Bear’s Den BBQ

The pork stuffed potato had a nice bite with jalapeños. The star of the show however is the sauces the owner personally makes. I go to a lot of BBQ places all over the Tennessee Valley and this is hands down the best sauce I’ve had to date.

This was our first visit here. The food is outstanding!
We both had the Catfish platter. It consisted of two large fillets and our choice of two sides. We chose baked beans, which had a mild Cajun flavor, and Krinkle fries. Two hush puppies were also a part of the meal.
Besides being huge, the catfish fillets were delicious. Most restaurants only give you one medium sized fillet. There was no pond flavor to the catfish as usually is the case.
Try this place if you haven’t yet. You won’t be disappointed!

Chicken wings are delish! The perfect smoked flavor and good size! Yeast rolls were good too!

We had just finished a rafting trip down the Ocoee River and the group was very hungry. Consensus was we all really wanted some good southern BBQ, and Bear’s Den hit the spot! It’s everything I want in a BBQ joint when I visit the south. Excellent food and exceptionally friendly service.

Half way from Cleveland to the base of Ocoee River rafting area. This is a great stop going for coming back out. Also located at intersection of hwy 411.
Friendly staff and quick service, although it was not busy when I stopped in. Settled for simple BBQ sandwich with bake beans. It was good but not a fan of the BBQ sauce.
They use a Carolina style, running, vinegar base. Just not my taste. But I will get BBQ pork to take home sometime and add my own favorite sauce to it.

Friendly staff and really good pulled pork sandwich. Definitely recommend if you want some good southern BBQ.

So this place is run by a stand up fellow named Ed. He has his own brand of BBQ sauce and knows a thing or two about BBQ. We arrived not knowing what we’d get but left happy, full, and with some local knowledge about the area that Ed himself informed us of.
I highly recommend this place and will be back soon

Excellent food. Above all, the best service you can ask for eating outside of your home.

This place is amazing. We stopped here as a large group after white water rafting. The owner personally came out and went over menu and highlighted all the menu items. The service was outstanding and the food is downright delicious.

We stopped in here after our group rafting trip… 17 of us. All very hungry! The food was good and the service was even better. Ed & Beverly showed us a great time and made sure we hand plenty of good food. Great value too.

Barbecue that will change your life!
Best pulled pork, followed by some the best service! so sweet so nice come here! Avoid everything else this place is amazing.

Passed this place because we were in a rush. Decided to turn around and try it. Great decision! Ribs, fabulous. Pulled pork doesn’t even need sauce. But, have no fear great sauces. One is Grandma’s recipe. The other is Ed’s recipe (owner). Ed and his daughter are great people! Portions are generous! And dang, the sweet tea! Don’t miss it.

Great bar b q restaurant I visited today. They have remodeled this building since the last time I visited. You now have to enter though the left. Once inside that is the new dining room that they have built on. You turn to your left and that is where you order and pay.
The bar q sandwich was real good. I got it to go so I can add my special sauce to it that I have from Mississippi.
The restaurant reminds me of a cabin feel.
As far a customer service is concerned. They were nice and friendly yet real fast. Just as soon as I sat down after paying, they brought it to me. Wow. I couldn’t believe how quick I got my order.

After a half day of white water rafting, a group of us decided to ask someone about a good place to eat. The clerk at the rafting company recommended Bears Den and said how good the food was. That was an understatement. The food is VERY good.
What I really liked about the place was the pride that the owner seemed to have about his food. When we walked in, 11 hungry men, he immediately greeted us and found a table for all of us. Before we could even get comfortable he was telling us about the menu and the way he prepares his food. He recommended a few items that weren’t on the menu and allowed the waitress to take our order. Since we were a large party and the food would take a while, he immediately brought out hush puppies for us to munch on and talked to us like we were long lost relatives. Then the food came! Wow! I really don’t think any of us expected for it to taste as well as it did. For 11 hungry men to say they were full is a statement in itself.
Now for those of you who are looking for chain restaurant BBQ, this is not the place for you. But if you are looking for BBQ that tastes good in a friendly environment that made you feel as if you were at a family BBQ, this is the place for you. I can’t wait for our next rafting trip just so that I can go back for more BBQ.
Ohhh, one more thing. Do yourself a favor and try the Ed’s BBQ sauce. It was soooo good I wanted to purchase a bottle to take back to Atlanta with me.

I visited this place a few weeks ago after taking in a half day rafting trip on the ocoee river. I’m pretty harsh on places that claim to be BBQ and southern food but I must admit that this place is good. Let me first admit I didn’t have BBQ, I had the fried catfish, which is something that is hard to find where I live (Colorado). The catfish was amazing… I also sampled the Fried Okra which didn’t let me down either… The only area I believe this place could improve is adding some different bbq sauces.
The sweet tea is spot on as well. If I go back to raft with adventures unlimited, i’d stop by this place again.

Ate here fro lunch. The people are super nice, and took time to make us feel at home. They gave us fresh hushpuppies and tarter sauce as a starter. the Tarter was made by one of the ladies there, and it was great. The portions were generous and the quality high. The sauces were very good. I have had better BBQ but never with the service I had here!

Bear’s Den’s pulled pork sandwiches ($ 4-​$ 7, depending on size and whether or not you get a side) are where it’s at! Out of all of the many, many BBQ places I’ve eaten at in my life, theirs definitely ranks in my top 3 for pulled pork. My favorite thing to do when I’m in the area is to pick up a pound ($ 10), grab a pack of buns and plain Lays chips and head to the river for a picnic — a pound can easily feed 3 – 4.
As for their sides, I love their baked beans and crispy, seasoned fries (I haven’t tried any of the others, so I can’t speak of them). They also have super tasty hushpuppies, which they were kind enough to give us a fresh batch of one night when we picked up our food close to closing time. On that note, the owners and people who work there are really kind, good people who’ve always given us service with a smile. That in itself is a rarity that should be appreciated.
So yes, Ocoee has few dining options and yes, if you order a plate from here it is a little «pricey» (but seriously, who has ever ordered a BBQ plate for under $ 9? I’d like to find that place… just because it’s out in the country doesn’t mean they shouldn’t charge reasonable prices), but I would go out of my way to eat at Bear’s Den if need be.

Bear’s Den BBQ is the stop on Highway 64 for rafters who want to eat BBQ. It’s located close to all the Ocoee rafting companies. The restaurant is housed inside a cabin that looks like it’s been constructed relatively recently. In fact, they were still doing construction work and painting the lower level room during our visit. The restaurant is small and narrow upstairs, with a few booths lining the windows. Downstairs, there is a large dining table. Gravel parking lot outside.
The menu seemed pretty standard for a BBQ joint. One plate of meat and two sides was $ 10 and up. Each plate came with a roll and a pickle spear. I tried their pulled pork, fried okra, tater tots, cole slaw, hush puppies, fried pickles, and sweet tea.
The fried pickles was a new special appetizer ($ 5). Six fried spears were served in one basket with a small container of ranch dressing. I enjoyed this appetizer. The breading was light and nicely seasoned and the pickles inside were still nice and juicy.
Overall, I thought the meat and sides were pretty good. The pulled pork was tender and savory. The fried okra and tater tots were crispy. Neither was overly salty nor greasy. The hush puppies were big. Four came with my order and they were a hit at the table. Appetizing texture on the outside and the right amount of moisture on the inside. The slaw was OK — more sweet than sour. The sweet tea was very good. Except for the appetizer basket, all of the plates, cups, and silverware were disposable.
The kitchen looked dead when we arrived, but appearances can be deceiving as the food came out fast. The restaurant was clean except we had to keep swatting away flies from our food. That was no fun.

*GRRROOOOOOWWWLLLL* Is that my stomach or did I just walk into a Bear’s Den?
Yep, when you’re starving, it’s not a bad choice… one of your only choices, though.* This place probably wouldn’t fly in Atlanta, but with the limited options in Ocoee, we decided on the Bear’s Den for lunch.
The good: Pulled pork and ribs. Yes, get these. I think I made the right choice by getting the fall-​off-​the-​bone ribs. I tried my first fried pickle spears and liked them more than I thought I would. The extra coating of dillweed in the batter was a nice surprise. I’m glad I chose the tater salad and fried okra as my sides… I think these were the better ones.
The bad: They charge for water without telling you. Forget an itemized recepit (unless you beg)…I still have no clue how our total got to be in the neighborhood of $ 30 (before tip)…unless drinks are over $ 3 a pop?! On that note, the lemonade is made from freshly powdered Country Time lemonade mix and the tea tasted stale… as did the dinner roll, which I did not attempt to eat. If you’re craving baked beans, I’d say pass… unless you prefer the distinctly canned variety with additional sugar and ketchup added for a simi-​homemade approach.
The ugly: Flies. Also, when someone in our party complained about the smoked chicken being too underdone/​bloody, the owners shamelessly zapped it in the microwave. Come on… we’re all Fancy Feast Unilocalers, here. Microwaving anything beyond instant popcorn is a cardinal sin! And if you’re on a diet, forget trying to get anything remotely healthy. Not gonna happen here, folks.
Despite all of my complaints, an open restaurant is better than a closed restaurant when you’re starving. Yay food.
* Rating has been rounded up to 3 stars in consideration of lack of other options and hunger pains at the time of arrival.

Surprisingly, this is probably the only BBQ place in Ocoee. Even in Cleveland, we could not find other BBQ places, and we looked everywhere in Cleveland. They all seemed closed for good.
I tried a couple items on the menu, and they seem solid. The pulled pork had a great, smoky flavor. It was tender and tasty. I think this was probably their best dish.
The ribs just melted off the bone, and it had decent flavor. But I didn’t like it as much as the pulled pork. It was a solid effort though.
We also tried some deep fried pickles. I liked them. It was more pickle than breading – which is a good thing. I loved the taste of the hot pickle and breading. But it is an annoying thing to eat because the pickle separates out of the breading.
The sides tasted good. The fried okra tasted good and so did the cole slaw. They weren’t mind blowing, but they satisfied.
Also, I was surprised to see they had Sriracha hot sauce as a condiment. Maybe they knew that a group of Asians were coming.
The bad thing about them is that they’re expensive. I guess being in the center of the touristy area of Ocoee and being the only BBQ place in town resulted in that. They even charged for a cup of water.
My recommendation is to get the pulled pork plate. It seemed like the best dish they have. Also try their deep fried pickles too. If only they weren’t so expensive. Oh well. I give this place about 3.5 stars.