Place is open later than the other black bear diners I've dined at, which is great since I tend to do my SF to LA drive after work. It is one of the few non-fast food options in the area as well. Was just in the mood for soup and swung by and their minestrone was phenomenal. I got 2 bowls of it. Service was great, Ismael was attentive and fast. I would definitely recommend dining here the next time you pass the Tejon outlets. read more

Went in ordered my food after 5 minutes then waited an hour for my food. One waitress checked in at 45 minute mark "still waiting on food perfect" at that point I got annoyed because I had been on the road for two hours and just wanted my food. I decided to just get up and leave after seeing someone who came in after us get food and over hearing a waitress saying to another table they lost their order slip. Ended up going to habit down the street ended getting our food in 15 minutes even though it was business than black bear. read more

Been here twice for breakfast on weekdays. Not overwhelmed by the greeting. Plenty of room so sat in a booth. Might be the most uncomfortable booth seat since the last time I ate here. Coffee was good and came quick with water, then it took awhile, and longer to get my order taken. The sense you get is one of no urgency at all. But, the food came out quickly after ordering and was excellent. Hot, perfectly cooked and good flavor for the basic thick bacon, eggs over medium and hotcakes. I do not eat breakfast our much so i was surprised by the price, $18+ for mine before the tip. read more

My family and I were traveling and we decided to stop by, we always go to the black bear diner in my hometown. The chicken fried steak and waffles never disappoint!!! Rosa, our waitress was lovely and gave us a good experience. Despite being pretty busy she made sure to check on us and get anything else we needed. Overall the service was outstanding and so was the food read more

We stopped here for lunch. We had not been to a Black Bear Diner in a few years. We shared a salad and a tuna melt. Both were very good and the waitress (Tausha) was terrific. My only critique is that the prices seem higher than other similar places. read more

Awesome service especially after a spartan race. Food was delicious and cute small little store

Cold food, poor, slow service, 2nd time visiting a BLACK BEAR DINER (BLACK JUNK DINER). Typical overpriced ,poor service, junk. Cold biscuits and gravy, cold potatoes, they think because the plate is luke warm that their JUNK is hot. Do not waste your time or your hard earned DEFLATED money. read more

Food was great. But our server had major issues. She never even looked out way table of 10. Only refilled once. Sad because the food was very good. They need to fire these kind of servers. read more

Another pleasant dining surprise in this area. We stopped by for breakfast on a busy travel weekend. There's a bit of chaos when trying to get your name on the waiting list but don't worry. The wait isn't that bad. People apparently come here in waves, so a ton of people in, a ton of people out. The menu is a newspaper with all dining options available to the customer (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner). The one thing that resonated with me was that Black Bear offers "smaller" portions for a few of their more popular items. I chose the mini volcano which was sized just right for a long day of car driving. I did splurge and get one of their house made bear claws. Hell, why not. The service was pretty cheerful - Check out the Orange Juice machine. It crushes and juices oranges fresh for you. read more

Black Bear Diner Arvin - House made fruit claw. - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Arvin, California

See all

Excellent place for comfort food. Had the parmesan sourdough cheeseburger just delicious. Excellent service, friendly staff and very clean. Easy to find off the freeway. Vanessa is amazing ask for her. read more

Black Bear restaurants in all locations serves great portions of good food for a decent price. Have never been disappointed busy quality of food or service. read more

Just a bunch of racists over here. I wait in line for so long just to get something to-go. They didn't greet or say anything at all to me. And when somebody finally speak up, they decided to talk to the guy behind me and told them they got a table for him and completely ignored me like I'm invisible. Probably just because I'm the only Asian there. Good luck being broke for the rest of your life being stupid. read more

Just opening in December of 2014, this Black Bear is still working out the kinks that come with anything new. But as of today, besides being new; this restaurant is both clean looking and smelling and the wait staff seem to be very knowledgeable about the meals and are very hard working. If your in the area and need to take a break either before hitting the Grape Vine or just coming off of it. Give this place a once over. read more

See all

Excellent breakfast!! While on a road trip my husband and I stopped by for breakfast. My husband ordered the chicken fried steak with turkey gravy, home style potatoes and pancakes. Wow! I ordered 2 scrambled eggs, hash browns and a huge biscuit baked to perfection!Wow again! Great food, large portions, and excellent customer service. We will definitely stop by again! read more

See all

Stopped after the LA traffic back home. Never been here before. Nice little place. As soon as we walked in they couldn't figure out where to put us.. even though they had plenty of empty tables. Once we were seated. It took a minute to get menus. Waitress came up and said what do you want! Not no, Hi how are you! Or hi what would you like. After ordering it took about 40 minutes to get our food. In the middle of waiting in a semi empty place the waitress started counting and separating tips with another waitress.Our food finally came to us mind you it was BLTs and fries or onion rings. My son's order came with burnt bread. Not one but both sides. I had to eat my child sandwich. I wasn't going to wait another 40 min for another sandwich. My husband had surf n turf he got the steak and 4 fried shrimps on the plate and that's it. She had to make the salad still. He didn't get a steak knife. He asked for one and by the time he was done eating she came back to give us the check and asked if we wanted a refill. Didn't wait for an answer when she walked away. read more

See all

I would like to say we had horrible to service, that is if we got service at all. Hosted seated us, brought us water and that was it. No one ever came to take our order. 25 minutes we sat there until we just left. I am a huge fan of Black Bear Diners but this one was just horrible. We left and went to Dennys. read more

Amazing good and service! Definitely fulfilling after along drive! going to revisit again.

Seriously slow kitchen; after being sat we waited 45 minutes for our food. Our server was pleasant, but there was another one here that was very upset her section was full, I really don't like eating in a restaurant and hearing the servers throw fits. Maybe I'm just bougie. Food was eh, I've had better at most diners. Mistakes were made, parts were forgotten. Discounts were given. 20% Tip was left. Start to finish, about an hour and a half. read more

Super slow, food took forever and wasn't as good as other locations. I was disappointed.

Really if you don't know, BBD's are all over and from my experience are always awesome with giant portions and friendly helpful staff. Here is no different! Enjoyed our late breakfast, ate till we couldn't and left with the most affordable meal all during our trip. read more

we drive 25 miles to the arvin location instead of the Black Bear diner 2 miles from us. the food, the service, location, is GREAT!!!.. we love going to the diner. Tricia Brown has attended to us multiple times. she just makes sure everything is perfect!!! just like home made.... read more

First and probably only time I'll ever eat here. Stopped because we were passing through and saw the outlet center to stop at. The food was good. The staff seemed like none of them wanted to be there. One female employee who was on her dinner and got her meal from the kitchen stormed out from the back and yelled at the chefs "Who made my dinner!? It's RAW! Throw it away!" Mind you our table was right next to the food pick up counter from the kitchen and she felt it was a good idea to do all this in front of diners. Others just seemed over it and wanted to quit or go home for the night to recoup. I think the manager was having his dinner and watching TV while all this was going on. Not the most inviting place for a customer for dinner. read more

See all

My server was ok but the food tonight was horrible!! Not only did it take forever the food came cold! I have never been so upset. The cooks need to go. The food this evening was absolutely terrible and not even fit to feed to my dog. We drive from Bakersfield to come to this one because it's always been so good. Big fluffy pancakes, hot food, large portions, we always leave with a box. Not tonight. Got some cold garlic fries, and a sandwich that had 2 tiny fatty pieces of tri tip!! More slaw than anything. Not the typical blazin bear I'm used to getting. And the smallest portions ever!! Paying $12 for some soggy fries and cole slaw filled bread with green weird thumb prints on it! The servers were busy at the counter waiting for orders to come up and didn't get a a chance to tell her about it. The pancakes my son got looked like a child made them. We weren't the only ones upset. The orders took forever and everyone was angry. This has been our go to stop since it opened. After tonight not anymore. Management needs to get new cooks ASAP. Beyond disappointed. Biggest waste of money. read more

Black Bear Diner Arvin - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Arvin, California

See all

Takes so long, service is trash, food is cold and late, the African American girl with the white spots is rude, atmosphere is dead, don't stop here spend your money somewhere else read more

This is one of my favorite places to eat... but not this one... I'm here for the second day and the service, the cooks are just awful... they just slop your food on your plate. No seasoning, burnt items... black Bear don't deserve these clowns in here cooking making garbage food! This place need new management period! read more

Worst service ever , 2 ppl came after me were addressed and served quickly , since I'm sitting at bar stool I can see my food been cooked but just sitting under heat lamp, she bring it to me when I point it out , food was Good but won't come back ever again read more

Very slow service, almost got up to get my coffee geez people!! I asked for more napkins and gave a nasty look. And the coffee cup was dirty, had lipstick on it!! But anyways, sitting here looking at my food, was sitting there, done, geez this place was the bomb!very disappointed. read more

I enjoy stopping in here to sit down and have a meal. I really enjoy the Beacon cheese burger salad. Service is nice and overall it's a nice stop. read more

I have to write this review cause everyone in the car is complaining how horrible breakfast was. So we were a party of 4 and we waited about 20 min for a table ...understandable they were busy and it was a Sunday morning. So we ordered breakfast and omg the hashbrowns were not cooked and tasted like raw potatoes and the breakfasts were cold but we all just ate ours cause the wait was so long to get our food so we didn't even bother to return. And omg the biscuits were more like Brickcuits Super hard and old tasting tried putting extra butter and jelly but still didn't help ..maybe we should have dipped them in water and soaked them first!! Thank god we went shopping and that was a success to the end of our trip So Black Bear may want to retrain the cooks ..well Atleast the ones on Sunday mornings. read more

Great place to pop in if you're visiting Fort Tejon. Carolyn and Alejandra were marvelous. Thanks especially to Alejandra who introduced us to other staff, including the chef, saying, "Make their food with lots of love." Definitely recommend sitting at the bar where you can have delicious mimosas and make new friends! read more

On our way to san francisco we stop by the black bear dinner. While we were waiting for our food the waitress handed my 2 year old daughter a little teddy bear. These lil things remind me of the good ol days growing up i appreciate you guys for putting a smile on my daughter face and the fried chicken is amazing!! read more

This diner is a gem of a place at the base of the Grapevine. It will probably become a route stopover on our trips north up the I-5. Our server Trish was very attentive and refilled out ice teas several times. My wife hamburger and my chicken fried steak were very tasty. So far I haven't been to a Black Bear Diner that's disappointed me. read more

As expected, food was hot and tastes great! Location was perfect to sit down and eat good food after few hours of driving (several more hours after our meal). Our server, Ashley, was very friendly and attentive to our orders and requests. This place is a very cozy and feels like home. read more

Service gets 5 stars but the food was bland warm tasteless and a bit overwhelming, I asked for the kitchen sink omelette or something or other and all I can say is it tasted sour like when you keep using the same damn oil over and over again, I asked for bacon outside but I got it inside I was like ok and had to switch utensils cause the were still dirty and wrapped with a clean knapkin with I don't get it cause someone has to have seen it and my second set of utensils where also dirty except my fork, coffe was good thank God I still love black bear diner cause I go.to the one in signal hill CA and that one is always on point sorry Arvin CA. Black Bear Diner but you guys gotta fix this I couldn't even finish my breakfast cause I started feeling disgusted and ask the young guy for a glass of water. read more

Great! Love the comfort food. I ordered the steak and eggs. Steak was perfectly cooked with a side of biscuit. The biscuit!!! Jesus, they are the size of softballs and delicious. The hostess and waitress were awesome. It took a while to get the food due to staff shortage but our waitress updated us. Just got to be patient and be respectful. It's not their fault and they are doing the best they can. read more

Our server Alyssa was awesome!!! She was very polite and attentive!! And the food was great as always!! I would totally recommend this Black Bear Diner to anyone traveling near the area. read more

Stop by on our way to universal studios to get some lunch the waitress was nice and outgoing the food was delicious i will definitely be back read more

Black Bear Diner Arvin - Pie display - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Arvin, California

Staff went ABOVE and BEYOND for us today! We three ladies came in this afternoon and after a brief time one of us was told that they didn't have the pot roast she ordered. She was looking over the menu trying to decide on an alternative when a manager appeared with a plate of steaming delicious pot roast that he said he "pieced together" We truly appreciate this display of stellar customer service!!! read more

The food was alright but the service was terrible. We got there and checked in and a party of the same size came in after us and they seated them in the booth that was for my party. We ordered our food and it took almost an hour to get our food. The waiter was not checking on us. And it was very upsetting. read more

This was my first experience at a black bear, and my last. This is probably the worst restaurant experience I've ever had. We came on a Monday around 245pm. So it was not busy. There were a lot of staff just standing around not doing anything. We waited about 10-15 minutes for a table. . Then we were seated and noticed all the other tables had placemats but us. There were 2 dirty tables next to us that didn't get cleaned the whole time we were there, which was like an hour and a half. We waited 25 minutes for drinks and then almost an hour for food. Our food only came out because my mom got up and told them that I was pregnant and starting to get dizzy, and magically our food came out a couple seconds later. Our waiter kept disappearing. The food was lukewarm. It had obviously been sitting for a long time. Terrible service. Then I took my 3 year old to the bathroom. And a couple girls came in and were cussing like crazy. I opened the door after we were done and was shocked to find that it was 2 employees. My kid doesn't need to hear that. After all of this, you couldn't pay me to come back. Do your self and your family a favor and go to Dennys or Ihop across the freeway. read more