After having been on the road for a few days, eating primarily fast food, we decided to get breakfast at a real restaurant on our way through Missouri. We stopped at Black Bear Diner in Saint Charles, Missouri, and ordered our food online for pickup.
I went into the restaurant at the allotted time to pick up our order. After a few minutes, a server came to the front with bags of food and asked for my name. When I got to the truck with the food, we realized that there was no silverware in the bag, so I went back inside to ask about plasticware. I waited at the front for a while with no contact from any employees. It was evident that the restaurant was severely understaffed.
I waited patiently until another customer finished their meal and came up front to pay. Their server met them at the counter and took their payment without acknowledging that I was there. The server who had given me our food returned to the front with another order. When she saw me standing there, she asked if I was picking up another order. When I asked for silverware, she quickly brought some to me.
I ordered a California Omelet, which comes with avocado, mushrooms, and Monterey jack cheese. I added bacon, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese. The omelet comes with a choice of potatoes and a biscuit. I thought it was odd that most of the ingredients were on top of the eggs instead of inside. I quickly forgot about that once I tasted it. The omelet was fantastic, with fresh-tasting ingredients and beautifully cooked eggs. The light, fluffy biscuit was massive. While the biscuit was tasty, it would have been nice if they had given me butter and jam as well. I was disappointed with the hash browns. They were strip cut, which gave them a unique flair, but the potatoes were severely undercooked. Aside from a few nicely browned spots, the potatoes were just shy of raw.
Chris ordered the 2-egg Combo with Corned Beef Hash. While the brisket was lovely and the hash was obviously made from scratch, the eggs were overcooked and they had not cooked the potatoes all the way through, rendering them inedible. While we were disappointed with the rushed potatoes, overall, the meal was decent, and it was nice to eat something other than fast food.
Cost for two meals $27.66.
Bummer about the hash browns — when they’re actually cooked, BBD does a good job of them. If you decide to give the chain another shot, their chicken fried steak is pretty good, they do a decent Reuben, and their garlic fries (I ask for a bit of parmesan too) generally have tons of garlic on them. The qualifiers are there because I know that restaurants in a chain can vary and I’ve only been to a few different branches here in CA, but they’ve all been good.
I think the problem was understaffing. I have also noticed that restaurants don’t seem to care as much about the quality of to-go food because you generally aren’t going to go back to have it fixed. Quite disappointing, but we would give them (or maybe another store) another shot.
That omelette sounds delicious. I love omelettes stuffed with veggies!
It was a good omelet but the biscuit was definitely the highlight.
I would definitely have gone for that omlette as well! Sounds like a perfect start to a busy day!
It sure beat a fast food stop.
Sounds great except for the hash browns. I know so many restaurants are seriously understaffed and struggling.
A lot of restaurants are severely understaffed these days but, after our job hunt over the summer, I think that has more to do with how restaurants view staff than the lack of people willing to work.