Black Bear Diner Tempe

Shame on me for not visiting sooner. I live 5 minutes away and I never thought of going here for breakfast!! They don’t advertise in the neighborhood like IHop and Danny’s, so it just never came to mind. I was shocked when I showed up and the entire dining room was full!! It was Sunday at 10:00am! I waited 10 minutes to be seated, which was acceptable. The food took a bit long (almost 20 minutes) to come to our table, but my cinnamon French toast was worth the wait. The menu has overwhelmed amount of items, but that’s why they are so successful!! No advertising and still packed! 10/10!

Fun atmosphere! If you love a great breakfast and bears, this is your place. Hands down the best home-fried potatoes I've ever had. So delicious. The waffle was superb. Such a yummy flavor to it. The service was acceptable but nothing over the top. This is a great place to bring the kids and the whole family. Take a walk around and check the other areas too. Great coffee and the offer flavored creamer too.

Food, portion and price is wonderful. Breakfast is so yummy, their blueberry pancakes are soo good as well as their eggs and omelets. Everything is yummy, it won't disappoint.

This was a wonderful experience, start to finish. I'm in town for the week and was looking for something outside of the traditional chain restaurants. Black Bear Diner fits the bill to a T. The atmosphere is wonderful. I was greeted as soon as I came in, and was immediately struck by the decor. It's very comfortable and there's lots to look at. My server was pleasant, and quick with recommendations. I ended up going with the chicken fried steak, a weakness of mine. I got the side salad for a starter, and when I asked for ranch I was told they make theirs with bacon and onion, and was that ok with me? Can confirm: totally worth it. That was delicious, and set the tone for the rest of the meal. Everything was great, I couldn't have asked for better. I'll be back, for sure!

Ordered the Santa Clara tri tip med rare. The flavor was very tasty. The meat was hard to cut and to chew. Waitress was adamant and said it was because it was med rare and needed to be cooked more. Which of course that was not even close. Decided to let her play out her belief and was cooked more. Was not helpful. She offered to have me order something else. Was getting late and at least these restaurants serve a lot of sides which were good and filling. I do understand it is due to the chef at this Tempe location. Another chef at a different location may know how to cook this particular meat with no problems. Always the case at franchises. Sadly, the chefs represent each franchise and this particular one we patronized, will go to a different location.

Carol was excellent! She was attentive, kind, and very sweet. She went above and beyond to provide quality service to myself and my friends, making us smile and laugh multiple times throughout our brunch, while also delivering our food and beverages in a quick fashion. The food was excellent as it always is and the atmosphere is so cozy and inviting. I will definitely be returning to this location specifically in the future.

The food was fresh, delicious and presentation is fantastic. I have been here several times. Each meal is fantastic. The taco salad is phenomenal! Thank you Black Bear Diner for your awesome food,service and convenient location.

Stopped by Black Bear Diner in Tempe on the evening of 11/1/25 and had a really good experience. The food came out hot, fresh, and delicious — classic comfort food done right. Even though there was only one server working, she was kind, attentive, and did her best to keep up with a busy dining room. The hostess was also very friendly and welcoming. Service was a little slow due to the short staff, but the quality of the food and the great attitude of the team more than made up for it. I’d definitely come back again!

This was not the first time we had visited this Diner. Last visit it warranted a 5 star review. This time hardly a 1 star. We were seated right away but took forever to get our iced tea and water. Then, came the time to order. Husband ordered biscuits and gravy along with medium eggs. My order was for what sounded like a great hot roast beef dinner with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and onion. Sounds good, right? Well, the meal arrived and we were flabbergasted (yes, that's the right word) with what was served. The biscuits were so hard a fork wouldn't even poke into them. We both tried. Eggs were cooked hard. The hot roast beef dinner was also unbelievable. Carrot (notice not a plural word) was shredded and maybe 1/4 teaspoon was on the plate with no onions, no mushrooms and maybe a half a sliced small red potato AND also mashed potatoes. The small piece of roast was covered with gravy. The lady across from us had ordered the same roast dinner. Hers included green beans with bacon..... she was allergic to that and didn't know why. She was trying to pick at the packed mashed potato and also was surprised at what was served. We didn't stay. We didn't eat it. Ridiculous. Manager apologized but neither of ours or the other plate we saw, should have left the kitchen

I used to live near the Chandler location and ate there often in the mornings. Especially when one of my family members used to work there. Black Bear Diner is a family-style restaurant (breakfast, lunch and dinner) that originated in California by a couple of buddies wanting to serve home-cooked meals. They would cook up many of their entrees in house and make up their own meatloaf, cobblers and biscuits. Today, Black Bear Diner is a huge chain and has locations all over the U.S. I love to camp and appreciate the outdoor theme and wood-carved bears all over the place. The menu comes in the form of a newspaper and has articles that you can read in addition to their food offerings. The portion sizes here at Black Bear Diner are pretty big. I usually come here for breakfast and get the Bear's Choice or an order of Corned Beef Hash and Eggs. The sweet cream pancakes and waffle are amazing. I have yet to order them, but the pies and bear claws in the window display always look so good. The prices here at Black Bear Diner are comparable with other family restaurants. Sign up for their email and get a free breakfast meal on your birthday.

Black Bear Diner used to be really cute and kitschy. I've had a few great experiences here for hot, tasty food. This past experience was super subpar. The floors were icky, service was super slow and food was a disappointment. Some of our entrees came out colder (presumably waiting on others coming out the same time), grits were cold and lumpy, cheese omelette had a small piece of bacon inside of it (not great for ovo-lacto vegetarian) and potatoes were undercooked. The presentation of the pancakes with strawberries was pretty! Maybe I'm just being a bear, but overall it wasn't great.

My partner and I come to this location from time to time, as we live in the area. Black Bear Diner provides a nice comforting atmosphere and we have had good service almost every time we come. Our waiter, Haley was friendly and attentive to her tables, good experience overall!

We were nearby, so I suggested Black Bear for breakfast. It was not bad. We had an omelette and chicken fried steak. Service was good, the staff was friendly and pretty attentive. The food was decent. However, both the hash browns and country potatoes were both overdone. Overall, it was a solid 3 out of five.

Can you say "Sweet Cream Pancakes"? The pancakes and the bacon make this place worth going to!

Ordered our food, nearly a half an hour ago and still waiting... This is absolutely ridiculous!!!!!! we need to do black Friday shopping and you're holding us up!!!!!!

Have gone here pretty often with my mom, we're always seated right away and our order is usually taken pretty fast but the food takes absolutely FOREVER to come out. Only reason we keep coming back is because the food tastes pretty good even though it's never hot.

Went there on Saturday morning for breakfast and was very disappointed. The ham steak was very dry and the potatoes we're not very good at all. The toast seemed old. we did enjoy our server. She was nice and very efficient. Not sure we'll come back though.

I like ordering their meatloaf meal via Uber Eats. It's tasty and comes with some onion rings on top. There have been a few mess-ups with my orders though. One time, on of my sides was forgotten and another time the portion didn't come as expected (one of the pieces was smaller than usual). Otherwise, I enjoy this meal. Good comfort food.

It fed us... We decided to stop in after my daughters dance class. We were able to quickly place our order which was nice, as we were in a time crunch. We orders them the western bbq burger with a side salad and fries and the mini corn dogs. The food came quickly and our waiter was friendly. The food however was very much mediocre. The side salad was not very fresh, the burger and corn dog all tasted like a warmed up tv dinner. I've honestly had better burgers at Burger King. It's not something I'd purchase again, especially not at the price point of nearly $30. I have however had some great items at BBD before so I believe what I ordered was just not it.

Perfect place to come if you want to hear your conversation and if you want a good portion of food! We did a breakfast date here and the location was perfect for us! The staff were all very nice! Our waiter was awesome!!! I had the Grizzly meal but they forget my grits which I didn't notice until after we left. Usually it's a great meal with 2 big pancakes , ham, bacon, sausage, and grits which again they forget to bring out. I love this meal honestly and will get it everytime I go! Tons of free parking on site!

Black Bear Diner exceeded my expectations. We are exploring breakfast restaurants around the Ahwatukee corridor. My vegetable hash with scrambled eggs and included fresh avocado was excellent. My husband gave high praise for their Denver omelette. Our service from the 40-ish dark-haired male server was on point. --He was disarming, very kind. The only miss was the hash-brown strips they served, parts over cooked and parts undercooked. I wish restaurants would just stick to grated hash-browns. I love that fresh fruit is an option. Cute place and I expect we will return!

I have found that breakfast places tend to be quite packed in the mornings, especially on Sundays. As such, it takes awhile to get your food. Since this place was packed, it must be pretty popular with people for good food. All of the tables seemed full. When I ate the eggs, they tasted sweet to me. I usually go for salty eggs. Even when I make eggs at home they usually don't taste sweet or salty. If I put salt on the eggs I make at home, then they taste salty. The eggs I got were still a bit runny. You can select from a few different options for how the eggs are cooked. I thought the egg would have a yellow that was not runny but not solid. It should be the egg would have a partly set yolk where it is still a little creamy (yet not thin and runny). If you know what your yolk is like from a 7-minute soft-boiled egg, you know what you get with over-medium. My waffle was soft both inside and out. It had a really cute bear paw print on it. The outside did not have a light crispy texture to it. I had the sweet cream waffles. I thought they would have sweat cream or whipping cream on them. I didn't see any whipping cream or sweet cream on top of them. They also didn't taste sweet. The eggs were sweeter than the waffle. If you order on the web, they have a charge for the take out box. They call it a packaging fee. I ordered ahead and I was surprised. Tax is also applied to the amount charged for the take out box. I have never seen this type of charge before.

Went for breakfast on a Sunday and was seated right away. Our service was prompt and with a smile. Food was good and as expected from a large chain restaurant. We had the 2 egg chicken fried steak, and a few other dishes like the 2 egg 3 link sausage. It was all hot and served with a nice presentation. The pancakes at Black Bear are always my favorite breakfast dessert. They are so sweet and delicious. We will be back with strong hopes of enjoying our meals again.

Party of 9 for brunch, service was fine. Everyone was pleased with the food but kids didn't like the shakes or chocolate milk. Bathrooms were relatively clean. Recommend this place.

Started out favorably, quick seating. Waited a long time to get a server. The food service was so slow and upon arrival, the food was lacking. Specifically asked about peanut butter for waffles for health reasons and was served waffle w syrup. No accommodation offered. The biscuit and gravy had great eye appeal but was dry and the gravy was scantly covering it. Had to get bacon cooked as ordered.

I wanted to love this place but honestly couldn't quite get there. Their sausage was very flavorful but the rest of everything our family of 5 ate was lacking of any real or interesting flavor- bland diner food. They even managed to make bacon boring. Lol Service was friendly and did a decent job. Only plus is they have excellent portion sizes and their decor and bear collectible type stuff for purchase are both really cute.

The laveen black bear diner was my first experience of this place a few years ago and it was so bad, I vowed to never go back. Fast forward to today, I had time to kill while waiting at the dealership so I took a stroll with my daughter here because it was one of the only places in the area that was kid friendly. This location helped redeem this place for me. The service was slow but other than that, it was a great time! The waitress was kind enough to sit me at a bigger booth with my daughter which was needed because she is a busy body. I ordered her the kids build a breakfast with a pancake, bacon, and scrambled eggs. I got the combo with 2 chicken sausage links, sweet cream waffle, and eggs over medium. Everything was cooked well and tasted great! The casing on the chicken sausage is a little tough but other than that, truly no complaints. We'd come back to this location for sure! My baby loved all of the bears too. The restaurant was clean and overall nice & quiet even with busy tables.

Worst place I've ever been! Level below Denny's! All the food was cold and microwave! I went into the bathroom and threw up! UGH!

First visit for breakfast mid-morning. Not many people when we walked in (about 9:30 am) but service, both before ordering and awaiting our order, was VERY slow. Took about 10 minutes for the initial server contact and another 30 minutes after order was taken. Server was polite and professional though. I ordered the "Grizz" which is listed as having 3 eggs; I received only two. Ordered "over medium" but received "over easy" (somewhat undercooked). Coffee costs about $3.50 but got only two cups - pretty expensive. Ham slice was good as were the pancakes but bacon was not "thick" (as advertised) and poor quality. Wifey got some sort of breakfast sandwich and was pretty happy except that it did not have what she considers standard meat content. She said OJ was very good. There are far better breakfast choices nearby so I really doubt we'll visit again.

Came here to use my birthday coupon, and I love the bacon and eggs but didn't really care for those sweet cream pancakes. The service was good she was nice. My husband didn't care for much of his food on his plate. The atmosphere was great.

Decided to try Black Bear Diner for the first time due to the advertised "biscuit experiences" I received by promotional emails. Upon arriving to the restaurant, we waiting for a bit before being greeted and sat. Waited a bit longer for our server who may have been new based on his greeting, "Hi" followed by a long pause and then, "I'll be your server today" followed by another long awkward pause and then, "Can I get you something to drink?" We finally ordered out food and I ordered the Baby Burn Chicken Fried Steak & Egg Biscuit with country potatoes. The food looked delicious and mostly it was. The potatoes had absolutely no flavor and had to be drowned in ketchup and pepper to be enjoyed. The biscuit was nice and buttery and drowned perfectly in country gravy. The eggs were cooked perfect and the chicken fried steak had good flavor. Overall I was satisfied with my food, aside from the potatoes. Service could use some improvement. I'm not sure if I would rush back to Black Bear Diner but I would probably give it another try if the chance came up.

My dad and I stopped in for dinner in a drive back to Tucson from Phoenix. It took quite some time for someone to come to the front and seat us, and the restaurant was almost empty. We were seated in a booth and ordered some ice teas while we read the menu, discussed our selections and waited. And waited. It took almost 10 minutes to receive our beverages. My dad ordered the pot roast and I ordered the tri-tip smaller dinner plate. My dad received a well done prime rib and I received some leathery tri-tip. Our server was nowhere within eight so we flagged down a manager, who told Dad that he would be happy to let my dad keep the prime rib (which he did not order) if he paid full price! Dad took a bite and returned his plate because it was grisly and dry. I didn't want to deal with returning my plate and had to ask twice for some BBQ sauce to help me down the tri-tip hockey pucks. Overall, poor service, poor food quality. You can do better, Black Bear.

Great, fast food. Big portions. We got the avocado toast and the country fried steak and eggs. Both were delicious. Carol was fast, friendly, and attentive. Great job!

I never understand how this place gets high reviews. Biscuits and gravy are horrible - dry biscuits, salty gravy with no other flavor, undercooked bacon. They barely even included any gravy which was fine since this whole thing was ridiculously inedible. The only reason it's a 2 star and not 1 is that the grits were good (but it's really hard to screw up instant grits).

Great Service and the food is good. They give you healthy portions The manager there is always ready to step in and help and greet.

I literally just walked out of here, 7:30am on a Sunday, I placed my order then went to bathe to wash my hands, when I returned my breakfast was there! Yes it was fast but boy oh boy was it cold! The potatoes tasted like old McDonald's French fries. They told me it would take 7 minutes to make new potatoes, so now the rest of food would be cold when those we're supposed to arrive, well I have good news for them all the rest of the food was already cold. I just got up and left. All the food was there for them. Btw, my server Carol was super nice. Not her fault.

SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER! Came here from a recommendation from an acquaintance. I have no idea what his standards are but this was awful! First off the staff are all dressed sloppy and look unkept except the hostess/cashier lady. Our waiter looked like he had on pajama bottoms. Pay some extra money and make sure your staff has adequate uniforms and stick to a standard of appearance! We sat down and ordered coffee. The coffee was bitter. They do however have flavored creamer so that helped. I ordered the steak eggs and red potatoes and a waffle. My egg was ordered and over medium they came over easy. The red potatoes are burned on the outside and stiff on the inside. Horrible. The waffles seem to be made with pancake batter instead of waffle batter as there was no flavor at all! The steak w was grizzly. Also after getting our food the waiter disappeared. We only saw him when he came to give us our ticket. No offer of any water refills on coffee how's things going nothing. We should have known with it being a franchise. We will stick to locally owned restaurants from here on out!

Good home type cooking, breakfast all day. There's a party room you can reserve. I ordered Eggs Bene and was happy with it. The sauce was too mild to me, but 99% of the Hollandaise Sauce I have is the same. The eggs were perfect! The bacon is tasty. The manager, Paul, was very accommodating.

I'm so shocked I'm giving this low review for one of my favorite places to eat! Well not this location. I ordered an omelet with wheat toast extra butter. My granddaughter ordered cinnamon roll French toast at first. My potatoes were not cooked all the way and the toast was white. My granddaughters ate her eggs but the cinnamon rolls had a horrible taste and they did not come as they are pictured out that we have seen in the past. We changed the order to the kids pancakes. Which were amazing per her report. I ate her ham which was cold and not cooked well even on the outside. Honestly the food was just horrible and especially compared to the brand Black Bear Diner! This location is a no go for me. I'll drive to Avondale for the best experiences and that an hour away. Now for other things. Cleanliness was horribly dirty. When we sat down there was food on all the menu items and no place wear. The waitress did her job well but I could see she was overwhelmed and handling most of the tables alone. I have no complaints there. Waiting up front was too long and the bathrooms were gross. Just sad to be honest.

My mother in law really likes diner food. Our waitress was very sweet 5/5. The mashed potatoes and brocolli were good! The gravy was pasty and I did not care for the chicken fried steak - it tasted like badly reheated frozen food. The restaurant was not very clean, there was food on the floor of the booth where we sat and the table was sticky. I might try a newer location with her for breakfast, but this one is a no for me unfortunately.

Successfully dealt with adversity! Our Server, Carole, was amazing. Quick, efficient and when our daughter didn't like what she had ordered, Carole jumped in and went over and above to offer her alternatives. Though my daughter ended up not getting anything else (daughter's choice) Carole graciously amended our bill (not necessary but definitely appreciated) and then the mgr on duty went an extra mile and further amended our check. The food was really good, but the service we received was exceptional. Both employees should be recognized for how they handled the adversity they faced. Thank you!

The food was good but service was baaaaad. There was no silverware so we asked for it. The girl said yes and then proceeds to go take someone's order. We had to get someone else to get our silverware. Anything we needed we'd go get it ourselves. My friend didn't get her soup yet was charged. As I said the food was good. Another girl named Alexandria took over to help out. She was professional and kind. Note to mngr: Get your trainees more training.

This is by far the worst restaurant experience I've had. The restaurant was extremely filthy. We were given a 20min wait and waited about 35-40. When finally sat we realized there were numerous tables available but they all had dirty dishes on top of them and on the ground. I would say it's probably due to short staff but the past 2 times we came it was a similar experience and the restaurant just look filthy everywhere. The girls working worked extremely slow and in lazy fashion. They didn't look clean or professional themselves. They looked as if they rolled out of bed, through their hair up and came to work. They all were moving extremely slow, no one seemed to care about the dirty tables but instead cleaned only when other parties began to complain about the wait. Once we ordered and they brought the drinks my cup was clearly dirty. It was not a clean cup which was extremely gross knowing I had drank a couple sips before questioning the weird dark smudges and marks on the inside and outside of the cup. When I had told her about the dirty cup she didn't seemed surprised or apologetic at all she just simply took the cup and said she'd return with a different one. They gave me a new cup/orange juice but had downsized it to a small when originally I ordered a large. We could hear a women yelling at the kitchen staff/cooks as to how messed up they are making everyone's orders and how they are missing multiple orders. We could hear waiters yelling "they haven't made this...." "I'm still missing xyz....." multiple multiple times explaining that the cooks didn't do this or that right or forgot meals and items.... it genuinely seemed like there was zero structure or professionalism when it came to the cooks or management of the restaurant and flow. Other customers began complaining because there was an insane wait for little amount of people. It wasn't like the restaurant was packed, the mess was literally just due to the management of the kitchen and restaurant. But for our party of 3 the biggest con was the dirty mess of the restaurant and the dishes used for our meal or drinks. Again the restaurant was not busy or packed whatsoever and yet it took over 35 min to be sat because the tables and floor were all dirty and then once sat we were given dirty drink dishes. Then placed our order and sat and waited for another 30+ min because of the mess in the kitchen . I'm not even lying guys on top of all of the we get our food and as I'm eating I pull out a hair. So sickening. We immediately left Wouldn't recommend

The first time I ordered from there, the food wasn't great and they got a few items wrong

Breakfast there, which we have gone before at this location was cold. Eggs, hashbrowns, sauce was all cold when we got it. The service was excellent even thought there was only one guy working the whole place on Thursday, May 11, 2023. The music was a bit old fashioned and country. We got the eggs Benedict with country fried steak. Possible the country fried steak took a while to fry before everything was done and was left on the heating pad to keep warm. Disappointed it got to us cold because it was good.

We made it for brunch and then black bear delivered a great dining experience. Pancakes were excellent as well as everything else we had. No disappointments here!

Able to be seated immediately without a reservation on Saturday morning. Took almost 10 minutes for a server to come by to take our drink order. Food was also slow coming out. Not all good was cooked as ordered and one of the waffle toppings supposed to be included they no longer offered but didn't tell us until after our food came.

Food was wonderful. Sweet cream cakes and blackberry stuffed French toast. Waitress was super nice and attentive. Even for a Sunday afternoon quick service and quick seating. Nice seating areas you don't feel like you are sitting on top of each other. Will be back to try more.

I don't usually write reviews but feel I have to. this year I was alone for Thanksgiving so I decided to take myself out for a nice dinner. several restaurants near me were overflowing. one had a 3 hour wait! so I went to this diner for their dinner but was very disappointed. first of all I waited 10 minutes to be waited on and finally asked someone if there was a waiter assigned to my section. (I was the only one there in this section.) The broccoli cream soup wasn't creamy, the turkey was undercooked, the green beans were cold. The only thing I could finish was the warn cornbread muffin and the mashed potatoes. Even the pumpkin pie wasn't acceptable. now it sounds like I'm a finicky eater but I assure you I'm not. I should have expressed my complaints while there but chose to just let it go. I left very disappointed.I will not be going back and I now understand why it has only 3 stars.

All servers wore masks. One person in the kitchen wore his below his nose and sometimes it did not even cover his upper lip. That spoiled the experience for is. Eve is a very good server. Friendly and attentive. If the kitchen employee had a mask, this trip would have been 5 STARS!

If you are planning to go for Thanksgiving . . . I highly recommend making other plans. Service was horrible (it wasn't even crowded at 1:00 pm) and the food was even worse! We've been there on several other Thanksgivings and never experienced this! AND, we were not alone! The two families in front of us trying to pay for these God awful meals had the same unacceptable experience! DON'T DO IT! . . . Unless you want your Thanksgiving ruined!

If you want comfort food this is the place to go. Had the meatloaf. And as always, it was good. The service was great. She had lots of tables on a Saturday night and she was nice and efficient. Recommend for breakfast and when you want your food to give you a nice hug.

Classic diner style with a touch of country chic. Their orange juice is real and they know how to make good crispy bacon! There is rarely a long wait for two, even during busy weekend breakfast hours. Their service is prompt & polite. To top it off, they actually have good coffee! We will definitely be back.

The food and atmosphere were amazing. Portions are huge so bring your appetite. The decor is cozy and rustic with cabin feel and tons of bears. Our server however was a little off. She seemed very stressed and like she couldn't keep up, but the restaurant wasn't very busy. What bothered us the most was how she went on about her late husband. Not even sure how we landed on the topic, but it felt a little forced like it was a larger tip angle she worked. We just didn't appreciate it while we were trying to enjoy a morning out.

Great Food ! Like the fact we can give your name and number to get a text while waiting for a table in the Comfort of my car. Aircondition of course :). Would have it have them 4.5 that day. I Just realized the didn't have a Senior menu and wasn't told if they have a discount as well. If they did have one wasn't told by waitress. Waitress was nice, but I think they're understaffed. I'll definitely be back when I find a coupon. ;) Happy Eating

Every time we pass thru Tempe we have to stop and eat here! Both the food and the service is always amazing. Food was cooked to perfection and the serving portions was very very generous!

Had no idea this location existed. We were looking for breakfast in Tempe that opened at 6:AM on a Sunday and this one popped up. Having had a good experience in several other locations this was a no brainer. Food and service were good except one item, they had forgotten to make grits. From experience their grits are better than most.