Pilot Butte Drive-In Restaurant

On a road trip from Florida to Oregon, we stopped in this drive-​in restaurant in Bend, Oregon. You can either sit in your car or go inside for your meal.
The menu had burgers of all kinds. My stepdaughter had the Hawaiian Burger with ham and pineapple. It was huge and she said that it was delicious. My husband had a pulled pork sandwich and homemade French fries. I opted for a bowl of homemade vegetable soup, which was excellent. They also offer dinner platters, salads, and ice cream.
This was a great place to stop and eat. Nothing fancy but good and nourishing. There are two locations in Bend.

There’s not a lot of gems like this around any more this restaurant offers amazing burgers with very generous portions. My wife an I ordered the basic 100% angus cheese burger and were very satisfied. This should be classified as fast food but it’s good enough my wife and I make the exception to eat hear every once in a while.

Pilot butte burger was a staple in the Bend Community… I’d like to emphasize, was. In the past several years, the service, quality, and venue have rapidly decreased.
For starters, I’m writing this review during my 30 min wait on my order. The loud intercom noise of servers announcing each order before mine is increasingly annoying as I stare at the large number of orders in their window que sitting and waiting to be served. I received my milkshake fairly quickly in a cardboard yo go cup… The 50’s themed burger hop charm has vanished.
The fried food was previously served in fresh oil and the taste was there, in the recent years, the fried food taste as though it hasn’t been cleaned in weeks. It has a sour carcinogen flavor. The tavern burger is bland, as if all the flavors are 1.
Overall, the restaurant has been taking a snowball roll downhill in the past several years. Little to no attention has been put into upgrades, the place is dirty, the food is overpriced, the service is slow and quality isn’t much better than taking a slab of hamburger meat from a grocery store grilling it, slapping it between a slice of lettuce and tomato and serving it at a 11.95 price.
Avoid this disaster.

Came here last week with my husband and college aged son. The boys absolutely loved the milkshakes, especially the fresh banana/​peanut butter one. The burgers are huge! The prices are a little on the steep side for a burger that you have to order at the counter AND pick up at the counter. But we all agreed they tasted great! Messy, juicy, requiring several napkins. The fries were good enough and did come with above average fry sauce. The onion rings were very crispy. The staff was extremely friendly. It is relatively small place. I love the fire pit in the middle, but finding a seat was difficult at lunch time. The three of shared a large table with a couple. Also to go boxes, drinks, napkins are all self service. The lunch special was about $ 11 and was the best deal: cheeseburger, fries and small drink.

Love their Blue Berry Pancakes! I call them crack cakes because you will think of them a lot until you go back and get more! If you like salads their lettuce is crisp and their ranch is delicious! Recommend the Chef Salad also their dinner salad is perfect size. Not a lot of seating so recommend getting a table before you order. In the summer no problem because they have outdoor seating.

Great place for a burger or even the milkshakes but my favorite will either be the chili cheese burger, Cheese burger on rye with grilled onions and the blue cheese burger with garlic Parmesan fries.

Great place for burgers and shakes! My husband heard about this place from a coworker and as we are on our honeymoon, we decided to try it out.
Established in an old-​style drive in, the place is cozy with a warm fireplace and comfy booths.
First off, the burgers are huge! They are a great value for the price. Good Angus beef and good buns really step it up. I had the western bbq burger and their bbq sauce is absolutely amazing.
Second, their chocolate shake is to die for! I have tried chocolate shakes all over the place, but nothing beats how rich and thick their shakes are.
If you’re looking for a casual, delicious place to have this American favorite, this is definitely the place!

My boyfriend brought me here to try the burgers & milkshakes, I’m a burger/​shake-​aholic and he’d been here several times in the past.
My boyfriend is gluten intolerant so we asked the woman if there was anything with gluten in it in the pumpkin shake & she said she thought so (pie crust).
He ordered the a chocolate shake & the guacamole burger with gluten free bun, I ordered the mint oreo shake & hamburger; and we ordered a small side of parmesan garlic fries (not realizing the guacamole burger came with fries).
The milkshakes:
The ‘mint oreo’ — when my boyfriend picked them up he specifically said «this is mint?» pointing to my shake & the woman behind the counter said «yes» … only it wasn’t mint … it was regular oreo.
Asking them to remake it would have meant standing in line for another 15 minutes to let them know the error & waiting another 15 minutes for them to try again. So, yes, I could asked them to remake it. Would it have been worth it? Unlikely.
The ‘chocolate milkshake’ — it was basically just soft serve. In my opinion that doesn’t qualify as a milkshake.
Both plain lame considering the hefty $ 5.25/shake pricetag.
The burgers:
The ‘guacamole burger’ — boyfriend said the gluten free bun was good. The guacamole looked like baby food. He said it had a bit of kick but there was nothing to it but pureed green-​ness.
The ‘hamburger’ — good. Would I return & pay $ 8 for it? No.
The fries:
The ‘parmesan garlic’ — my boyfriend said he was disappointed, because they used to have actual parsley & garlic on them. After eating a couple I said to him «you probably shouldn’t eat these, they are battered» … after a bit of dialogue & some waiting for someone at the counter it was confirmed that, in fact, the fries (all of them) are dipped in flour.
Despite our requesting a gluten free bun AND asking about gluten in the pumpkin milkshake they neglect to mention the FRIES have FLOUR on them!
I can give the benefit of the doubt that maybe the woman at the register didn’t know… so when the person behind the counter was asked if there is flour on the fries why wouldn’t they return the question with «why, are you allergic» or some other respectful response?
Bottom line is the food is over priced for the quality of food and service you receive. If the food was at one time worth the price tag that time has long past.
I encourage you to look elsewhere for your next meal.

Best Big Burgers In Bend. Very Delicious Burgers and Juicy. that’s why you all can’t reject this juicy burger than fake burgers at McDonald’s

Local here. Been coming to pilot by the drive in east since I can remember. Ever since the new owners took over, services and quality of food had plummeted. 80% of the time my order is wrong, burger patties sometimes have holes in them so they look like swiss cheese… (On a 12 dollar burger? C’mon guys…) serving ketchup with pancakes instead of syrup… is that a joke?
Overall: The food is mediocre, real greasy, and over-​priced. Environment feels muggy and cramped. Nothing special about this place.

Super good burgers, fries, and shakes! I highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a tasty meal!

Very long wait and the place isn’t busy at all! I’m watching my kids meal sit under the heat lamp while they mess up other peoples orders.

I have eaten here a couple of times and really hoped to like it as much as others do but I just don’t see what the draw is. During each experience my food has been overly greasy and only so so on flavor.

This restaurant has been a part of my life for a long time. As kids, we used to get ice cream there after swimming at the pool, and I still enjoy a good burger there now and then. It costs about as much as any sit-​down burger joint, and also tastes as good as any other. Their shakes are delicious, too.

Heard great things about the food here and was very excited for breakfast. Ordered a half plate of biscuits, sausage and hash and it was a lot of food. Good thing I was advised that a half plate was available.
Everything was okay but nothing stood out to me as «must come back for the food.» The biscuit needed some salt or more fat in it. Hash browns weren’t crunchy enough and was a little wet in the middle. Sausage wasn’t browned enough. Maybe they were moving fast and didn’t leave the stuff on the heat enough.
Décor was cool. Fire in the middle with booths and a couple of seats placed in the corner space that I’ve never seen before. See pic. I will go back next time in Bend and give it another try. Maybe it was an off day.

Gigantic hamburgers in the 60’s tradition. Very good! Custom cooked. Our fries & onion rings were overlooked so I’m only giving 4 stars. If you are staving in Bend go here.

Great all American food in a vintage A&W root-​beer stand drive in! Back deck patio for eating with dogs and large parties. Not a greasy spoon, big portions, friendly service. 3 kinds of premium Tullys brand coffees. Had the special hash-​browns topped with grilled vegetables=nice and dry, crispy vegetables, not oily, you add your own seasonings, good sausage side, excellent home made biscuits. This is a local family owned business.

DON’T EAT HERE IF YOU ARE IN A RUSH! It took 30 minutes for our 2 burgers to arrive. They have a sign over the register that says «We are not fast food, you can taste the difference». Okay, cool, I don’t mind waiting a bit for a burger, but 30 minutes… for some ground beef to get cooked on a high heat grill? That’s crazy talk.
The burger itself was good. The menu is kind of weird though, only half the burgers come with fries, the other half you have to order fries separately, not sure what the angle is on that.

It’s always good. I wish they were open longer. But it’s great when I can make it for dinner. My family from out of town were very impressed and I like the retro nostalgic styling. Portions are HUGE.

Came in from out of town and tried this place for breakfast after some recommendations from locals… we were so impressed by the great food and good service… The Huevos Rancheros and chicken fried steak breakfast were the best we’ve ever had… The portions are huge! My kids even had a bigger than usual portion… we liked it so much we came back the next day for lunch. We had the ortega burger, garlic burger, jalepeno burger and the gigantic chili hotdog! It was like an episode of man vs food, huge and so so good!
Is it bad that I want to eat there for all of our vacation meals?! Highly recommend