BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Ballenger Creek

UPDATE 6-26-2025 Had an enjoyable relaxing happy hour bar experience on a somewhat quiet Thursday late afternoon... I also had the pleasure of being the first customer at the Frederick BJ's restaurant to enjoy the new seasonal Porter beer that they literally tapped the first keg for me to enjoy 😊 The BJ's sweet sin chocolate porter and it was delish!!! Also enjoyed a Troegs Little Nator and split a mini pizza along with some sliders and fries made for a nice meal and some good beer as well.. Shout out to our server whose name I hopefully am spelling correct Navaye who took great care of us at the bar seating.

6-5-2021 Ordered delivery from BJs one of the feast specials. The pizza and wing feast is a huge amount of food and came with a family salad as well. What was a bit disappointing was the pazooki desserts. I understand that packing them to go doesn’t always translate to a great dessert; but putting literally a teaspoon of hot fudge and a teaspoon of caramel in the to go containers was extremely cheap. The main dessert and ice cream was great; the toppings not. UPDATE 9-5-2021 Tried the in person eating out version of BJs this time. Sorry to say a mixed bag... Food was a 4, service a 4, the 150 minutes of time from sitting down to leaving was unfortunately a 1. We were seated immediately, no wait (Sunday at 4pm) but the entire process of drinks, appetizers, meals and paying the check was extremely slow. Slow enough to delay my evening plans trying to leave waiting forever just to pay the check (another 25 minutes). Can't say it was the typical staff shortage there were plenty of people running around (I think the issue was lots of new people and inexperienced). So if you want a good meal, I recommend, but if you want to eat in 90 minutes or less, skip it. UPDATE 3-7-2022 OK we're backup to 5 stars for BJ restaurant 😁 My wife and I attended the Guinness beer dinner on Monday night. It was excellent 5 star for sure. 5 courses of food with 7 different beers to sample. The pairings of specific beers to the course of meal was excellent and really hit the spot. I think my favorite was the Jeremiah red ale paired with the barbecue sliders...that was awesome. The beer was served in a 5 oz glass for each of the 7 and if you really liked it they would bring you out a second 5 oz beer as well. So after about 50 oz of strong beer I would highly suggest a designated driver or an Uber 😁. We had a party of 42 or participating and the Guinness dinner with the beer 2 of us were enjoying the dinner without the beer but it was a good time for all 4 of us We had a party of 4; 2 of us participating the Guinness dinner with the beer 2 of us were enjoying the dinner without the beer but it was a good time for all 4 of us. The next tasting event is the Monday before Memorial Day and it's advertised as advertised as wheat beer can't wait and I plan on attending. UPDATE 5-23-2022 So 5 of us attended the wheat beer dinner. This version had 8 beer servings at 5oz each, along with extra servings of beer as you wished And there was so much food!!! More than enough...almost too much 😁 I'd say it's rare to have too much but in this case 4 courses instead of 5 would still have been too much 😁 The food itself tasted great, and the serving sizes were very generous. The only downside to the night...there was no running commentary to go along with the different beers...I rather enjoyed that during the Guinness dinner UPDATE 10-3-2022 Attended the Oktoberfest beer dinner; plenty of good food and plenty of good beer...took an Uber this time so we thoroughly enjoyed 😊. 5 course meal and 7 servings of the 5oz beers with the German theme...the only difference this time from past beer dinners was I never heard the offer of "seconds anyone" for the beer samples that was typically offered in the past...frankly 7 was...

This was my second time at this restaurant. The first time was ok, tonight was beyond disappointing. We sat at the bar where about six other people were sitting. We started out with the Brussel Sprout appetizer, which was fine actually. The only part of this experience that was decent. My companion ordered the Hickory Brisket and Bacon Burger cooked medium well and I ordered the Cherry Glazed Salmon dinner.

The bartender brought us our dinners and gave us each the wrong dinner. We switched and she apologized for the mix up. We started eating and my companion bit into his burger only to discover that it was cold and RAW inside. I had to flag down the bartender because she wasn't coming back to our end of the bar. She took the burger back after we asked for it to be cooked. We waited and waited and beer glass remained empty.

Meanwhile, I take a few bites of my salmon, which was ok, but then took a bite of the couscous side with tomatoes and choked. The tomatoes were so bitter I had to swallow quickly and it burned my throat going down. I took another bite of just the tomato and I had to spit it out. The taste was not a spice or flavoring, it was chemical. I had to flag down a server because the bartender disappeared after the burger incident and had not come back out to the bar area. I saved the salmon on a small plate and asked that the rest be sent back and to bring only couscous back out.

Beer glass still empty. I took another bite of my salmon which towards the middle started tasting like the chemical. I flagged down the bartender, who reappeared but was cleaning the bar at the other end. I sent the salmon back and ordered a salad instead. Just then the manager came out and went through the whole “I am sorry but” speech. He said they have the finest quality food, the taste was from spices not chemicals because the chemicals are stored on the other side of the building away from the food. We told him that the tomatoes were either bad or tainted with something other than spice because the last time I was in there I had the same dish and it was fine.

A short time later the burger came back for my companion and one look at it and you could see that the kitchen put RAW bacon on it. It was dangling out of the bun. A minute later my salad came. It was only then that the bartender, after being flagged down again, gave us another beer.

The bacon did it for my companion and he sent the meal back and told them he wasn’t hungry at that point. I never ate my salad out of fear that I was already going to be sick from the tomatoes. The manager came over again and said that had he checked the food before it came back out a second time he would have caught the bacon issue, but he didn’t.

The manager said he would take the food off of the bill and only charge us for the two beers that my companion had. We got the bill and it was $18+ for two beers! I looked closely and they charged us for my iced tea too which I never drank. So the bill was wrong based on the manager saying the only thing he couldn’t take off of the bill was the alcohol consumed, which we understood, but $18 for two beers is ridiculous.

The manager never asked us to come back, nor offered anything to entice us to come back. Not that we would have accepted because we are...

August 16, 2024 - Nestled within Francis Scott Key Mall parking area, I remembered when this BJ’s Restaurant opened about 15 years ago or so . The new pub with lots of craft beers was a welcome night scene . . . the energy , TVs, and noise level attracted young dating people and some families with little kids.

Tonight my wife & I joined our daughter & her children at a more subdued BJ’s. About 1/3 of the restaurant was dark, and unused. We had a 12 minute wait for our “ 6 person party” , next to a similar family with 2 children, which was fine. Our little one enjoyed mingling with the little girl behind him. 😃

Our server Ryan introduced himself and collected the drink orders. The kids had packets of coloring crayons and activity sheets, thank you! 👍🏼😃

I think I counted about 7 or 8 serving staff on the floor waiting customers. Reasonable crowded. Ryan returned with drinks and took the food orders. The kids were abit cranky, and needed their orders to come ASAP . . . Corn dogs, kids pizza, and both wanted fries. Seemed like a 30 minute wait 🥹 the kids meals showed up with the adults entrees. Always up for discovering craft beers. . . I ordered the “flight” of 4 beers.

🍺 Nutty brown ale

🍺 Porter

🍺 Stout

🍺 Blueberry Cobbler

🍺 Tried my wife’s, Jeremiah Red Ale

( I liked them all 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼)

My wife loved her Mahi Fish tacos! My daughter liked her Chicken Sandwich! My older Grandson had the Italian chicken deep dish pizza . . . ate half, boxed up the remainder. I really enjoyed BJ’s wings , twice cooked, with a root beer Demi-glaze sauce! 😃👍🏼. My entree was a fresh garden salad topped with grilled chicken strips! Very good!

Overall, the food was good, the beer selections & quality was excellent! The kitchen seemed a bit slow? I would suggest asking parents if they prefer a “ rush” on the children’s food ? Our little ones ( age 2 & 4 ) needed a little love! ❤️ Maybe a quick bowl of spaghetti noodles or a plate of French fries?

Thank you Ryan for your good service!

“ Fun Facts “

*Jim Kozen & Leonard Allenstein started BJ Grunts in 1978 , Santa Anna , CA

*Investors Bill Cunningham & Mike Phillips purchased shares in restaurant, then . . .

*Changed name to BJ’s Chicago Pizzeria ( speciality is Deep dish Chicago style)

*No connection to BJ’s Wholesale Club

*Not connected to Beverly Jean , daughter of Meveryn Weich, founder of Zayre & BJ’s

*BJ’s Restaurant then sold to Paul Motenko & Jerry Hennessy mid 1990’s

BJ’s added brewing & craft beers 🍺

*Currently BJ’s restaurants number 200 +

*BJ’s Has won 🏅 many...