waitress would make the excuse that it’s low staff, or the guy behind the counter is winding down ( even thought he was winding down for 40 minutes before I even brought it up). No teamwork and certainly no leadership. The group struck me as a crew that’s either given up or doesn’t give a rip anymore for some reason. I walked out , offered to pay for coffee but they said I didn’t need to. Looked like the cook was making one order at a time as well, which added to the poor service. Someone either needs to provide some leadership, clean house with the staff, or retrain these folks. Yes, they may have been short staffed but a little sense of urgency goes a long way. When you have a struggle of any kind, the team cannot stay in their proverbial corner and not step up for a while to help each other. Clearly not a team after 35 minutes with no food and no coffee refill or even a little communication.

I hope they can change the...

I am extremely sad about leaving this review. I am a big fan of Black Bear Dinners. But the way this place was operating tonight was horrible!! They should have just locked the door and not been open. We visit many Black bear Dinners around CA because travel for work and we have been stopping in this Willows spot for many years and never seen service like this. As soon as we walked in the door you could feel the unhappiness in the restaurant especially after we were sat down and started noticing everyone working seemed angry. She finally came over to ask us what to drink after we were almost about to walk, sitting for like 20min already. As she unhappily took are drink order she said what else are we having, so we gave are order. I don't want to write a book so I will tell that everything was bad and wrong other than my milkshake was ok. Undercooked Food, wrong bread, completely didn't bring a salad and because of the attitude I didn't want to even ask about it. In the end they still tried to charge me for what they didn't bring and I got the other unhappy server to correct it at the register. All the while the cook in the back seemed very unhappy and he kept looking out at customers. They all seem to have a problem working together. Bottom line, no business should be like this. It was obvious they were short handed and they should have somehow called in extra people to work. Or just don't open. I really hope they fix this place because it was always one of my favorite...