BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Bakersfield

I’m normally not the type to complain unless I felt like it was necessary but tonight I had a reservation for a party of 14 people and 3 kids. I called 5 days ahead to reserve this for a special occasion for myself and was very excited to have my whole family join us since they haven’t attended this restaurant before I bragged to them how it’s my favorite restaurant to eat at because the food is delicious and the service is always great. My party got there 10 minutes early and waited until 7 so they would have our table ready, once we were seated there wasn’t enough chairs for my party and no space to fit everyone so the smaller kids had to sit at a different location next to us. (Which was okay) We still felt very uncomfortable because of how crowded we were I felt like there should have been another table there so we could be more comfortable. After ordering our drinks it took about 30 minutes to order our food and we ordered appetizers as well which 1 of them was never brought to us and we had an hard time trying to get our waitresses to check when was the other appetizer coming out after we had already finished the other appetizers . once our food brought out, my plate personally wasn’t good and as I mentioned I don’t complain I’ll just work with it but this time my plate which was a filet mignon with mash potatoes and broccoli was plain cold my filet mignon wasn’t the same as the one I normally get and I know what a filet mignon looks like I have ordered it plenty of times from here. My broccoli was cold and so hard as if it was never cooked and when I tried to get one of my waitresses to tell her that’s not what it looks like she said that was what it looked like and not once did she actually looked at my plate to check or asked if maybe I wanted something else or even ask if maybe they could take the plate back and warm it up for me from the 2 waitresses that were assigned to our party table not one of them bothered to ask if we need anything just once and that was for refills. My party wanted ranch dressing, others needed refills, others wanted other stuff, some got their order wrong from wings that they ordered, and one of the kids plate was never brought we had to ask when it would be taken out and it was brought late. our waitresses wouldn’t stop and ask us if we needed anything I saw both of them go to other tables at least 4 times to ask and bring those tables what they needed while we tried to get their attention. When someone from my party finally got one of the waitresses attention she went from having a smile on her face to not having one once she was asked to come over to our table as if we were bothering her or something. The manager did state that the tip for the servers would be added to our bill and I was okay with that when I reserved my table but I’m not going to lie I felt like they didn’t deserve such a huge tip. I always tip when I go out especially when they attend me great and they are actually there providing their serve you know but this time around it was a horrible experience, I felt embarrassed that I bragged about this restaurant to my family only for them to feel the same way I did tonight. They also agreed that the tip wasn’t well deserved for the simple fact that our 2 waitresses didn’t do their job. We were able to change the tip percentage when we paid online and our party changed the percentage of the tip as well from their bill to something lower since they felt they didn’t get attended well. I sat their and watched the waitresses look on the computer after my party paid their separate bills online and I saw both of them laugh which I’m sure it was about their tip percentage, that was just unprofessional in my opinion but how can I be okay with giving a good tip when I wasn’t happy and neither...

I’m not sure what happened to BJ’s, but it’s gone downhill since the last time we visited. I usually leave at least a 15% tip, but by the end of the night I left nothing.

In the past, we’ve always enjoyed eating here and it’s always delicious, however, it all started when I saw that there’s an online waitlist and I added myself to it. Then the website prompted me to go ahead and place my order ahead of time so it will be ready a little after we arrived. That sounded great!

I placed the order and we drove to the restaurant. I let the hostess know that we had ordered ahead of time and she said to tell our waiter. When the waiter came to take our drinks, he had no idea what I was talking about and asked somebody else to check on our order and then went to go help all the other customers instead. Even though we had told him what drink order we wanted, he didn’t actually put our drink order in until 20 minutes later after they figure it out where our order was, after going through three different people, first telling us that the order was never received, I showed them the order number and the email receipt and it was all just a big mess and confusing, despite it all looking clean on my end. The email confirmation I received said that the order would be ready by 7:20, however, even though they finally found it, we did not receive our food until after 8 PM. We did not receive our drinks until 7:40 PM.

When our food finally came, we had no silverware, I had to ask for silverware twice and finally sent my child to the host to stand to have her retrieve some for us. No one ever refilled our drinks, which we ran out of fairly quickly. The pizza tasted good, but the crust was flimsy, maybe the pizza is frozen and then baked? Thin crust usually has a little more crunch to it, this was almost soggy. The ribs tasted good, but the tri-tip was covered in sweet sticky barbecue sauce, which is very strange for tri-tip. My “garlic roasted vegetables were so dry and flavorless, also crunchy not tender (see the photo) and the potatoes are flavorless too (potatoe’s skin should be washed and then rubbed with salt prior to baking to add flavor).

When we were ready to go, we had to wait a long time for the check, and we asked for a to go box. We never received a to go box. So after waiting 30 minutes, we reminded our server we needed a to go box. He proceeded to bring to go boxes to the people next to us, but not to us.

I had already written the tip on the receipt from which my card was charged, but after waiting 15 more minutes for a box and seeing him bring a box to someone else, I rewrote the check and gave no tip.

finally we went to the hostess and asked her to get us a to go box. We arrived at 7 PM and we’re not able to get out until 9 PM, despite placing our order ahead of time. The whole dining experience was stressful. I have never had such a miserable dining experience at BJ’s before, I know it was busy, and maybe the server is new, but he needs some more training. Overall, the negativity in this review is due to

no drink refills the whole night dinner took forever to be made and brought out to us despite me ordering it before we even started driving to the restaurant Ordering ahead of time made everything complicated and take longer no silverware and napkins provided to us until we asked multiple times for them No to go box provided for us until we basically got...

I recently took my four children, two of whom are autistic, to BJ's and had a fantastic experience! As a parent, I often feel a bit nervous about dining out, especially with my daughters, as they may stem or have outbursts if things don't go smoothly, and long wait times can be challenging. BJ's was the perfect choice. They have a diverse menu with plenty of options that cater to everyone’s tastes, making it easier to find something everyone likes. The customer service was outstanding from the moment we walked in. The host was welcoming, and our waiter, Bobby, was amazing! He had a great personality and made excellent recommendations, including a delicious salmon salad that wasn’t even on the menu. To keep my autistic daughters occupied while we waited for our food, Bobby offered to bring out kid starters, (gold fish & fruit) along with crayons and coloring pages which was a thoughtful touch that kept them happy and engaged. The food came out quickly, allowing us to enjoy our meal as a family without any stress.

The delicious food, excellent service, and family-friendly atmosphere made our visit truly enjoyable. I highly recommend BJ’s to other parents who might be concerned about dining out with their families. It was a lovely experience, and we can’t wait...