Bear's Den Restaurant

I never thought that the phrase "There's some really nice taxidermy in here" would escape my lips in a restaurant. The Bear's Den lives up to its name, as you will be greeted by an enormous stuffed black bear as soon as you walk in the door, not to mention the gaggle of squirrels and other assorted woodland creatures elsewhere. The Den's rustic log-cabin outside belies the good food and friendly service you'll find inside. For a place 5 miles outside of Cambridge, Ohio, there are some nice dishes coming out of the kitchen. I was the only one who got fish, a tasty and well-cooked snapper in citrus butter accompanied by a baked sweet potato and thin, toothsome asparagus. The three others at my table all got steaks, to mixed results. My husband ordered his ribeye rare, as in "wave it over the burner and stop," but it came out firmly medium rare. That was the disappointing part. The flavor, however, was still very good. The meat is dry-aged and tastes intensely beefy. All in all, we were pretty pleased with our food. I will say that this is very much a casual family restaurant and not the place to come for a black-tie night out. The small child behind my husband who repeatedly ran into his chair chased us out perhaps sooner than we were ready. That aside, I'd definitely come back for another meal.

My husband I stayed in a cabin not far, and we read good reviews of this place so we decided to try it last Saturday. The place was packed, and we took that as a great sign.  We waited at the bar to get a table, about 30 min later we were seated. The waitress took about 20 minutes to even bring us a water. We ordered, then my husband decided to change his order to the filet. When we finally were able to flag down the waitress, she seemed put off by his request to change the meal, saying it had already been submitted. We never saw her again, so we had no clue what meal he was going to end up with. It took FOREVER to get our food, the waitress did come apologize at how long it was taking after about 45 min. When the food finally came, my filet that was ordered med rare was cold. The potatoes that were supposedly home made were hot, and the gravy tasted like it came from a box. My husband did end up getting the filet... He ordered his the same way, except his was extremely undercooked. We ate what we could, and we had to flag down any sever we could to get our waitress.  At this point we were EXTREMELY frustrated at our experience and just wanted to leave. When she Finally came over, I told her that his food was way too rare and we had waited too long to eat at that point and wanted his order taken off. I also told her we wanted the check. She disappeared yet again. And the couples next to us had a problem with their ribs being burnt, they said the place was normally great, and that the server was new. As we were still waiting for the bill, she walks past us and takes 2 other tables orders! I seriously contemplated dropping cash on the table and walking because my blood was boiling at this point. We got the bill about 20 min after we asked for it. The whole experience there lasted about 2 hours.  We will NEVER go back. Customer service was absolutely horrendous.

This business prefers 24hour notice for groups and parties larger than 4. We had a family get together with a party of 15 and all of us were from out of town. We were, however, able to be seated together on an hours notice.

Seated at 8pm to complete a full house,  the main course food rolled out at 9pm for our group of 15.

The menu variety accommodated every ones appetite and it was reported delicious all around. There was a newer cook on the grill, per the waitress; the steaks were cooked near perfect despite the noob.

I had the smaller NY strip, ordered med/well, and was more than satisfied. My family reported that the prime rib really does melt in ones mouth (cooked rare). All of the appetizers & sides were delicious ~ per my family.

The help/staff  really knew how to do their jobs well. The business was very clean. The acoustics are loud inside due to the all wood interior. There is gravel parking, and plenty of it.

I gave it a 5/5 because our family has some picky eaters etc. and no one had negative outcomes.

Hope this Yelp helps.