Black Bear Diner

Great breakfast! A little spendy, but you can tell that they are using quality ingredients. The biscuits are huge!

Great diner. I have been to many Black Bear Diner locations and this one is probably the nicest. Great quantities of food and nice service.
Biscuits and Gravy are amazing and you’ll flip out about the size of the biscuits.
I always have a great experience at Black Bear.

I went to a Black Bear Diner 15 years ago in Redding CA and I was impressed! Most notably huge portions! I went to Black Bear Diner last night (1−27−16) here in Gresham OR and I have 4 things to say, on the good side our waitress was very nice and accommodating. On the down side there were three things. One, as nice as the waitress was, she forgot a side dish we ordered. Two, the food was luke warm including my tri-​tip steak. :-(Three the most important, THEY DO NOT GIVE MASSIVE PORTIONS ANYMORE !!! That was the number one thing they are known for!!! They say that they give huge portions, but the truth is they don’t. They give you the same amount of food any other average diner will give you. Would I go back? Maybe, but Elmer’s and Shari’s are closer to my house so probably not… Black Bear Diner used to stand out. Not anymore…

I came here with my sister to get some breakfast and it wasn’t that busy. I ordered breakfast and requested Apple juice. I hade to ask for it 3 times until my waitress brought it. That didn’t bother me but it took a long time for our food to arrive. I’m a patient and understanding person but 1 min after receiving our food the waitress asked us how we wanted to pay. My sister was upset because we didn’t get to eat before they asked us. After that no one came to check up on us on anything. Food was a lot but wasn’t that great. Kind of below average. Hope you guys have a better experience then we did.

Looked like a cozy place from the outside so we decided to try it.
I had the Fried chicken with mashed potatoes.
The wife had fried shrimp and ribs.
No complaints on her order. My chicken was cold on the inside, like cold cold.
Sent it back and they took care of it without any issues.
What was absolutely delicious was the Sugar Bear’s Lava Cake. Probably one of the best desserts we have had and the price wasn’t too bad either.
The employees were friendly and very welcoming.
Interior décor seemed a little outdated to me, but it’s not terrible… maybe just unique?
Pros:
Dessert
Cons
For what we had, I don’t think it was worth what we paid
No free refills on the lemonades
Chicken was cold on the inside

Good food usually but is it too much to ask for hot food when it arrives at our table.

We ate breakfast at this Brown Bear Diner and it was perfect and very enjoyable. I have not read all the bad reviews here. But from my experience of folks in Portland, they do not like chain restaurants. Well for me, I need a restaurant that is consistent and that is able to serve a low carb meal. Our waitress was excellent and the food was also very delicious. Anyway it will be a regular for us when we travel to Portland.

We have now been here 3 times trying to give the benefit of the doubt. Our first time it was still new here but it took an hour and 15 minutes to get food. The food was decent. Second time my kids food came out 30 minutes before the adults. That was horrible! Third time we had to wait 50 minutes for food and it seems the food has gone way down hill. Not once have they done anything to correct the problem. We will definately be scratching this place off our list and never return. Only in California will we go to BBD. A whole different experience there. From beginning to end including the kids ice cream is a whole different experiance. HORRIBLE STAY AWAY!!!

I LOVE this place I live in Gresham for a long time I have went to a lot of dinners since black bear moved to Gresham I only go there the food is excellent.
The staff is very good, knowledgeable, kind, and extremely good at what they do the hostess are extremely good, very kind and knowledgeable always cleaning or seating people.
I have had a lot of different waitress there, My favorite is Cami I think she is a extremely good leader i have noticed when she is there this floor runs smother, then when she is out. all of the Managers do an excellent job at Managing the food moving out to the floor.

My family has been going here at least once a month since they opened, and while their service isn’t fast, the food has always been good. Until that is last night. I ordered the chicken pot pie with a side salad. The salad tasted like there was dirt on it, and I could have gotten a better pot pie at the store for about 2 bucks. The pot pie was small and chewy. My wife’s meal consisted of a tri tip sandwich with fries and a cup of clam chowder. Normally the chowder comes out first, but it came out half way through dinner, with no explanation. My daughter got the pancakes and they where crispy, not fluffy. I don’t think I’ll be going back, unless I have a coupon for a free entrée or something. There are better places to eat for the same price.

I have been here several times for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Food was the standard American affair. Quantities on the plate were large. Sometime the food was dry kind of like it was made up before and reheated. The servers were OK but could be much better. It was like each person was doing the best they could, but there were not enough servers for all of the people. This seems to be an ongoing issue.
Would I go back… if with a group and they wanted to go there. Otherwise probably not.

It was mediocre at best.
Heat and serve.
Canned gravy.
Frozen fries.
Dessert: coconut cream pie
Skip it!
Elmer’s is better… this place is Denny’s quality

I’m very upset with the way the manager treated me when I told her my card got charged twice and wanted a refund. Needless to say I won’t be back!

We used to love this place but the service has gone downhill over the last month or so. They say this is a «family» establishment yet we never see the same people working. So it’s quite obvious they can’t keep people due to poor management.
There are rumors all over gresham about their gm Frances, just ask around and you’ll see.
We had an encounter with her ourselves on a recent occasion.
Completely unprofessional and not to mention RUDE! We complained to her about our server who got our entire order wrong and the food was cold, and just gross! When we tried talking to her she rolled her eyes and acted annoyed. She offered no solutions just excuses.
My friends have found hair and plastic in their food on more than one occasion. I know of several people who won’t go back, and they can add us to that list now too.

My husband and I have been looking for a new favorite breakfast spot for a long time. This morning we decided to try out the Black bear diner. I cannot express how pleased we were with everything.
First, this place appears to be very clean (minus the bathroom). That’s a huge thing for me. Second, we were seated and served quickly.
The coffee was good and I had many refills. The food was good also in the portions were huge. I packed half of mine up and had it for lunch also.
The only thing I would suggest, is that they have a professional clean their bathroom. I’m only saying this because it wasn’t a top-​notch bathroom. There was grime around the edges and several places that I could tell had been looked over for a while.
Despite the restroom — we love this place!

I’ve been to the one in Beaverton before but since this was a new location that opened up not to far from my house. I took my grandma the other night.
I can’t say I was very pleased with the service. My waitress seemed scatter-​brained. She didn’t bring us any water, forgot what we had ordered for drinks & didn’t bring our silverware till I had to ask for them.
Barely ever checked on us, until I paid our bill.
There was another waitress, which I wish we had. She seemed so kind, personable & had such a strong southern accent. Loved her from a far.. Next time if I come to this location, I think we’ll request her if possible.
About the food.
I did get the chicken fried steak which was great. My grandmother got the fried chicken which she seemed to of enjoyed. We had more than enough to take home for another meal from both of our dinners.

Gresham needed another restaurant badly and Black Bear diner has delivered.
The salads here are massive. Well, come to think of it everything is massive here. The chicken fried steak with gravy is excellent. The juevos rancheros are just ok. They are not spicy.
Although they always seem busy I’ve never had to wait for a table.

Meh. I’d skip it. Go to Elmers or Shari’s for the same type of food instead.
I wanted to like this place. It is new to Gresham, although I’ve seen many of the chain throughout southern Oregon and northern California. They have a nice looking building, and the bear motif is OK. Service was fine (I think they’ve worked out most of the service kinks that plagued them when they first opened).
But a couple issues that will keep me from going back:
— Food quality: Just not that great. Nothing was terrible, but nothing stood out as «wow, that was high quality». I had the Huevos Rancheros Eggs Benedict; The eggs were overcooked (no yellow runniness, the essence of a benedict), and the pork was just kind of low quality meat (I ended up pushing it off to the side since it just was not appetizing).
— Food quantity: Just kind of ridiculously large. Way, way too many calories for a meal. Honestly splitting a meal might still be too much. I wouldn’t consider this a negative if the food quality were better (after all, why not order something great and split it?). But with the quality being low, it just doesn’t help to overload the plate with size.

First off, I REALLY MISS the Sizzler that was here. They had a small, but decent, salad bar we loved coming too. There isn’t much of that in Gresham. I have been to Black Bear in a few other locations and was going to accept my loss of Sizzler happily once I saw the bears going into place out front.
We waited awhile for the new crowds to die down, but we still waited about twenty minutes for a table at 5:30. We got lucky and got a booth. The tables all seem crowded together, so there isn’t any privacy if you want to hold a conversation.
The prices are moderate, a fried chicken dinner was $ 15. The flavor was decent, but the the leg was lacking size. I don’t usually like gravy, but I needed it to add flavor the mashed potatoes. The salad was fresh and a decent size, so I liked that part. My husband had the pea soup and potpie. He said he enjoyed it.
The waitress was nice and service was good for the most part. She was honest, when I asked if they had slaw, when she said they had a lot of complaints about it not having enough mayo and being flavorless cabbage, but that on other nights, it was pretty good. Service was slow at times, but they were packed, so that was almost to be expected and it gave us time to visit. The food at the Bend location, for some reason, is a little bit better. I was thinking it, but my husband said it.
We had onion rings, two dinners, two desserts, two drinks and the bill was around $ 55 before tip. That is about our bill for Saylers Steak house, and the quality couldn’t even be compared. If the price had been more in line with the food, I would have bumped up the stars. It wasn’t bad but it could have been better. Will we go back? Yes, I think so, to try a few other things on the menu that looked good.

I am surprised at some of the negative reviews on here. We had a great experience.
We came here on Christmas Day with my husband’s side of the family.
To note, they do not have gluten free bread, pancakes, or rolls of any kind. But they make some great omelettes, hashbrowns, and have fruit on the side.
They offer menu choices for those who do not care what they put in their bodies, and some for those of us who choose to eat lighter options.
Brian was our server, and he was outstanding. Brian was the kind of server who was straight forward with us when we ordered, letting us know that half of us would get our food, and then it would probably be another 5 minutes until the rest were served so that we could all eat our food hot. Thank you for that.
He also made sure that we had everything that we needed, and checked in regularly. They also have other servers who walk around to fill coffee and water, so you feel like someone is always checking in on your table.
I thought the food was amazing, and I have ate at a lot of diners in my past.
I think this is a great breakfast option in Gresham, and I think it will give Dea’s a run for their money.