Mountain Cafe

Great experience. Cassandra is one of the sweetest person in this place. Made our trip here worthwhile. Will definitely be coming back on our next skiing trip. Thank you Cassandra

So glad we checked the Unilocal reviews and chose this place for breakfast. It truly is a hidden gem. We almost did not see the sign and past right by!
We are long time (30 year) Big Bear cabin visitors and we have tried so many places. Yes we have our favorites but I also love to try anything new. The Mountain Café will now be our go to breakfast stop for visits.
The service was excellent and it appears that they must have a team concept where anyone can help you. We always had a full cup of delicious coffee and several people came by to check on us throughout our meal.
I ordered the steak and eggs with hash browns. My steak was perfectly cooked medium rare and eggs were over medium. Hash browns came out extra crispy just like I ordered them. My husband had the Backhome omelette. He’s not eating bread so they let him substitute broccoli to replace the toast at no additional change. Both meals were delicious, came out quickly and just the way we like them! We will return!

After waiting an hour for breakfast elsewhere, we decided to try some place new. We stumbled upon this hidden gem and boy were we lucky. Walked in at around 10:30am for breakfast and we were seated immediately. Huge place with plenty of seating! I ordered the cheesey scramble which was good. The house potatoes it came with were a little bland but some salt and hot sauce did the trick. My husband ordered the waffle combo and said it was really good. Our waitress was really nice and she was on top of the coffee refills. The coffee was REALLY good so I had her top me off every time. This will be our go to breakfast stop when visiting Big Bear from now on.

Thought we would try something new for breakfast up in the mountains. Food was average, prices fair. We will give them another chance, maybe lunch. I had the corned beef and eggs, hash was very crispy almost not recognizable as hash. My biscuits weren’t real warm and were probably nuked. Hubby enjoyed his meal mostly meat, always makes him happy.

Wanted to like Mountain Café as we always want to support new local businesses (same owner as former La Montana but you have to appreciate the effort to introduce a new restaurant).
Came for breakfast on a Sunday. Coffee was very good, as was the bacon. I asked for sugar free syrup and it came out warmed, a nice extra touch most restaurants don’t bother with. Eggs were cooked just right — but they were almost cold. Waffle was undercooked.
The server was very kind and comped the waffle. I felt she was trying very hard to accommodate the customers. But this is a very large restaurant staffed with one server and what sounded like one cook on a Sunday morning. A gentleman came in and stood around for 5 minutes and then went looking for someone to help him. I don’t think it’s possible for the staff to hear someone come in the front door when they are in the back kitchen area — and with one server, she’s going to be in the back about half the time.
This kind of service is going to kill this restaurant. So I hope management reads this and comes up with a better staffing strategy.

I choose to eat here instead of my other favorites. How disappointing! Service was terrible, the staff were running around trying to get the tables ready, it was already 10:00!
The interior is so outdated it’s uncomfortable. Very very sad

When we walked in it was kinda of quite for a Sunday breakfast. So I was kinda worried. I figure if it’s empty it must not be that great. So I order the Bigfoot which was a chicken fried steak breakfast. The chicken fried steak itself was seasoned perfect. It was delicious! In other reviews customers said service was slow but we were not in a hurry and they had 3 serves on staff that took very good care of us. We will be back!

The food was good. Not the best but good. But the service wasn’t good. The waiter kept forgetting what we wanted and took a lot longer than it should since there was nobody really there.

Amazing coffee!!! Puts Starbucks & Coffee Bean to shame. My husband frequents Coffee Bean every day (I tend to be more of a Starbucks person) but we both agreed our drinks at Mountain Café were better than all the competitors out there. We spent 3 days in Big Bear and went here everyday — can’t wait to go back (another reason to plan another trip soon).

First time to Mountain Café, breakfast was very good, service was awesome. This will be my new breakfast hang out. I would recommend this restaurant to my family and friends.

Food very good; service excellent. loved the ribs n chicken … Everyone very friendly!

March 7^th 2015 give a try Mountain Café which is used to be La Montana before.
We got in nice atmosphere peaceful and quiet we seated by booth then server came right a way ask for drink… yuppp…they not busy we order hot coffee which is taste good dark more than average of other restaurant. Then we placed order my husband got pancake and side of bacon, I ordered Ham&omelet cheese come with biscuit & gravy I like my plate. Really satisfied!!! and our coffee cup never empty, good service!!! Will back again!!!

We have been there twice now, usually a group of 10 — 12 people on a Wednesday evening. You can not say anything bad about their food. Everyone really enjoyed the food they ordered and YES the portions are huge. They are a little understaffed and it took quite a while to get our orders out and drink orders. But we were not rushed to get out and enjoyed sitting and talking. We asked for the large table in the bar area and it worked out great. If you are in a hurry to get in and out, this is not the place. They would probably get more people back if they had a least one more server. Most people do not like to wait sooo long for their orders. But as I said, the food is worth the wait.

Our experience here was horrible! We came in with a party of 8. We waited for over an hour for food. We asked numerous time about our food and we were told «it’s on it’s way» and there had been a party of 14 just before we had arrived. I don’t see how that should have been an issue considering the whole restaurant was empty. Once our food had arrived most of it was cold. We ate it anyways because we were starving! The food was less than average. We make frequent trips to big bear and was pleased to try a new restaurant… We left this one with a bitter taste in our mouths.

It’s very awkward and quiet, it needed music. The costumer service was terrible. We waited at least 15 minutes for a refill. We ordered chili cheese fries with no onions and they put onions on it. The fries we picked out tasted good but we couldn’t take the service anymore so we paid for our drinks and fries then left. The 3 employees were horrible. They would stand next to each other and have a full conversation then wonder into the back rooms. Wont never recommend anyone eating here.

They have the best meatloaf I’ve ever had, chicken fried steak is also very good, the portions are large and the prices are good, service is a little slow but they are just opening and getting used to things

The kids breakfast was huge. Bacon was good. Hash browns were good. Pancakes just ok. Served with lots of butter. Breakfast was good and no wait on a holiday weekend. Excellent!

So I’ve been here 4 times since they re-​opened. Every time we sit in the bar area to have a drink and an appetizer. I notice some of the servers are the same from when it was La Montana. That’s cool. So anyways the draft beer and the appetizers seem pretty good. The service in the bar is terrible. When there is a bartender it’s not bad. I’m not sure if the owners really have any idea how to make money. How do you have a top notch bar area and not have a bartender? The bar should be making money, that’s for sure. A remodel of the restraunt isn’t going to get you anywhere if you don’t know how to run a business. Or maybe they just don’t give a shit? This place really has potential. The servers are nice and seem to be trying, but there’s nobody in charge to give any direction. I suggest and hope the owners figure it out real quick, or they aren’t gonna stay open long. They get 1 star for their monumentous on tap. If it improves I’ll be back to update this review.

Great service and the food was Excellent! Will be making this our breakfast spot! Best chicken fried steak i ever had!!!

This review is simply on the service, since we never got our food… Went here the Friday after New Years. Everywhere was really busy, except this place (should have taken that as a clue) so we decided to give it a chance. We were seated immediately, which inspired hope, since we had a concert to attend at 7:30 (it was 5:40). Waitress came soon after and took our drink order. Not too incredibly long after we received our drinks. We then proceeded to order. Our orders were pretty simple, breakfast items, sandwiches, etc. While we waited, we were visited many times by different workers refilling our waters, but never our server again. 15 minutes go by, 30, 45 and 1 hour. We ask multiple workers our food’s status and each one leaves to check and never comes back. Finally our server brings one of our side salads (over an hour later). We ask where our food is and she says, «It has been cooking for a long time. We have a party of 30 in the back so it’s taking a while.» Last I checked, eggs and sausage doesn’t have to cook for a long time and if there was a large party taking precedence, why weren’t we notified earlier? Needless to say we reluctantly paid for our drinks and left. Everyone was nice but they need some serious work on being a restaurant. There were many tables empty and we didn’t see any «party of 30.» Ended up eating at jack in the box and being late to the concert. Will not be returning.