Black Bear Bistro & Brick Oven - American restaurant in Warrenton - 32 Main St, USA

I had a great experience here. They had a list of specials for the day (including the pesto gnocchi pictured below) along with their normal menu. I got a personal pizza which had a great finish and taste to it. No complaints for the food. I did not get anything at the bar but they seemed to have a good selection. The location is also something to note. Plenty of shops and places to get coffee if you are interested in doing something after you are done. Main reason for the four stars is there were a bunch of flies around our table that the staff didn’t seem to care or do anything about, and it took about 20-30mins after we got our take home box to get a check, eventually had to ask. Minor details but felt they needed to be mentioned. I would come back for a to go pizza!

I was supper excited to try Black Bear Bistro because of all the reviews and word of mouth. I was nothing but disappointed. We waited a bit for menus then ordered an appetizer of crab and spinach dip. Took forever to get our appetizer and when we did, there wasn’t enough bread to eat all the dip. The worst part is our meals arrived right after so we didn’t get to eat much anyway. All the food lacked any seasoning so it all tasted bland. The bread was stale and the fries were soggy with no salt or seasoning. The lettuce on the sandwiches had brown spots throughout and the chicken salad had gristle in it. There was four of us and we got our check, $100 for lunch, which included a 10% tax. What??? This is the most expensive lunch for something that was beyond disappointing. We will not be visiting this restaurant again.

Not very happy with my experience yesterday. The food we ordered was bland, we ordered crab dip and fried pickles for our appetizer and I ordered a crab melt for lunch which consisted of 1 piece of bread and the same crab dip we ordered as an appetizer on top with a piece of semi melted cheese on top of that. (It did not look or taste like a $16 meal) I could barely eat it. My friend had a steak and cheese which looked more appetizing. We ended up paying $83, which I thought was ridiculous for the poor taste and appearance of the food we ordered.

We had planned to eat across the street and truly wish we had waited for that kitchen to open… With only 20-25 customers total in this restaurant, it was more than hour before we got our food. I counted at least 4 servers working, so this was not a “we are swamped” situation. Our server would say, “I’ll give you a few minutes” then show up 5-15 minutes later. When we placed the order (30 minutes after being seated), he told the bearded guy at the pizza oven what we had ordered. The reply was… amazing… “Ok, whatever, I’ll get to it when I’m done.” He walked outside, lit a cigarette and played with his phone for 15 minutes. During this time, our server showed up with the bowl of soup we had planned to eat with the pizza. I asked if it was possible to have both items together, and his response was, “sorry, too difficult to do since we work with two kitchens.” He then walked out and joined his bearded buddy for a smoke break. WTH? It gets better… Bearded guy walks back in after a larger gentleman started behind the counter, and tells him “I’m going home now”. So, our bearded hero needed a 15-minute break before leaving for the day — and that break was more important than our food. Wow!!! The soup (crab bisque) was pretty good, as was the pizza. However, if we have to do this again, we will definitely not choose this restaurant — not unless we have just had a meal and have a few hours to sit around watching employees go on smoke breaks while customers wait.i

Sadly, I did not take any photos of the horrendous burger they tried to serve but it was still raw when given to me. At first sight, it looked great but I went to cut into it to see if it was cooked like I asked, and blood shot out of the burger when I cut into it. Upon opening, it looked like raw ground beef. They of course took the burger off the bill but they should’ve comped the whole bill if you ask me. The first drink I got (Mexican mule) was terrible. The old fashioned, didn’t look like an old fashioned. Everything about this night was a chaotic mess. The only saving grace, was our server Jake.

Carmines Me and my gal friend had the most beautiful experience at black bear. We sat outside where there was live music, heat lighting, and the ambience of the street being shut down really made the experience here amazing. There were kids dancing in the street, everyone was happy and it was such a great time at black bear. We got pizza and wine and it so good. Amber, our server, was on top of it. Our needs were met and she went above and beyond to make sure we were having a great experience. Amber, thanks for being so personable and being a girls gal, keep working hard!!!💗

Nice bar with indoor and outdoor seating. Wood fired oven pizza. Fried oysters and the po boy are must tries

Update yet again…. Decided to try the new menu. It’s a joke. If you’re looking to sit down for hours and eat pizza, this is your place. Leave the seafood and sandwiches in the kitchen. If you decide to order something from the wood fire side and from the normal menu, the wood fire items will show up about half an hour after the other food. They really need to hire more people. I think if they had the appropriate amount of staff or got on their staff about sitting around smoking instead of helping, it may be alright. The biggest issue is lack of service causing food to be cold and just awful. Update again... we just got the calzone and its not even the one ordered. Better yet, its burned beyond recognition and has little or no filling. See photo. Update.... don't buy from here. : They did it again!! I'm not purchasing anything from here anymore. Its obvious their staff have no idea what they're doing even when there is no one in the actual restaurant due to the pandemic. I thought for sure they'd be able to handle an order when there are absolutely no other people in the restaurant, but I was wrong and now they're trying to the door dash person who (unknown to them) takes a photo of all food before he picks it up. They say he forgot a pizza box under the to go order when they told him it was ready to be taken, the photo shows a single bag and nothing else. I do not understand what is wrong with these people! Black bear has gone down hill the last year or so. If you eat in, you'll be happy. If you're planning to order out, dont waste your time. They used to be great with pickup, but over the last year, pickup orders arent a priority anymore. Twice now I've ordered pickup and they have the two busiest people in the restaurant handing out pickup foods. The hostess or the bartender. This most recent adventure the hostess told us it wasn't ready just yet and proceeded to seat two couples. She then went over to the bartender and asked about the food behind the bar and rummaged through a take out order then came back to us and told us the bartender was figuring out where our order was. 10 minutes later after seating two more customers she asks us what our order was and then walked back to the bar and grabed the bags that she already looked through and declared they weren't ours, but were. a kids pizza was missing still when she came back but she insisted it wasn't ready yet, though there was a pizza box sitting next to the take out bags she just brought us. After her seating one more couple, she mentioned she would go check on the pizza, but before she dashed off, we asked her if the pizza at the bar next to the two bags she gave us was ours.... it was.. both her and the bartender put hands on both bags and the pizza box twice, and we stood there for nearly 25 minutes waiting for food to finish cooking that was sitting behind the bar already. Needless to say the food was cold now. I just dont understand why they'd change what has been working forever. I wont be ordering pickup here anymore. It's a disappointing experience now.