"First time going there and I was not disappointed. I'm just starting with my pregnancy cravings and my food hit the spot. My son's pancake was adorable and delicious and my husband's chicken and waffle was pretty good as well. We ordered some dessert and I was just amazing. The service was good too. I'm a little obsessed with bears and well, that place was full of them. It's really pretty!! I totally recommend."

"This was my first visit. I ordered the Bacon & Cheddar Burger and Bob's Big Bear Burger. Both were substantial and delicious. Bob's Big Bear Burger was especially filling. The French fries were also generous in portion."

"The food was absolutely amazing and customer service impeccable. We brought my sister here to celebrate her birthday from the East Coast and she was the one to find this restaurant. If you're looking for quality food and a friendly environment for the entire family please down here at least once while in the area. I pray God continues to bless this business and all those that work here whether it's for a season or is your career!"

"Black Bear Diner in El Cajon is located in a conveniently accessible strip mall close to the freeway. The decor inside is cozy, decorated in a woodsy bear theme and makes you feel like you are in a cabin in the woods. Restaurant is spacious and their menu (in newspaper format) offers lot of choices and at a relatively reasonable price point for most dishes. We ordered reuben (carved corned beef on grilled rye with cheese, sauerkraut) sandwiches with sweet potato fries and with garden salad. Also one of our friends ordered caesar salad with blackened salmon. Our waitress rushed us a bit with our orders and she was not in a good mood for some reason. We all felt like that she was unfriendly and not welcoming. When food came out, my friend with the garden salad noticed a piece of unknown item which looked like a piece of meat in her vegetarian salad. She located our waitress and was told that it was a piece of bacon in the salad. My friend graciously accepted that explanation and went back to eat her salad. Waitress never offered to replace the garden salad at no cost to her. Also, she dropped some of the garden salad between our seats at the table when she brought us the food. She acknowledged that part of the salad was dropped to the floor but she made no effort to pick up the leafy greens on the floor to avoid the possibility of one of her guests slip and fall and fall from stepping into the leafy greens on the floor. During our meal, she stopped by one time at our table to inform us that she’s taking her break and asked us if we needed anything. We asked for refill of our drinks and to bring us take out order boxes/bags. She brought us all except the refill of my coffee. My friend reminded her to bring coffee refill for me, she gave us a little bit of her bad attitude and went to get the coffee refill but not at once apologizing for her lack of attention to her customers request. Our friends all felt relieved that the waitress was taking her break and hoped that we didn’t need to deal with her bad attitude. She ruined our first time customer experience at Black Bear Diner. However, waitress came back after her break and she was in a much lighter and better mood. Guessing that she really needed her break or perhaps that she knew she had to be nicer to earn her tips. It’s time like this that I hated to give any tips to the undeserving server, however, I did give the minimum 10% tips reluctantly. Our reuben sandwiches were average in taste and in portion. The sweet potato fries were soggy and disappointing. We really want to like this diner for our friends meet up luncheon but it’s unlikely we will be back due to unimpressive food and unacceptable manners of the waitstaff as she ruined our dining experience."

"i love this all day breakfast/dinner diner. very delicious !! i enjoyed the atmosphere here, very cottagecore-like. the foods have not been disappointing either and the service was decent. quite affordable too. would come back again. also, i love the playlist they played :)"