I there on a very busy night (halloween) in full costume. My server, T, was incredible! He was not only funny but managed to keep his many tables happy including us. My partner and I got sandwiches, which were fantastic! The OJ and fries were incredible. read more

I ate at Black Bear Diner on their opening day. The service was impeccable! Delila was our waitress and she was the best! Very patient and friendly! She got our orders perfectly! Absolutely wonderful! Our food was delicious. I had pancakes, bacon and eggs. My cousins shared meatloaf and mashed potatoes and broccoli and salad. Yum! We loved having our picture taken with the bear. FUN! I will be back! Atmosphere was lively and everyone was enjoying themselves. read more

First off the GOOD: Been there twice. Service was absolutely stellar both time. The overall vibe is second only to that of SYBIL'S (easily the best breakfast restaurant in Salem!). Now the BAD: First visit I ordered a Reuben. My wife ordered a chicken club. The Reuben was packed with corned beef, HOWEVER, there was no Swiss cheese; no thousand Island dressing (I had to ask the waitress to bring me some separately); and almost no sauerkraut. It's as though the chef never even heard of a Reuben! The chicken in my wife's club was as dry as dust. Second visit we decided to split their HUGE "Taco salad." First off it was advertised as a large Taco shell "lined with beans." Well the shell was HUGE but there wasn't more than a tablespoon and a half of beans. The thing was mostly lettuce. There was about half of the other ingredients we expected, and what little grilled Chicken included was again as dry as dust. CONCLUSION: A Reuben, a chicken club, and/or a taco salad ordered anywhere else may not be as HUGE, but the quality is very likely to be superior to what they are so far serving at Black Bear Salem. We will try them out one more time. If the results are much the same, we will not be returning. Those reviewers RAVING about the quality of the food should not consume alcohol before eating there! read more

Food was delicious and quick, Tiffany was a wonderful server and was kind and joyful. Portions was huge for a great price!

45 minutes for food that is on par with IHop or Denny's. Wait staff very attentive. Food way overpriced. Hard pass for us.

I had ham & eggs with loaded hash browns with biscuits and gravy. The hash browns were under cooked a tad bit. The ham was great as was the eggs. The biscuit and gravy was great. I never had a biscuit as soft as this was great taste. The server was great Tiffany keeps checking to see if I needed anything. She keeps the coffee full. read more

This was our second time eating at the Black Bear. Food has been so fantastic. It was our nephew's birthday and he had never been there so the three aunties took him there for dinner. Service was great, I wish I could remember her name, dark hair in a pony tail (she was wearing bear ears or something?) anyhow she was right on. Food was the way we wanted, service kept our coffees hot, pepsi was refilled and food was delivered fast. It is a clean place, no complaints. We will be coming back again. Yes sometimes you have to wait a few minutes for a table, but our wait has never been very long. I can't wait to go again. read more

Food was great, besides the wait ( maybe because they are new on Salem) we came around 10.15 am and waited like 20 minutes , we sat and order our food and came pretty fast, not hot, luke warm more to the cold side but we liked, the waiting was so so because the doors at the entrance was slamming constantly they need an adjustment, everything else was great. read more

I was surprised and very disappointed in my food from Black Bear. I got a blue cheese bacon burger and Caesar salad. The salad was swimming in an off-flavor dressing. With stale unflavored croutons and very little cheese. The burger was cold and greasy. There was one piece of burnt bacon one small slice of tomato and the leaf of lettuce was wilted and had those brown speckled they get through the rib of it. It was supposed to come with the deep fried onion straws. I think I'm glad they missed including those. The wait staff could easily see I was not impressed with my food but made no effort to offer me any options. Two staff were off shift but stuck around to have a very long loud animated conversation right behind the screen at their work station. I'm not talking 5 minute conversation...I'm talking nearly 20 minutes. The group included a person that appeared to be in a leadership position. All and all...very disappointing experience. read more

I had breakfast consisting of eggs, pancakes and ham and English muffin. Oh...black coffee. The coffee was definitely not a $4.00 cup of coffee. The pancakes were huge and not bad at all. The fried eggs were a bit on the cold side, but edible. The English muffin was like a hockey puck. Hard as a rock. The ham was pretty good, but was only about 2" x2" piece. The waitress was very friendly, checked on us a couple of times. Good service. I think Shari's food was much better. Not sure we'll make a return trip to BBD. read more

Just ate there.. The wait was only 15 minutes for dinner and the food came out pretty quick for how busy they were. Waitress was very attentive and knowledgeable. When I did get my Chicken Fried steak, it was lukewarm so I did send it back to be reheated, which was fast and it was delicious.!!! I will definitely be returning. read more

WOW! The portions here are so big and the service is outstanding! I've been waiting for the Salem Black Bear to open and so glad to have you in town. Tiffany was our server and we never lacked on our coffee being refilled and her checking up on us. Thank you read more

Absolutely the worst Black Bear experience we have ever had. We have probably been to about 25 BBDs in 4 states and never had a bad meal. Until now. Food was served cold, ordered bacon extra crispy and it was barely cooked at all, cold, floppy and soaked in grease. We complained the coffee, (normally very, very good at BBD) was awful and not even hot. Waitress instantly went back and returned with a second cup. Just terrible. Took one sip and spit it out. When we told her that it was bad she just sort of passed it right off. Not that she wasn't nice but she just didn't care. We expected her to take $3.99 off for undrinkable coffee and she didn't even act like we were talking. Just walked away. Went up to pay and told the cashier that we shouldn't have to pay for something that was bad. The eggs, potatoes biscuit and bacon were ice cold. We let that pass by and ate it anyway. Now we are not normally problem people and rarely complain but when it is all together bad and no one working there cares at all, then it's time to complain. This will be our very last time to a Black Bear Diner and we will spread the word to as many as will listen to us. Happy for those of you who had good dining experiences here at the Salem Black Bear. Normally we RAVE about BBD and tell our friends and family to never hesitate when there's a choice to be made. For this one I'd say STAY AWAY or risk food borne illness in undercooked, food served cold and congealed in its own grease read more

A group of us went to the Black Bear last week. Unfortunately, most of us said we will never go back. Some food was cold, some was not cooked correctly (like when my friend asked for over-medium eggs and got very over-easy with uncooked whites), and my husband's waffle was not golden brown; it was dark brown, very dry, and cold. Some orders were just downright wrong. As for myself, I will give the place a second chance, hoping that they improve given time. read more

My grandson and I had lunch today at Black Bear Diner. We had about a 15 minute wait. It's still pretty busy place. Our server was friendly and efficient. She stopped by the table several times after our food arrived to make sure everything was ok. Good service and good food. We'll be back again. read more

It is amazing here I love the portion to price, I had Sarah she was fabulous and so kind and you don't see a whole lot of people who can make your day from horrible to amazing. I love this restaurant and I highly recommend. read more

Wait time wasn't too long about 15 mins for 3 people. Service was fast. Food was good. Got our 2 dishes mixed up (different omelets) and didn't offer to remake.. is my only complaint. Will be back! read more

Our server messed up on 2 orders. We wanted hashbrowns and it came with potatoes. Then she didn't come around asking us if we wanted more coffee. Salem, oregon read more

Food was great with generous portions. Our server, Sarah, took great care of us and was fun to chat with throughout the meal!

We waited at our table for 10 minutes without being acknowledged and 3 servers making eye contact. So unfortunately we left without getting to try the food. They were not that busy. I'm fine with waiting but not being out on terminal hold. read more

Great service, prices are fine. Food was good just a couple minor issues with the food. I will be going back for dinner soon.

For only being open a week, the kitchen did a really good job! The wait staff that did a good job and kept themselves busy. You can tell they're trying hard.! But there was one OUTSTANDING Young lady who ran circles around everybody, She did a fantastic job! She always had a smile on her face. She was super sweet and kind. She double checked peoples tables she cleaned tables, she waited on tables and she sat people, all with a huge smile. Her name was Judith. I hope that they treat her well and they can keep her on staff. She is a definite, shining light. It's hard to find good workers and she's definitely way up there.. Our food was pretty yummy as well, but it was nice to have really good service. You don't find that in Salem very often. read more

Hey Hungry Bears.... Just now finished a spectacular meal at Salem's newest dining gem, Black Bear Diner (Commercial & Keubler). Our vivacious server, Jacque, has got more personality than any human has a right to own. What a tremendous ambassador for this established and successful brand. Outstanding service!!! This first week of operation, the place was packed with happy, hungry and friendly patrons. The menu is rather extensive; took me five minutes to peruse and another ten to choose. EVERYTHING looks great. I settled on the Chicken Melt....only because the Roast Beef Melt was sold out! Chicken Melt: solid winner. My girl asked for the Taco Salad. Which is roughly the size and height of Mt Shasta. Prepare to be well fed!!! Go Bears!!! Richard & Mary - Salem. read more

Let me start by saying that we love black bear diner. We have been so excited that we finally had one closer to home and we finally were able to try it today.. unfortunately it was not the experience we hoped for. We arrived at around 7:30pm. We got seated immediately but waited 15 mins to even have someone come by and get our drinks. Not our waiter just a worker who passed by. The server finally came about 5 mins later to take our order AFTER she had greeted and taken two other tables orders who arrived after we did. She was very nice but by the time she came by we were already a little annoyed. We ordered, my husband ordered a coffee which came but we asked for creamer, the waiter forgot bringing it about 10 minutes later only after we asked for it again. We finally got our food about 25 mins later... cold... we asked for crispy bacon, it was soggy... my hash browns were burnt. My daughter's pancake was burnt.. my husband's plate came with pancakes, we never got them. When the waiter FINALLY came to check on us we had finished eating. We let her know about the pancakes and she offered to get a new order to take home. She also made a comment saying " I wish you would have told me sooner"... mind you she never checked on us. By this time we were already taking left overs so we wanted to just get a discount for the not getting our full order. We aren't ones to complain about things especially because we have worked in food service in the past but the service here was just terrible. While we were there we heard MANY apologies for multiple tables.. unfortunately we will not be recommending this location or coming back. We left extremely disappointed and would rather drive to a different location. Reading the other reviews for this location, we wish we would have seen sooner but tonight we spent too much money for bad customer service and cold food. read more

1 star because food was good after it finally got to the table I would give a no star if I could . we were there at 830 am 4 tables in the whole place then it got packed a half hour before we got our food we watched table after table get their food eat and leave . I finally asked our waitress what was going on she said it would be right up 10 min later I asked a waiter not ours what was going on , then we finally got breakfast it was good worth the price debatable. when I told the waitress the price was ridicules for the wait she said she would get the manager but apparently the manager was too busy to talk to her customers who pay their pay checks but gave us $4.00 off the bill INSULTING at best . funny because Redmond location is top notch . we won't Ever go back ever not a good impression for a new restaurant . read more

I usually love Black Bear Diner especially the one in Wilsonville where the food and customer service are always great but my experience at the Commercial St. location was really disappointing. When our plates were brought out, my partner had ordered onion rings as his side. The server set his plate down, and there were only three small onion rings. I looked at her thinking it had to be a mistake. She mentioned that our plates had been sitting there getting cold while they waited for more onion rings, but that didn't make much sense how do you only get three onion rings out of a batch? It made me wonder if they were leftovers or from someone else's plate. A few minutes later, another server brought out a separate plate with just two onion rings on it. That was even more embarrassing. I asked, "That's it?" Then I spoke to our original server and asked if that was all my partner was supposed to get. She said each plate comes with five onion rings. However, I had just seen another customer nearby get a plate with onion rings, and she definitely had more than five even after eating some. When I mentioned that, the server insisted the other person only got five as well. She asked if I wanted to speak with a manager, and I said no at first because I didn't want to make a big deal. Later, after asking for to-go boxes and the check, I decided to speak with one. A different manager came over and immediately asked what the problem was but with an attitude. I explained the situation, and he repeated the same line as the server. I mentioned again that another customer had clearly gotten more onion rings, and he said "every plate gets five," but then also said it's "by weight." I asked which one it actually was by count or by weight and he just walked away, shaking his head and mumbling under his breath. It was very unprofessional. Overall, the food was fine, but the service and attitude were disappointing. I really expected better, especially since the Wilsonville location has always been such a great experience. read more

We decided to try the new Salem restaurant Friday 12/26 a little after 1pm. We were seated about 15 minutes after arrival. We were seated at the table right next to the kitchen entrance with employees coming in and out constantly. I believe it the worst table in the place. Our order was taken pretty promptly and we proceeded to wait for our food. After waiting for our food for approximately 40 minutes, we enquired with our waitress about where our food was. She indicated that she already checked 3 times and that it was coming soon. After another 10 minutes or so, our food showed up. I had ordered the fish and chips. My fish was good tasting, but the fish was luke warm and the fries were cold. My brother's sandwich was barely eatable. He ended up disassembling the sandwich and eating the eatable parts. He was tempted to send it back, but our wives were with us and they persuaded us not to make a fuss. The saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. My brother says he's not going back. That was his second time there. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to give it e second chance. read more