Gold Pan Nugget Room - Big Bear City

This place is the bar away from home it is really cozy here remember it is a small town everything is slow moving but when you are in Fawnskin that's the way it should be slow all and all I love this place

STRAIGHT UP OUT OF A HORROR MOVIE. Ok, so this is kind of like a place you end up in by accident. I had remembered seeing a brewery on the North Shore a while back, so we drove over to check it out and to see if it was open. It was not, and we came upon the cool-looking, kinda abandoned looking white building that the Gold Pan is next to. I guess maybe that should have been our clue that this place was going to be super awkward and awful, but once we walked in and they seated us, we realized it was gross and dirty and kinda smelly in there, but we felt it would be really rude to leave. So we stuck it out. The decor is really strange, it looks like stuff has been on the walls in there since 1972 and they 've never cleaned or dusted it. You could also tell that people had smoked inside that place for like at least the 50 years prior. So, we were seated by this scary looking dude with dirty hands and definitely looked like he was on drugs. He ended up waiting in us, too and we definitely saw the mean old lady that works behind the bar that everyone talks about. She kept going outside to smoke and all the smoke was coming right in the door and right into our lungs. Gross. Anyway, we really just wanted some onion rings, because we were like, ok, let 's rder something easy and quick so we can be out of here, and of course they were out. I did try the chili, it really was good to be honest, but I couldn 't really enjoy it because I couldn 't stop looking at the dirty table next to us. Looked like the remnants of dinner from the night before and they just never cleaned off the table. The food and cups and plates were all still there, and there was NO ONE in there, they definitely were just being super lazy, or doing meth in the back or whatever. Oh, and it was SUPER quiet in there, no music on, no tvs or anything (or the volume wasn 't on), and it was SOOO AWKWARD because I felt like they were judging us and were like, actually annoyed we were in there. Also, I almost died when a waitress (who I didn 't see when we walked in) came up behind me and asked if we needed anything and she was in a WHEELCHAIR. like, not because she was handicapped, but she like hurt her foot or something and legit was working rolling around in a manual wheelchair serving people. Like, wtf? So, definitely stay away from this place. It 's gross, the food is gross, the people are mean and it 's dirty.

I hate to give bad reviews of businesses, after all they're trying to make a living doing their job. But when a job is done poorly it leaves a permanent memory that cannot be undone. This is my dining experience and it definitely does not go without a story. Sometime last year in 2006 some friends and family came up to visit me. I wanted to show them the good activities Big Bear had to offer in addition to some great places to go eat. The morning of their departure, my buddy went to go and get some donuts or pastries for breakfast. I urged him to turn back because I had a great place to go eat breakfast. North Shore Cafe was the place we would eat. Once there, I noticed it was unusually crowded so I put my name in and was told it would be around 10 minutes. The waitresses recognized me so I knew the wait would be less as I eyed the table we would be seated at. The friend who went AWOL to get donuts must have thought 10 minutes was too long so he went to the place a few buildings down, called The Nugget Room. You can't miss the sign, as it looks like an old time gambling parlor. With much stress and anger I reluctantly conceeded to this. As mentioned in other reviews, my loyalty is fierce when I find a good restaurant. Enter The Nugget Room... a seedy dive that is more of a bar than it is a restaurant. The first thing I noticed was smell of stale beer, wafting through the air as I entered through the door. As we all sat down I noticed the rickety chairs and the sticky table probably from a spilt pitcher the night before. A wave of unease swept over me. I wanted to get up and go claim my table at North Shore but I had to go through it. It's the restaurant search. A rite of passage. I would announce the results on a review site like this one. I would tell the world about this place. Next, our waiter showed up looking like he was up all night doing coke or meth, he had that look to him. A look of sleep deprivation, laced with jittery nerves and sketchy eyes. So he handed us our menus and disappeared to fetch our waters. It's one of those places where you can open the menu and know exactly what kind of food you're going to get. With not much to choose from, I kept it simple and ordered the two fried eggs, hashbrowns well done, and sourdough toast. Everyone else ordered their food and watched as out waiter went to get our food. With my head in my hands and a scowl on my face, my cousin started cracking jokes and that helped curb the wrenching in my gut. Could this place get any worse? I was sincerely scared at what my food would show up looking like. About 15 20 minutes later, our waiter shows up and begins serving us. To go with the tone of the day, I was served last. The simplest meal served last. I was shocked at what I was looking at. I had never been served portions so small in all my years of restaurant dining. My toast was so small it looked like they used the tiny heels off a used up sourdough round. My eggs were overcooked, and my hashbrowns looked like they were from a bag of frozen Ore Ida's. You would think they would load up the hashbrowns to make up for the minature toast. No way. Imagine a 4 inch round of lightly cooked frozen hashbrowns from the local freezer section and thats what I got. I looked at my cousin and started laughing out loud. It took no more than 10 bites and I was finished with my breakfast. It was the worst breakfast ever! If you are looking for a good hearty breakfast with variety, do not go here. But if you are looking for something questionable and you don't care what goes into your body or what it tastes like, try it out for yourself. Or better yet, go to IHop or Denny's. The bottom line is this... No matter what I choose as words, there is no way to polish a turd.

Gee, I read the other reviews and I 'm being charitable here. Here goes it. Actually, the food was quite decent. We had a large party and service was a little slow, but got the job done. Pancakes took up the entire plate and were fluffy, good texture and taste. My Denver Omlette wasn 't exactly aesthetically good looking, to the taste though, it was evenly seasoned and pleasing. We all liked our toast. Sausage patty mustve been mutton or something; it had a gamey taste while spruced up with spices. Our server was not liking us all too much because we kept ordering food, and had certain requests. Kinda rude w/ a 'tude. I dont understand; its a large order, you can 't control the amount in a party, what they 're going to order- and you 'll likely score a good tip. Enjoy the windfall and save us the grief. BTW, we gave a good tip and she even took $5 off the bill for ringing it up wrong. That brings it to a 3!

I'm not sure why this place has bad reviews. Yeah it is not a very high class place but a very down-to-earth, non-pretentious place. It kinda has a really old restaurant feel but the food is great and the service was really nice. We were the only customers and the server was very attentive and chit chatted with us a bit. The breakfast was pretty cheap and just what we needed before going canoeing in the lake!!!