Black Bear Diner
Black Bear Diner is part of a huge chain of restaurants that covers much of the United States. It’s a place to get a hearty meal in a rustic and homey environment. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but I would only recommend Black Bear Diner as a place for a big breakfast to start the day. For any other meal, I’d honestly look elsewhere.
I would compare Black Bear Diner most directly with Denny’s and IHOP. These restaurants serve similar styles of meals and are similar in price points. All of them are popular on weekend mornings as families crowd into them for an early meal.
The menu comes to you in the form of an old paper newspaper. It’s a nice touch that really fits the general aesthetic of the restaurant’s environment.
For breakfast you can order pancakes, waffles, French toast, as well as omelettes and breakfast burritos. As I mentioned before, the meals here are large and designed to fill you up. In fact, Black Bear takes pride in giving you a meal that will stick to your ribs.
It’s hard to go wrong with a pile of pancakes dipped in sweet syrup, so in this regard Black Bear does a nice job. Pancakes will definitely fill you up and give you a full feeling when you leave. If you’re looking for more savory items, there are of course sides like sausage, bacon, and hash browns.
My biggest complaint here would be the hash browns as they come as oily strips piled on the plate. I guess this is their unique style, but I found the hash browns to be an item I didn’t want to eat. This is rarely the case at a restaurant, so I was surprised it gave me that sort of feeling. These certainly weren’t the crispy hash browns featured at Denny’s… and I’d have much rather had a hash brown patty from McDonald’s than this oily creation.
Also, on my visit to Black Bear, I asked for my eggs to be cooked over medium and they came very sunny side up and runny. I enjoyed the eggs, but they just weren’t what I had asked for.
On a more positive note, I found the staff to be extremely friendly and accommodating at Black Bear. Servers and even managers came over to the table to ask how we were doing and to make sure everything was going ok. This high quality of service is something I really respect about Black Bear, and it is something that more restaurants should emphasize.
For lunch, you can order items like sandwiches and hamburgers and for dinner you can get steak and other traditional American entrees. These items pale in comparison to the offerings that you can find at other dinner restaurants so I wouldn’t really consider Black Bear a place for an evening meal.
I do remember coming to Black Bear years ago and having the meatloaf. I’m pretty sure it put me off from coming back for almost a decade. No joke!
So I guess the bottom line is to come to Black Bear Diner if you’re looking for a filling breakfast or brunch and skip all the rest!
Website: www.blackbeardiner.com
Address: 255 Second St, Davis Ca 96516 with many other locations around Sacramento
Rating: C -
Though it has an older vibe, people still flock to the restaurant on weekends, so be prepared to wait if you’re coming for breakfast or lunch during these times.
