Black Bear Diner

OMGOSH!!! I love this restaurant! I will never make another run for Denny’s or IHOP again, not as long as BLACK BEAR in Oakley is opened. Not only is the food delicious (we’ve only had breakfast), but the staff is so darn friendly. Everyone I came in contact with treated us as if we were special guest in their home. We’ve only been there twice for breakfast (extra thick bacon meal, French toast, pancakes, OMGOSH), but will be back for lunch and dinner. We have to try the pies in the window too!!! I can’t wait!

This restaurant is in Downtown Oakley on Main Street. It is across from a Grocery Outlet and La Costa Taqueria.
Our server, Samantha was fantastic. She was very friendly, personable and attentive to us. She seem to like her job. Five stars for her.
I’m only giving three stars because the menu prices are kind of expensive.
The menu looks like a newspaper. We didn’t know about the menu until we looked inside of «The Black Bear Gazette» newspapers that were placed on our table.
The food is good. Wished it was bigger portions because of the prices.
We had a Bear’s Choice Breakfast $ 9.69. Two eggs, choose one (pancakes (2), sweet cream waffle, french toast or 2 biscuits & gravy), choose one (2 slices of thick-​cut bacon, 2 sausage links or 1 ham slice). The bacon was crispy and tasty. The pancakes were light and slightly sweet. If this breakfast came with hashbrowns, it’ll be more worth it.
Also ordered the New York Steak dinner $ 16.49. We had it with seasonal vegetables (broccoli and carrots), and french fries. The steak was cooked just right and the fries were hot and crispy. The vegetables tasted like it is either steamed or blanched.

I would have loved to give this location more stars. The food is always awesome and they have the best hollandaise I’ve ever had! However, they only get 3 stars from me… they would have ended up with 2 stars if it weren’t for the server, Jacqueline (sp?). My friend and I came in at 4pm. I watched as every other table near us that was empty was sat and received drinks AFTER we sat down. Several of them actually received their food before we got our order taken. We were quite amused to see just how long it would take for a server to walk over to our table. 17 minutes later, I was joking with my friend, staring at every single restaurant worker who walked by our table and said, «I wonder how long it will be before we are asked for our order?» I think Jacqueline heard me because she came over and said, «I’m so sorry… let me get your server.» She took 3 steps and then turned back around to take our order. I’m glad she got our tip and not the lazy ass who never made it to our table.
I’ve heard Black Bear has a reputation for terrible service, but I’m happy there was one person who took the time to do her job the right way. Thank you Jacqueline!!!

Love this spot. Been going here for years. Close to home and the pies are Bomb. Friendly staff and large portions of food I can’t finish. Why not.

Update on my last review:
I emailed the powers who be through the website and got a quick apology response and 2 coupons and a note from the owner in the mail. I really appreciate that is was a handwritten card and the coupons were each for $ 10 off. Thank you Black Bear Diner for making it right.
So since the not great experience, I’ve eaten there a couple of times and will be back. The food is good and we have not been disappointed. If you want a large meal, get the taco salad, my daughter ordered it and the thing was as big as a football! She loved it! It seems as if they have a lot on the menu for large appetites, I saw some giant food go by.
They have normal size too, you can’t go wrong with their hamburgers. As far as breakfast goes, I got the mini volcano which was 1 pancake, 1 egg, 1 sausage and 1 bacon. There was nothing mini about it and I couldn’t finish it!
I’m so glad that they made it right. We will be back for more.

I am a day one return customer and on this last Sunday May 1 2016 is going to be my last visit to this Black Bear. We walked through the front doors at 10am and got 3 seats at the counter with in 10 min, placed our order within 10min and walked out the front doors at 11:18am with out eating anything. The worst service I have ever had at a Black Bear dinner… We were told every 15 minutes 5 more minutes. This is a shame because I love their menu. I live in Oakley and will be driving to Walnut Creek to get my BBD fix. Because the manager on shift at this was a complete ASSHOLE.

Food is good, very big portion to say the least. But I feel like they should add more flavor to the hash brown, pancakes are delicious not bland has a sweet taste to it even if you don’t put syrup or butter on it.

Seating was immediate as we arrived at about 5:30PM, before the 6 o’clock dinner crowd.
It wasn’t overly loud like most restaurants of this size but I wouldn’t say it was quiet either.
The food was clearly highly processed and rich. The meatloaf was home made and the big kids dinner menu was a hefty portion. My kids could not finish it was so loaded. The cornbread that came with the meatloaf meal was very sweet, scale-​like even.
Customer service deserves 5* as Jackie, our main server all other servers were very responsive and attentive.
The overall meal cannot be higher than 3 as we were left with a bit of stomach disapproval :-/​. The banana cream pie we shared for dessert was very thick and rich with a thick cream base on top (thicker than usual whipped cream base). Before tasting I knew by looks we would be in for some high processed mega sugar load (BIG MISTAKE trying it anyway). Two of us got gastrointestinal upset from the processed nature of the meals.

Food is always good here. The Double Bacon BLAST was a disappointment because it honestly was just a regular blt club… no double bacon. It was still delicious. Service was slow tonight which was ironic because the place was only half full…

I ordered the parmesean burger on sourdough Sliced bread. They messed up, not once, but twice. I told the waitress, no dijon mustard pls, but, extra mayonnaise. So, when I took my first bite, I got a big glob of mustard. YUCK!!!
So, I asked for a new burger, now this one was missing my grilled onions. So, by this time, my 2 ½ year old son is tired & wants to go home.
Instead of having them cook a burger a third time, I asked her to just have them grill the onions & I’ll add it to my burger, and place it in a «to go box».
Ended up, not eating, we just left to go home. I asked the cashier, If I can use my Birthday coupon for the meal, that they kept messing up on. They said no, it’s only for breakfast.
What kind of service is this !!! It’s not the waitress fault, can’t blame her. WHATEVER! ! !!
ALMOST A $ 5O MEAL, & NO KIND OF ACCOMMODATIONS!!!
Don’t deserve any Stars, but, you have to put it in order to post anything!

We stopped for a second time in 3 days because the food is that great. Today however, the customer service outshines even the food. I had accidentally called in a to go order to the wrong restaurant and when we showed up to pick up our food and get on the road for our 7 hour drive, they he’d no order at all. They were able to figure out what had happened and made our order in a rush and we were on the road in 15 minutes. The food was, once again, fabulous, Angelica was warm, caring and never stopped smiling. Thank you Angelica for going above and beyond to take care of your goofy customers!!!

My husband and I went out for lunch, we were seated fairly quickly and gave our orders. I ordered the chicken taco salad and advised that I can’t have cheese, sour cream or butter. We waited 45 minutes before our lunch came. My salad looked good but had two kinds of cheese on it. I told the waitress that I couldn’t eat it due to the cheese. She advised that she would take it back. My husband was half way through his breakfast, when I asked for the manager.
The manager advised us that the waitress said we didn’t tell her no cheese and she asked that the salad be remade. I pointed out that my husband was almost through with his meal, she asked if I wanted my salad «to go». When I pointed out that my salad should have been a priority, she explained that my salad went to the end of the orders, as it had to be made from scratch, I GAVE UP; we had a waitress who was a liar and a manager who was an id*ot. No more Black Bear Restaurants for us.

This place has great sweet cream pancakes! I only come here for breakfast as I find lunch and dinner to only be ok. Breakfast is really good with big portions. Prices are good too. There’s always a wait here on the weekends since it’s the only place in Oakley where u can get breakfast food.

Wonderful people. Great food. Some more healthy alternatives would be nice.
Called in this morning to get some food to go and the person who answered the phone was so helpful even checking to make sure it was okay to add broccoli to my egg white omelette. Was very nice and accommodating
Will go back.

Yessssss! So freakin’ satisfied with my meal here! Seriously left this place with a smile on my face.
El hubbs and I were awoken on a Sunday morning to the sounds of what we thought was an intruder, after further investigation, it was just the sound of my stomach growling.
I didn’t want to treck to our mainstay breakfast spot which we shall call «City Pancakes,» so we decided to go to Black Bear Diner and we are sure glad we did.
Hubbs had the Country Fried Steak breakfast and just the biscuit and gravy plate was enough food to feed us for the next week! I had the tuna melt and of course I was being difficult so I had to switch the bread to Parmesan sourdough and our waitress Patty was more than accommodating.
The food tasted fresh, we were both more than satisfied with our meals, and we will be back to try lunch and dinner as well.
The menu is a fun local newspaper, and the restaurant is warm and welcoming.
Look out Black Bear, you’ve got some new regulars!

Huge improvement! Black Bear Diner gets back to the top of our list!
Huge huge portions, hence, we were not able to order dessert anymore!!!
The servers were polite, fast, and really friendly!
We will definitely be back! Thanks BBD!

Great food, nice atmosphere. Our server was super sweet and very attentive. The manager came by and checked on us too. I got the chicken club with parmesan chips — delicious! Did I mention the chips? Because they were great. My friend got the open-​faced turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes. It was smothered in gravy, and how she didn’t have a coronary right then and there, I don’t know! She said it was delicious.

I love Black Bear Diner for breakfast! I’ve come to this location a total of 3 times and I always have a great experience. I ordered the Bear’s Choice during my most recent visit and that came with your choice of a sweet cream waffle/​pancakes, 2 sausages or 2 bacon strips, and 2 eggs your choice all for less than $ 9.
The sweet cream waffle was light and fluffy — don’t expect anything crispy or dense. It’s essentially the same batter as the pancakes IMO. But I loved it. The bacon came out the right kind of crispy and the eggs were yum.
I keep telling myself whenever I come back to Black Bear that I will try their other food for lunch/​dinner, but the breakfast is what keeps me coming back! Great location also and friendly service.

Being an «American Diner» I suppose I should expect nothing less than a MASSIVE portion of food. I very carefully reviewed the menu to ensure I wasn’t getting more food than what I could handle but was really looking for something substantial and less fatty. I settled on a smaller portion (describe for seniors and people who want less) of a ham and cheese omelette, country potatoes and a biscuit. What I got, I reckon two people could have eaten. The sizes of portions versus the amount you are paying is definitely a great value. I honestly walked away with a lot left on my plate, as did my children. Taste of everything was excellent though and definitely worth the wait for the table.

I really wanted to like this place and I very much did!
Came in for a weekday breakfast and was instantly greeted and sat. Coffee and water came while I waited for the waitress to take my order. Food came shortly after and man, oh man, the portions are HUGE. I had the original eggs benedict with a side of their homemade corned beef hash. The corned beef hash is so moist and flavorful, defiantly one of the best I’ve had.
The service was quick and friendly. The entire staff was working as if they were a well oiled machine. My coffee and water was refilled throughout my dining experience without having to wait or ask.
My new breakfast spot??? I think so…