Black Bear Tavern and Restaurant

Love love this tavern. Great vibe and excellent service. They always have great music on the weekend. Cannot wait for spring when their outdoor deck opens. Anytime we are in the area we stop for food and bevies. Which we will be doing soon for the Deep Creek Dunk!

Drink prices were great. Our first bartender was great! She was very attentive. When we closed out with her for the end of shift so she could be tipped, we then waiting over a half hour to be noticed by the new bartender. He purposefully ignored a party of 4, ready to drink. He had no answer when we confronted him asking why we were not being served. He was serving those he new and steelers fans. I will never go back to that place. Terrible treatment of customers.

It was new years day and it was clear that they were not prepared for the crowd. The restaurant was packed, they were even overflowing patrons into the nite club side. They had one bartender working. We ordered drinks and food off thier specials menu. It took 20 min to get our drinks and when they came, they were either wrong or the warm drinks we ordered were cold. The chicken pot pies and the cream of crab soup came out cold, it was clear they’d been sitting around for quite some time. The crab soup has been sitting around so long that it came out with a film ontop. The waiter was unapologetic, and had dirty, unsanitary fingernails. In fact, the whole restaurant is filthy, it’s a wonder that the health department hasn’t been alerted. We sent our food back and asked for our check. We left and went to UNOs.

The food was good with large portions. The place was lodge like, very large, and had a nice view.

We got here after trying to find a place to eat at 8 pm at Deep Creek. The servers were friendly and busy. But not very attentive. They tried. The ceasar salad was passable. The nachos were terrible. The cheese poppers were OK. It was a great place to stop when no one else had space.

Wonderful cabin restaurant. Good waiter. Prices reasonable. Steaks were fabulous. Would definitely recommend.

Not very good. Lettuce on burger was at least a couple days past usable. Everything else was basically mediocre.

Delicious food!!! I had crab Mac n cheese and it was Kraft, which was a bit upsetting. Reasonably priced. great after a day at Fun Zone.

After a long fun day on the lake this was a great place for dinner with the family. We had to wait to be seated, but once we were at a table our server, Kelly, came right over and for our drink orders.
After coming in for a burger special it was funny to see that no one in our party ordered a burger. I got the Country Fried Steak, grandma had the ribs, dad the Steak sandwich, and mom got wings and peel and eat shrimp. All of it was great!
Kelly checked on us throughout our stay, and kept our drinks full.
The only negative we had was that sitting at our table before the sun went behind the mountain it was wining straight into some of our eyes. I would recommend some sun shades for the windows.

If there was an option for NO stars that definitely would have been my choice. Horrible horrible horrible service. The worst «bar food» I’ve ever had. We had the nachos for an appt– chips were stale, cheese right out a can and chicken was still practically frozen. Husbands burger was barely edible and any fried food we got we couldn’t get past the first bite. The oil used must be the cheapest and probably months old. I was sick to my stomach. Waitress might have walked by once. No refills. No asking how our food was but was really anxious to get. Meal paid for and her non deserved tip. Came up for the day to spend a nice day with the fam. This place ruined it. Don’t bother– waste of your time and money.

Generally we have a good experience here. The service can be slow, hit or miss on that. For the price the food is pretty good and usually comes out fast. Fine for kids. The outdoor seating is great on nice days overlooking the lake.

Extremely slow service and just OK food. Great live music though. The mixed drinks we ordered weren’t good, better off ordering a beer.

Upon arriving the hostess was sitting in the back room and then when she saw me came running up to the stand: /
Other than that the service was great, don’t remember my servers name but he was a bigger guy with black hair and a beard. He was extremely attentive. My drink of Jameson was poured generously. The wings were perfect and my girlfriends salad was also perfect for the price of 5 $

The short and sweet of it: this place is alright for an afternoon out with friends– not anything special. When we walked in, we waited at an empty hostess stand for a bit before someone came out of the night club side to seat us in the bar area. First impression: a little dark and dingy, totally the local sports bar (beer signs EVERYWHERE!).
Our waitress and drinks were excellent (try the Black Bear Lemonade!), but the food was average at best. Appetizers came out so-​so, but the ribs that I ordered were definitely not «fall off the bone,» and should’ve been cooked a little longer. Everyone else at my table was less than impressed with their food as well. I could see myself returning if I had to watch a football game and wanted to grab a beer somewhere, but if I’m interested in eating something yummy, I’ll likely head elsewhere.

I agree with basically everyone else. Food is meh. I thought service was OK, our guy was pleasant, but the place has a dingy «please clean me» vibe that is pretty gross and watching them bus tables I could absolutely see why.
The food is obviously mostly frozen, pre-​packaged stuff.
It’s not the worst I have seen but I probably wouldn’t go here again.

I will inevitably end up coming back here because it’s practically the only sports bar in town. But really, it just isn’t very good. We came here a few weekends back to watch a Maryland game while we were at the lake and ordered an assortment of bar food. The service was not great, and the food ranged from pretty good to legitimately bad. I will say the buffalo wings were tasty and probably above average. We ordered a few other flavors, including the sriracha ranch — sounds good right? I love Sriracha and I like ranch. The were probably the worst wings I have had in my life. They came out with a thin, almost tasteless ranch-​based white sauce on them. They genuinely looked like they had been dipped in milk. You could barely taste the Sriracha (or anything) at all. Probably the first time in my life I’ve left wings on the table for a reason other than being too full to finish them. We also had nachos, which rather than having melted cheese over them, had that cheap stadium-​style «cheese» sauce poured over them.
The bottom line is this is a perfectly serviceable place to grab some beers and watch a game, especially given the lack of options, but if you’re going to get food, either go somewhere else or stick to the buffalo wings.

Monday afternoon in August. It’s raining outside, so the dining room is hopping, but not capacity. It took more than 15 minutes to even get acknowledged. Drinks (ice tea!) came in a timely manner but a chicken Caesar salad and chicken sliders took over 20 minutes to arrive. No ketchup on the table and the waitress disappeared before we noticed and also noticed that the sliders had no mayo on them which I specifically asked for. Chicken Caesar salad was good, but it was all iceberg lettuce. The sweet tea was sickenly sweet.
Twenty minutes after food delivery waitress returned to ask how everything was. Overall a very disappointing meal.

We really like this place, though I can see its limitations. We’ve been there twice for lunch while on vacation. It’s become our go-​to place when driving to Deep Creek Lake. Lunch bar food is not exceptional, but better than average with a touch of creativity here and there and a decent beer selection.

We were looking for a late night dinner before we checked into our cabin in Deep Creek and we came across this place.
This is definitely the local watering hole. We were quite a sight in an all-​girl group. I ordered a Steak salad mostly because it was the only thing that wasn’t fried. The drinks were good and also cheap.
Not a bad place for food & drinks. Not ideal if you are looking for a fancy place.

The place was inviting but a bit crowded and loud. I didn’t find anything that set it out from the usual hole in the wall other than it’s nice to have a place like this that people can go to with a bar on one side and the club on the other.
Be careful leaving the place! State Troopers are at the ready!