Bear and Grill

Great nachos. .. Lots of cheese throughout. Peach lemonade (hard) was amazing. I want another one of those soon. So why only 3 stars — my burger was terrible. Had one in Wallingford not long ago and if was amazing — not in Orange. The waitress got our burgers confused and I sent my undercooked burger back before we realized the mistake. It came back extremely overcooled and was dry and hard. I couldn’t eat it. Mentioned it to our waitress and she did sorry but didn’t offer to discount meal. Bread also didn’t appear to fresh. Bad tasting water as well. Was planning another dinner with friends here for next week but we decided it’s definitely not worth the repeat visit to this location.

This is the second time we’ve ate here… and from the commercials that are on tv it looks like it was under new management. When we went here years ago it seemed like mainly a barbecue restaurant. The sauce they used was awfully sweet. I voiced my opinion about it on the check cause they wanted comments. We went out to the lobby area and was selling this sauce by the bottle. BLECHHHHH!!!
For this lunch/dinner…me and mom went in. I had seen the prime rib on their commercial and figured I’d give it a try. I got the King cut (yeah I’m greedy)…and ordered it rare. Usually ordering meat this way doesn’t bother me… but the meat was soooooooo rare I was waiting for it to MOOOOO!!! And the portion did not look like the commercial… AT ALL!!! They charged like $ 25 for it. I think I was short changed. My mom ordered this 1 pound hamburger… and there was soooooooo much on the bun you couldn’t pick it up without everything falling out. She ordered it medium well and it came out raw in the middle. My mom sent hers back. I’d like to say that the hostess Joyce… was beyond nice and made us feel at home… and the waitress was very nice too. The bad was the food. They’ve got a nice location… and a very busy (Post Road). Too bad they are messing it up with lousy food. Come on Bear And Grill… I truly think you need a new head chef.

DONT EAT HERE
Let me start out by talking about the two good things. Th server was awesome and the soup was good. Other then that there’s not many good to say.
We had a 5 year old that only wanted a hamburger and the kids menu had none on it. We ask our server if they could make us one. He went beyond that and had the cook make us 3 sliders. Now to the problem with the sliders is that the cook only cooked the for about a minute. The insides of all three were bright red and not even cooked.

My girlfriend had the ceasar salad with blackened chicken. The salad dressing tasted like straight mayo. The blackened chicken tasted very sweet, no spice to it at all.
This has to be on of the worst restaurants on the post road. You either have to get new chef’s or new management. I WOULD NOT recommend this place to my worst enemy.

Went there for Brunch today for a 75^th birthday Party Terrible food and service would never go back!!!

Ate here on 7÷25÷15 and will never go back. The place was very empty on a Saturday night and that should have been a HUGE hint. First off it smelled like a dirty pool or fountain inside. I don’t know if there is one in the dining room as we ate in the bar. Waiter was friendly but super slow with everything. Husband wanted a drink listed on the special drink menu. No prices listed & he asked how much? The servers answer was «I don’t know… maybe 6 – 7 dollars?» Really? So he said I’ll have a margarita if its that price but if its more than that no. When the drinks finally came he didn’t tell us the cost. The bill said $ 6.50. So FYI! I got a salad that had stale cornbread croutons & hubs got a burger with undercooked fries. Said the burger was pretty good but the fries sucked. Server did the dump and run GRRR! When he finally came back midway through to ask how it was I told him my croutons were stale & his response was «oh sorry» and he walked away. A band was setting up & we decided to stay but noticed they were charging people coming in a cover charge!!! REALLY? This is NOT a club! How about you fix your crappy food and service and maybe you’ll make some money the right way! Do yourself a favor and STEER CLEAR from this dump!!!

Im sad to see all the bad reviews! I do enjoy the food at bear and grill orange and was just here last night. The nachos are my favorite (perfect drunk food!), as is the homemade cheesecake. Yes, its homemade. Also, the chicken and penne ala vodka is to die for!
Im here about once a month and have never been disappointed!

This was my second time dining at this restaurant. I was hopeful that the slow food preparation was a one time event. Once again we waited an unusually long time for our food. The food is excellent. My mother and I both ordered grilled chicken with mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes. My husband and brother ordered sandwiches. Everyone enjoyed their meals. We just wish that it didn’t take so long to receive our meals.

Apparently this place is confused itself with thinking its a night club with a cover charge to hear the band at 8:30 at night for a band starting an hour later. We had no idea they wanted cash only for their cover charge to hear a band and accidentally had only credit cards. I can only say the woman at the door was less than pleasant when she saw we only had a few dollars cash on hand.
They finally conceded to putting it on our tab when they saw we were going to leave.
When we came in there are literally 4 people in the bar. Really? A cover?!?
We overhead the bartender then telling the band they they could not give them free soda. I’m sure the band is not seeing the cover charge so you have to wonder how cheap an owner can really be.
P. S. We then proceeded to watch 9 people come in after we arrived and nobody was asked to pay a cover. The woman had walked away. After all the nonsense we didn’t get charged the cover on our bill as I think they realized how badly this was all managed.
We won’t be back, that’s for certain.

Bad food bad drinks and slow service. Group of 14. Who ever got burgers thought they were good but everyone else hated everything they ordered. I got the turkey avocado sandwich and it came cold, bread not toasted and everything fell out because of the bread that was used (sliced bread). Bad place.

This place is aweful. From the moment you walk in to the frozen food you get served. Have gave it two tries. Both have been aweful. Had shrimp over pasta. Overlooked and over priced. Cheeseburger was raw when asked for medium well ?? Not to mention I asked fora kids pasta with Alfredo sauce and they charged full price as an adult … Waitress said it wasn’t on the menu … So you make up a price? Omg …
Wine I had was bitter had to send back and service needs work. Lots
I wondered why no one ever is in there.

Can I give a ½ star? The service was slow and food NOT very good. The place looks beautiful inside and out but don’t be fooled by looks. They advertise on huge sign outside ««LobsterFest is back» they told they have no lobster then the waitress says we haven’t had any in a few days. Ordered a Guinness and was told although it’s on the menu they have not stocked it for months and are waiting on new menus. Took 35
Minutes to get dinner without appetizers. Ordered pasta dish and it was not very good. We told the waitress and she said she can have it recooked but we opted to just not eat the rest. Payed overpriced bill and left.

Well what can I say positive about this place… ummm the water is wet. This place is an absolute ABORTION ! Horrible service and poorly prepared food. I should point out that I visited this «place» on Easter Sunday and would have been better off dining at the Mobil station. Do yourself and your wallet a favor and drive right past this place. I could find a better meal at a free lunch buffet at a strip club! Based on everyone else’s review, it seems like I’m not the only one. Lastly, I have to admit that the busboys were friendly and outgoing.

Very bad cute décor that’s the best thing I can say. what food? we wait 45 mins for a 2 sandwiches that never came the place had 2 other tables at lunch time. When we were leaving the cook was out side smoking at the front door that’s why we didn’t get food. Go some where else if you are in the area there are much better places on route one

The second star is just for the friendly bartender and decent beer selection (but the beer was overpriced). Anyway, the food was unacceptable. Had to send back scallop app because it was cold, so they basically microwaved it and sent the same one back out and still wasn’t at the proper temperature. And it’s pretty audacious to charge $ 11 for this. Salad I had too was just sloppy and not very tasty. I overheard the table next to me complaining about their food as well so I know mine wasn’t just a fluke. Sorry Bear and Grill, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back again.

Worst meal that I’ve had ! All I got was a salad and I ended up not eating it because the lettuce was clearly not fresh and tasted terrible !! Will never be going back there again !

I naively purchased a Unilocal deal ($ 20 for $ 40) after only having eaten here once, many years ago when it first opened. A friend said their food was good and apparently they used to do a «2 for $ 25» type deal for dinner.
It was completely dead on a Wednesday evening, the whole dining room side was closed and only the bar area open. The waiter was an older guy, not your typical restaurant server… kind of indifferent, not very helpful and seemed distracted. Food was blah… friends’ pork chop was totally overcooked and looked very dry and tasteless. My ribs and chicken combo was decent, but totally average. Even the steamed veggies were wilted and overcooked. The best part of the meal was the mashed potatoes… sort of difficult to screw that up.
I wouldn’t go back. The only reason I gave two stars is they had live music starting at 8:30pm…a very good female singer who also played the keyboard… very Alicia Keys-​like, along with a bass player and a drummer.
My guess is this place won’t be around much longer at the rate they are going and with all the better options in the area.

The worst waitress in history we ordered one hr ago everyone has food we are starving!
Throws the drink at you! music good.

If it was possible to give this place 0 stars I would. Let me start off with the décor of this place. One word to describe it would be tacky. Outdoorsy theme with a fire going. Disgusting wallpaper with random fake leaves hanging around the ceiling. Too gimicky for my liking. It felt dirty to me.
My boyfriend ordered a beer for his drink and received a year old beer. YES a year old beer. The label was peeling off and everything. I just had water and it was like pulling teeth to even get a refill since it was so busy we barely saw our waitress.
As for the food. I ordered a chicken wrap with avocado. It was the most bland thing I’ve ever tasted in my life. And the worst part, the avocado was a dark brown like it had been sitting out all day. Do they know you’re supposed to cut an avocado when it’s ready to be served?
This place is disgusting and every time I pass it I’m constantly reminded about that awful food. People with no taste buds would probably still find this place repulsive.

This review concerns the Sunday brunch buffet. I’ve been there many times over the years with friends and family, but this was our last visit in some time and I thought I’d share my experience.
We arrived about 11:30 and found that although it was an unpleasantly warm and humid, the owners were trying to save a couple of bucks on the electric bill by not running the A/​C. Instead they had all the windows wide open. I’m not someone who’s troubled by «drafts», but it was a little strange sitting with my back inches from a large window with the wind whistling through the place. They finally turned on the A/​C about 12:15 or so, and the waitstaff had to make everyone sitting along the walls move so that they could wrestle the windows down.
The hot foods were, as usual, quite good. There was a chef who kept passing between the kitchen and the dining room and personally inspecting the various hot items with evident care. I particularly enjoyed the Seafood Newburg and Eggs Benedict, and the scrambled eggs were nicely prepared and moist, which isn’t easy in a buffet environment. They usually have a selection of fresh salads as well, such as tomato and fresh mozzarella, which is a favorite of mine. There is a good selection of baked goods, such as muffins and breads, some of which are prepared in-​house.
Dessert is where the buffet falls on its face. There is an impressive array of cakes that look tempting from across the room, but when you get closer, you see that they’ve all been removed from the freezer and left sitting around, as evidenced by the fact that they were coated with a layer of condensation. Ugh. When I decided to sample one of the less-​sweaty looking cakes, it was mushy and freezer-​burned.
They do have plenty of what appear to be freshly-​baked cookies that taste exactly as they should, but when you’re charging $ 20 a head for a buffet, you should have some quality dessert options on hand other than cookies.
Two other gripes: First, they offered Diet Coke but served us Freaky Dog Diet Bone Cola, which is a cheap, unpleasant-​tasting substitute found almost exclusively in Fairfield County. In my experience, the restaurants who serve it universally deny it, but once you’ve tasted it you’ll never forget it. I was puzzled as to how it found its way to Orange, until I remembered that the owners have another restaurant in Fairfield.
Second, they tacked a mandatory 18% gratutity onto the bill, for two people. I wasn’t expecting it and almost missed it. Seems sleazy to me. Also, 18% on a buffet? Seriously, eight bucks and change? You brought us two sodas.

Attended a birthday party here. Great food. We had an inexperienced waiter. When we requested a new waiter. The new waitress was experienced and fun. Large private area really nice.
The food was delicious!