Black Bear Kitchen Clermont

My family and I were big fans of Black Bear in the first location. Great food with a typical menu for southern BBQ, good service, access to different sauces. My family ate there on the regular. My kids and I were at the May First Friday and decided to eat at the new location for the first time. First thing was the menu had shrunk, no collard greens, no green beans. Just fried okra, french fries, southern corn cake, cole slaw and mac n cheese. You had to say what sauce you wanted with your food and got a tiny take out container of sauce. Me and my youngest got the pulled pork as always, and it was very unappetizing. It was big stringy chunks and with only plastic utensils, I wasn't going to be able to cut it up. Frankly I didn't want to. My oldest always gets the BBQuban and got the corn cake and fries. The sandwich wasn't as flavorful as before. The corn cake was just cornbread and unmelted cheese sprinkled on top. This was massively disappointing to say the least. I'm sure they will still be frequented since they serve alcohol but as for myself and my family, we won't be back.

I have been a fan of this place however recently the quality and service have suffered. Today they got 3 out of 5 orders wrong. The restaurant was really dirty and not taken care of. Bad experience.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 1

We visited the Black Bear Kitchen yesterday for an early dinner while visiting a street fair in downtown Clermont. We shared a Black Bear Reuben ($11.50) which is Turkey Pastrami, sauerkraut, 2 slices of Swiss cheese, crumbled bacon and Russian dressing on a marbled toast. We also ordered a side of Fried Green Tomatoes ($7.99), which comes with 4 slices and ranch dressing or you can upgrade to a roumalade which we did.
The Black Bear Reuben was very flavorful and perfect to share for our light dinner. This is definitely a recommend and something we will order again. The Fried Green Tomatoes were ok but the tomatoes themselves were pretty soft. Not sure if these were from the freezer to fryer or if they were made from scratch.
This restaurant has several different barbeque sauces to choose from. We didn’t try any of them on this visit.
Service was friendly and you have a choice to either order yourself from a screen or you can order with a cashier. The manager was friendly and brought our food to our table. This is definitely a restaurant to experience when you are in Clermont.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The food was okay. I’m not the biggest barbecue fan, but when I say I would have rather had Sonny’s, that says a lot. The brisket was fatty (I ordered leaner) and the texture was weird, the collard greens were sweet and bland, and the Mac and cheese was not good,- just bland. They messed up my brother in laws order and his reorder did not come out until the rest of us were almost finished. In my opinion, they should have made it a priority to get his food out and it was not. I ordered the wings with white sauce, I asked for them to be extra extra crispy, and they came out normal. Overall, not worth the money we spent . Very disappointing, as this place came highly recommended. I will say this the staff was nice and the bbq sauces were good.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Florida Citrus, White Sauce

Great BBQ place.
Need to go again and again.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Baked Beans

Had the BBQuban. Outstanding! Pretty unique combination of a Cuban with BBQ. Great service, attentive staff. Great place!

Parking: Park in back, plenty of spots.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: The Bbquban

The cook is perfect on the ribs and pulled pork. Wasnt a fan of the ribs flavor. I didnt care for any of the sauces. Theres no carolina gold. Descent spot. Food cooked perfectly just not my flavor profile

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

I was really excited to try Black Bear Kitchen. The atmosphere is so nice and welcoming, until you are greeted by the rude lady at the cash register who doesn’t interact or crack a smile. I ordered two orders of the chicken tacos at $11.50 each and received enough food for MAYBE a toddler. I went back up and ordered a kids meal with Mac and cheese, fries and a drink. It was $6.42 (or so) and I gave the guy $7. He didn’t give me my change or the drink that was included. Luckily enough the kids meal had more food than the adult meal, so at least my toddler didn’t leave hungry. I feel entirely ripped off by a place I really wanted to like.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 1

Really enjoy this new Downtown Clermont location. The BBQ Cuban was delicious! Excited to come back and make this the new go to for

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: The Bbquban, Florida Citrus, Baked Beans

Best brisket in area, smoked sausage is awesome also. BBQ sauce selection is great. I enjoy the Kansas City sweet and hot. Highly recommend this place.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Brisket Sandwich, BBQ Sauce

This places' decor that really likes to toot its own horn is pretty annoying combined with the AI art on the walls. The staff is extremely friendly. But the food is what's important.

The corn cake is a scoop of it, which I found strange. It's moist and sweet though. The potato salad was probably the best thing I ate there.

The brisket was flavorful, but it's sliced way too thick and is very dry. I didn't particularly fancy any of their sauces. Was disappointed to find no carolina gold, and that none of the sauces were particularly sweet.

The ribs disappointed me. Hoping for St. Louis dry rub, the meat was tough, dry, and not very flavorful. I didn't finish my ribs. Pretty disappointed in the meat overall. It was good enough to eat, but usually with barbecue I keep eating even though I'm full. This time I left 2 of my ribs.

I can't completely write this place off. It's decent, and I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to eat here. Maybe it'll be better if I try the pulled pork next time, but I associate Ribs with being tender sweetmeat and I just didn't get that. They have a good variety of sauces but I didn't find any of them particularly addicting, and they didn't solve the issue of how dry the meat was.

I don't want to be unfair or scathing. Obviously barbecue is a difficult art, but I'm pretty spoiled by the many excellent local places I've visited not just in Florida but across the country. It just didn't hit how I wanted it to.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 5

I finally got the chance to try this place out and wasn’t disappointed. The lady at the counter was super helpful as I wasn’t sure what I wanted, and she let us know what their most popular sandwiches and sides are. I ended up going with the brisket and adding the fries and potato salad as sides. They had different BBQ sauces to choose from that you could serve yourself and I ended up going with the KC BBQ sauce; really good and definitely recommend. Lastly, I have to say I love the atmosphere and I’m a fan of the wall art. There’s definitely a lot more on the menu that I wish I could try. If you’re ever in the area and looking for something to eat I’d say give this place a shot.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great place for beer not for bbq food

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 1

Service: 5

I had the brisket and pulled pork and they were moist and flavorful, even without any sauces. I tried nearly all the sauces they had available and had a lot of fun doing it. This is a counter service restaurant with a kiosk for ordering. Not a place for dates, unless they appreciate excellent BBQ!

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 5

My visit was on 9/8/24 order #88
Baaaad costumer service, only 1 of the 3 girls was very nice. About the food the sausage was very very good ans the corn cake, brisket too salty. The brisket and the pulled pork was more colder than my coleslaw. I really love this kind of food and we dont have to many options around here in Clermont, maybe in another couple of months im gonna try again.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 1