The Hungry Bear Steakhouse & Bar

Loved this place. I came with my husband to satisfy my craving for steak. I ordered filet mignon and my hubby had prime rib. It was cooked just right and very tasty. We had calamari for appetizer and it was fresh and crispy.
Service was a bit slow but the staff were very friendly. They checked on us frequently and asked if everything was okay.
I will probably return another time. Perhaps when my mother in law visits us from out of town next month, She can be a bit of a snob when it comes to tasty steak, but I have a feeling she’ll approve of this place.

Handicap accessibility is limited. We were unable to get my Fathers walker through on the handicap sidewalk. He was forced to walk around the cars in the handicap spots… there is no way a wheel chair could get through. Food and service was good.

Been wanting to stop here since it first opened. So I finally did and I’m very happy with this place. The service is exceptional Judie was our server. I tried the lunch special sandwich and salad and it was delicious. The sandwich I picked was chicken salad. I would personally like less mayonnaise but that’s just me. Going to go back today and see what the burger is like so I’ll update this when I try it. There is a full bar, good proces, and comfortable booths.

First time we went, everything was fantastic! Food was terrific, server was very interactive, even bringing us more dipping combinations for the divine calamari. Steaks were perfect, the baseball cut was unique, sweet potatoes were delicious. The second time we went, was a different experience. The server seemed like her mind was elsewhere and we were the only people in the restaurant. I had to ask for silverware even though she was restocking silverware on all the other tables after the dinner rush. Needed more toppings for sweet potatoes. So lackluster compared to the first time. Felt like they couldn’t wait for us to leave. Hope the consistency gets ironed out. It’s nice to have a good place to grab a steak that’s not a cookie cutter chain in town instead of driving out of town.

Second time eating here. I could go on and on about the many issues we had eating here but I have a feeling we just got stuck with one horrible server and it may not be the establishment’s fault that we experienced the WORST SERVICE EVER, but I won’t. I’ll just focus on some of it, since our first dinner there was not nearly as awful. The meal itself was okay. However, getting salads with no dressing and having to remind the server repeatedly to please bring some was silly. A big mix up with our drinks, that was never fixed even though we were charged in their favor and were promised, sucked. No bread plates, no water, no steak sauce, even though we asked? No niceties at all. Not even friendliness. Come on! All of that I could have ignored, but half way through our meal, when I asked since it was my daughters 19^th birthday, could they come acknowledge it, I was told no, that they weren’t willing to take the time, I decided to get up and leave with my family. We paid our more than $ 100 tab and left there feeling sad that the birthday dinner experience was so bad. If I go again and have a better experience I will update this review, but for now it’s just a total thumbs down. :(

Finally a nice change of atmosphere in hemet. Not exactly high class but it’s not the same old chain restaurant ambience. It’s a nice a quiet 4 course meal/​date night with your spouse type of place.
Service was Excellent! Food was good, the only reason for not giving a 5 star is because both my wife and I were disappointed with the main course Bacon wrapped tender loin and the filet mignon, just lacked flavor and both under cooked.(which is always better than over cooked) but with steakhouse prices I had higher expectations. It’s definitely worth trying it out for yourself. Decent wine selection.
Certainly looking forward to trying other meals.

The food was good, not the best I ever had. But definitely good enough to want to come back. But the service sucked, bad. The waitresses seemed more interesting in talking to the customers they knew personally. I had asked for a bottle of ketchup for the table, still waiting on that bottle of ketchup. My family and I were forgotten about in the back corner of the restaurant, my dad almost choked on his food because the waitress forgot to bring him his drink. And she just kept walking past us not acknowledging my dad asking her for a refill.

I had the specialty steak potato and salad with Italian drrssing. Everything was yummy. I like the décor and friendly servers. They serve bread like at Texas Road House with the honey butter. Yum! The only draw back was your drink went dry often. All in all for 16.95 it’s a good price. I recommend The Hungry Bear.

Food above average
Specialty Steak is good
Rolls come out fluffy, but as soon as you touch them they flatten out
Wish they had female bartenders
Behind bar is always cluttered

Hi my name is tom im the chef at the hurngry bear, the food here is great, 80% of our menu is made from scratch, we have the best calamari this far from the ocean, we now have lunch & dinner special for thoe who have a budget, we have a great happy hour, great drinks, nice & friendly bar tenders please come & try us out, if u have been here already & had a bad experience please come back& see us it will b better thanks again for all the support here in hemet

Came and we were seated… sat over 15 minutes with just drinks. Server never came back to take our order. Unimpressed!

Went for my mothers 61^st birthday. Food had great flavor and portions were huge. Great family atmosphere I was actually able to enjoy with my 3 children. We will definitely be returning for a romantic night with the husband. Bartender said possible dancing after the new year! Great place to eat in Hemet! Thank you

Not impressed, service was ok, food was bland. The servers were overwhelmed. Our server was sent home leaving us with a new server who had two large groups of 10 and several small booths. So let’s picture this, we were seated by the kitchen, to the left (center of the room) was a table of ⁸⁄₁₀ and there was definitely one large group In front of them on and in the back then I would say 80% of the perimeters booths were occupied. There was a second server but I didn’t see much of her other than punching orders in into the Kiosk. I don’t at all, blame the server for the complete lack of hospitality, she literally had no time.
Now let’s talk our meal, we spent a mere 50.00 which included a filling appetizer, two entrées and two drinks. Yes I know it’s a steak house so we got off pretty easy. But the quality was no where near steakhouse expectations. The appetizer was decent, the wings were good, the mozzarella sticks were undercooked or cold (I took one bite and no melted cheese but instead I got a stick of cheese), the potato skins had no flavor. Even with bacon and cheese, there emphasis was on the potato. My suggestion is hollow those baby’s out just a bit more the add your cheese and bacon bake until crispy. Now the hit of the appetizer was the egg roll type of cheese pastry with the dipping sauce.
The main course was a dinner salad, steak cooked medium and garlic mash for one entrée, and the second entrée was a steak sandwich and fries. The sandwich was tasteless, and we didn’t even touch the fries, the steak was cooked perfectly! Good job guys, the garlic mashed tasted like a hint of garlic but the funny part about the mashed potatoes they out weighed my steak. I did get the 6oz steak but seriously I know I had at lease double that in weight in mashed potatoes.
Now here’s the cherry on top, we wanted to just go, so when we got the check, we waited, and waited, and waited. We ended up taking the check to the server who we always saw at the kiosk who took it up to the hostess register where we encounters two employees chatting possibly clocking in or out from break. When we bought our concerns of the single server to their attention, we got this reply «well, you should really tell the management, better yet Unilocal it, it’s where we get most of our bad reviews.» One went on caressing their own ego and how it should have never been like that if they were on shift.
Word to the wise for any employee, never bad mouth your employer while on the floor, or better yet while in uniform, in the establishment.

Hungry Bear beyond exceeded our expectations! My husband and I ate there tonight for the first time and everything was amazing! The food was delicious! We ordered the calamari as an apitizer. It comes in strips (or steaks) which we loved; you get more meat and the flavor was perfectly paired with their homemade tartar sauce. We order the specialty and rib eye steak. They were some of the best steaks we’ve had… by far better than anything else you’ll find in Hemet/​San Jacinto.
Aside from the tasty food, the staff was great! Our waitress was Jessica and she was very sweet! She had awesome recommendations and was great company.
We will definitely be coming back! …finally a nice restaurant in this area

I was surprise when I walked into the hungry bear, the food was spectacular the service was very good. I recommend the French dip sandwich and onion rings the onion rings were killer. The friendly staff wait on us promptly even though it was very busy. We were a party of four and there was zero wait in the afternoon. Would definitely be coming back to the hungry bear

Just had dinner at HB. We had the HB steakspecial
We ordered med rare steaks, but they were med to well done. Our excellent waiter David had another steak made to our liking. We loved the flavor and juicy steaks thar were cooked perfect. We were very impressed that all the food was hot. We will definitely be back. David is very friendly and his customer service is awesome. Very clean, with fast service
Needs more atmodphere
Stella

Just left the Hungry Bear we sat in the bar area and it took 10 minuets just to have a waitress ask us what we wanted to drink. The atmosphere was very nice, we had plenty of time to look around at every nook and cranny before we got our beers. Finally the bread came, which was very good. The waitress finally took our order 20 minuets later and we ordered the prime rib. 20 dollars for a 12 Oz and 25 dollars for a 16 oz. Flavor was ok buy for the price you could go to a much nicer steakhouse. We informed the waitress about a huge spill of water on the floor that ty je bus boy knocked over and no one cleaned it up the entire time. Accident waiting to happen.

We arrived around 4:15 pm. We were a party of 5. It was our first visit to the restaurant. We all were hoping it would be one of our new, favorite places in town.
We entered the dining room and were all speechless that it was so… uninviting. Horrible atmosphere. So, we moved on.
We asked the original hostess if there were any early bird specials. Nope!
Any happy hour specials? Nope! You have to walk 15 feet to the cheesy bar for a $ 1.00 off your drink. Ridiculousness. We ordered anyway. Margarita glass was small. Bloody Mary was good. Cabernet was tasty.
Water. My glass of water was beyond disgusting. It tasted like old pipes. Since that restaurant hasn’t operated since Duke’s closed down, I did not drink my water. Management needs have a sip!
Next, the dinner prices were surprisingly high. We ordered. So, we discovered price and food were out of sync. Steer n Stein steaks, though not my favorite, are comparable, and more for less. Also, they served two tiny strips of broccoli for our veggie. Dinner salad was a tad small for the extra price. Baked potato was mushy. Overcooked perhaps?
Our waitress, Jo, was amazing. No complaint there. She was the bright point.
Two thumbs down from 5 social friends who love dining around Hemet. Overall, we paid too much money for the venue. We love quality food. Price doesn’t matter when its worth it. This definitely was not worth it…
Too bad. We won’t be back.

Hungry Bear is an improvement on the previous Dukes Restaurant. The changes to the décor are good. However, the bar area is still cold and uninviting.
Upon arriving, I notice the strange layout of the parking lot. I have never seen perpendicular parking spots in a lot. At least 8 or 10 cars would be expected to parallel park in a lot???
Once we walked in, the host was very welcoming and to be honest the shining star of the experience. Her smile, genuine care and hospitality was very refreshing. The building, however did not have near the warmth of the young lady. We sat in the bar area after spying the rest of the dining room and determining that the best decision.
Our Server was gracious enough. She had a very basic knowledge of the menu and beverages. She did not know all the beers on tap and when we ordered a 16oz, she delivered a 22oz. She did not explain the menu, specials, apps etc., she simply took our orders as we gave them. We did have to flag her down to order an appetizer. Our Appetizer was a combination. Wings that are clearly out of a bag (Frozen and Pre-​made), Cheese Egg Rolls (Again, Pre Made Supplied by a Purveyor), Fried Mozzarella Sticks (Quite Possibly the saltiest and worst Pre-​made sticks I have had) and Potato Skins (Also a Frozen Pre-​made Product)
We gave our orders to the server, she seemed to have the sides down fairly well. She did have trouble when we ordered a soup; she mistook it for a salad dressing and we needed to clarify. No harm done. Once our Salads/​Soups arrived, the two salads with blue cheese and one with ranch were indistinguishable in flavor. It tasted as though the salad had been washed and inadequately rinsed (very watery). Which, along with dressings that were under flavored, contributed to a watered down flavored salad. The Soup was cold according to our guest. In the defense of the restaurant, our guest is accustomed to very hot soup.
Our Entrees arrived. Some in our party felt it a long wait, however I think it was fairly appropriate. I think what might have made it seem long was the lack of «genuine» interaction by the server during that time coupled with the cold (not temperature) feel of the room.
I had a baseball cut Sirloin (New to me) but it was very well cooked. The rest of the party had a Ribeye, Filet and Fish and Chips. All entrees were very well prepared. Nothing special or memorable but very well executed. While all the steaks were well prepared, they were all under seasoned and under dressed. The comment from our friend that had the Fish and Chips was that it was very nicely done. It appeared that the batter was perfect and the fish cooked to perfection.
Our Server paid much more attention to us and was much more attentive toward the middle/​end of our visit. I would imagine she might have heard our comments.
Overall, The Hungry Bear is an improvement from Dukes. I am glad there is another spot in Hemet. I only hope they use this as a jumping off point and improve from here! With continued community support, maybe they can stick around and be a fixture over the years!

Food was great! No issues with food at all.
I had the prime rib and it was full a flavor and cooked perfect. The service was very slow, however they have only been open two weeks or so. I will be back to try again later, the food was worth it to me.
Ranch dressing is awesome by the way!