Black Bear Diner

Had my first time here and it was pretty great. Came in during the dinner rush, but the staff was incredibly kind and helpful. If anything was out, they told us right away and made suggestions. Would definitely go back here again and urge anyone passing through Sequim to check it out.

Food is good and have no complaints as far as freshness and portion. Maybe a little heavy handed on the salt. Also, always short staffed. However, the staff they have do their best to provide good service.

Short-​staffed so it took a long time to be seated and even longer to be served our food. The server was unapologetic until I mentioned it. Overall it wasn’t a good experience and the food was okay.

One star for portion sizes, only. We sat down and waited 15 minutes for our drink orders to be taken. 10 minutes later, the drinks came. 10 minutes later our orders were taken and 45 minutes our food came.
The hamburgers were good, but then again, it’s hard to screw up a bacon cheeseburger.
The pot roast and meatloaf were a completely different story. The pot roast was fatty and a shade of grey-​brown that I haven’t seen in a food before. It was as bland as cardboard, except for the gelatin spew they called gravy. The green beans were definitely out of a can, and again the color was that of a light khaki green you should never see in a food.
The meatloaf appeared to have brown jello (seriously!) generously poured over it. Scrape the goop off and you get something that can only be described as fancy feast cat food. And… after tasting it, I would have to say it tastes similar to that, as well.
Overall, bad service and worse food made for a disgusting dining experience.

My family has eaten here many times and we are locals. Each time we hope for a better experience but in fact one never knows how the service or quality of the food will be. We waited 1.5 hours once (finally left) and 45″ another time (pot roast was cold). We have contacted owners twice about our concerns but changes have not been made. We will no longer be frequenting Black Bear. I don’t know how they can remain open for business.

This was are first time here…
Elizabeth our waitress was the best, helpful funny & friendly… food was amazing we both had breakfast couldn’t finish it… but wanted to .it was that good… will definitely be back to try the lunch.

I did not know it was a chain. However, I didn’t care. This place has huge portions and this review is for the breakfast. The omelet was large enough to share along with the sides. We also ordered a bear claw and it came plate sized! That pastry alone made it worthwhile to stop there. They had some cute souvenirs at the door. Excellent breakfast place!

I am confused by some of the reviews for this establishment because dining at its best is a far stretch, unless the closest comparison one can find is Denny’s. The real scoop is the food is not much better than Denny’s, the only difference is they overwhelm you with large quantities of mediocre food in the hope that you will slip into a food coma before you write a review.
But the mediocre food is not why I gave them one star… The score was a culmination of mediocre food, an establishment that appears to be stuck between two time zones when serving guests at the same table, and a waitress who felt is was her obligation to interrupt a guest who was politely complaining about the time-​zone difference in food delivery.
Rarely, if ever do I not tip a server. I absolutely respect the job these men and women do, the long hours on their feet serving so many different people. But there is a simple fact; when you are a server, you are the mouthpiece and earpiece of the company. This means, do your job well, listen to your guests, politely address issues, and try to turn a bad situation into a good one.
Well, this did not happen… And I was put in a position of advising her manager to explain to her the multiple reasons she was not getting a tip.
First, at what point in time did a restaurant find it acceptable to serve two people at the same table at different times? I don’t mean seconds, or even a minute or two. I mean different time zones for shit sake. This is simple logistics folks. Two people at the same table order dinner. The server takes the order at the same time. He or she submits the order to the kitchen staff. The kitchen staff prepares the food by cooking it fresh, or in this case, dumping it from a can and pulling it from the freezer, heating it up and throwing it on a plate. The kitchen staff then notifies the server that the order is ready to be delivered to the guest[s].
Pretty simple. At least you would think…
So after a while of the Wookie’s food cooling while it sat in front of him, waiting for my dinner to arrive, the server comes up to acknowledge the problem. I politely explain to her that serving food to the same table, in the same time zone is appropriate service, however, she must have felt that my polite, calm tone of voice, and carefully worded (politically correct even) complaint was too much for her to handle, so she decided to interrupt me with a snide remark, and quickly grab Woookie’s dinner to haul it back to the kitchen while they finished preparing my items.
Well, usually this would end up in me verbally destroying any bit of what emotional stability the offending party would have, but I chose to take the kinder, more gentle approach and biting my tongue. Instead, I plotted of how to explain to either her, the cashier, or the manager (or all three) exactly what is expected of an establishment that survives on providing good customer service. Now don’t get me wrong, I have worked the service industry, and for the love of all that is sacred in this world I would never say «the customer is always right», because 6 out of 10 times, the customer is just a jerk.
But in this case, the customer is not a jerk, well most of the time, or arguably some of the time, and even could be considered somewhere between a really nice guy and a jerk.
But I digress… This isn’t about me, it’s about Black Bear Diner.
Now to make matters worse… We have food cooked in different time zones that obviously exist only in the kitchen area. A server who feels it is her right to interrupt a very polite customer, and mediocre food that was far from being worth the time and/​or aggravation. We need to add the completely disinterested assistant manager who obviously cares about his job because it is probably the best gig he could find in the tiny town of Sequim, WA. This guy was oblivious to what was happening, or at least appeared to be at the time it was happening. Maybe, just maybe his attention span was trapped between the mysterious time zone differences in his establishment?
Yes, I am trying to give him the benefit of the doubt here. I mean there have been other unexplained phenomena like Grey Aliens abducting people, crop circles, spacial distortions, so a time zone change manifesting in a restaurant could cause some type of mental distortion… But now that I think about it, I am probably just lying to myself in disbelief.
I say that because when I explained to him why he needed to explain to his server why she was not getting a tip, I received a snappy return of «She made me aware of this after it happened». Do tell good sir… Your server made you aware of the problem while we were still sitting at the table, and you failed to have the business courtesy to come to the table and at least apologize?
I say this must be a new form of customer service that I was not aware of. To be honest, I think the concept is lacking in substance.

Friendly staff and very cute décor. Plus the turkey gobbler was thick and perfectly toasted. The hobo omelet was huge, so much potatoes on the side and biscuit that melts in your mouth. Our wait was not long and I was happy with being constantly checked on. Service is number one for me and that met the criteria! Pretty comparable to the other ones I’ve been to as well.

We had an extremely friendly waitress. She was awesome. The owner also stopped by to chat and offered us coffee.
Typical Black Bear Diner delicious food.
Love them!

Been here for over an hour. Isn’t busy, ordered our food, simple sandwiches, 45 mins ago and haven’t seen anyone since. Empty drinks, no food and starving… if my fries come cold, which I’m losing confidence in food ever arriving, I’m going to flip out.
This is a diner… I’m not asking for a homemade pie people! Bring me my food.
P. s. our neighbor got sat 25 mins ago and have been looking at a menu ever since, still no waters even… I even feel bad for them!

Coming here and complaining that the food is mediocre, is like going to McDonalds and complaining that the food tastes like fast food. This is a diner chain, not a 5 star restaurant. However, I’ve been to many Black Bear Diners and this by far has the best tasting food of them all. We spent two weeks eating here while we waited for our house to finally be ready and not once did we have undercooked food, bad service, or food that was less than expected.
Hey, I get it, if you have no clue this is a chain diner, you may walk in and see a cute themed restaurant and think «oh this is going to be amazing Ma & Pa style comfort food!», but it’s not. It’s a diner, with adorable pictures of bears everywhere, held within the constraints of a chain.

Friendly service, huge portions, good food, decent price!
We stopped in here for lunch after a morning of exploring Hurricane Ridge. We arrived on the tail end of the lunch rush, so we had about a 5 – 10 minute wait to be seated.
Our server was chatty, friendly in the way that this city girl can’t seem to get used to. She was very efficient and our orders came out quickly & were piping hot.
I had the (giant) bowl of chili. It was very tasty and served with a huge cornbread muffin that was equally tasty. Husband had the (also giant) chicken taco salad, which he really enjoyed.
Bonus points for serving breakfast all day, sometimes you just need a stack of pancakes at 4 in the afternoon.
I was surprised to discover that this was a chain, the food had that hometown diner feel and flavor that you rarely find in chain restaurants. We will definitely return!

I never understand why anyone would have to wait for a table if the restaurant is only a quarter full. Maybe they were down a server or two.
The food selection is good, and the taste is consistently good — but you always have to pay for the little extras (like a side of gravy). I still feel like I can’t find the *exact* right breakfast that I am looking for without having to alter a menu item.
It took a while for a couple of simple breakfasts to arrive (as we had puppies in the car, we were being more time conscious)
We’d eat here again, but not if we ran into the same circumstances.