BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Bloomington

I never write reviews, but feel like this experience was definitely worth mentioning… I personally have over 18 years experience in the Industry, from waiting tables to bar tending, but mostly in the upper management/General management positions. The only time I’ve had a worse experience as a customer was in a bar with drunk staff, which makes this experience all the more disappointing… We had started to place an online carry out order around 5p, we weren’t able to because of "website technical problems", called twice and were put on hold indefinitely both times, called a third time and were finally able to place the order. My mom, (who is just getting over pneumonia… irrelevant but a compounding factor) went to pick up... she called to let them know she had arrived, sat in her car in the pick up spot for the next 35min before someone came out (and yes, she called a second time to see what was taking so long). She got home and some of the food was missing. So I called and had to drive back over to pick up the missing food while eight of our family members were reheating cold food. When I got there I had to deal with the rudest manager I have met in years... he was completely unprofessional, defensive and condescending right out of the gate. The look on his face was that of complete disgust and annoyance. I’d quote some of what he said, but this is already long enough. And he behaved this way in front of his staff and other guests, setting a fantastic example of how not to address and solve a problem. Since he offered no apology or constructive solution, I became assertive and explained to him that he needed to compensate for the inconvenience which appeared to completely put him over the edge. He ended up giving $50 gift cards back on a $140ish order (that included a hefty tip), so there’s that at least… however, when he handed me the gift cards, he turned to walk away, when I had to ask for the food that I came back for. His snarky response was, “well let me just go back in the kitchen and finish cooking it for you”, all the while it was sitting on the counter next to him… a server then handed it to me and sweetly apologized while the manager stormed off. As this was happening, there was another person that had also placed a pickup order and said he had been waiting for over 30min and that he was 10min late getting there. He was looking at another food option on his phone because he was sick of waiting. Anyway, I digress, by the time we were able to eat it was after 7:45... almost three hours from start to finish and cold food. I would have been way more sympathetic to the situation had they been swamped or understaffed, but there were only 9 tables there and staff standing around… a typical slow Monday night. The other staff were incredibly humble, apologetic and kind, however… and most likely a bit embarrassed watching their manager crumble at the prospect of dealing with an issue. Having said all of that, that’s nine disappointed people that won’t be coming back, gift cards or not. It was a complete waste of three hours and nearly $150. Customer service is how restaurants succeed, especially in the current climate. I would strongly encourage BJ’s to offer periodic hospitality continuing education to the management. This...

This is the 2nd time I've been here. The first time, I had a decent experience. This time however, was much different. I went with a couple of friends to catch the colts game at the bar. We found a trio of seats and sat down. There was trash from previous patrons that sat before us for 15 minutes or so before we found the bartender (there was no one behind the bar during that time) and she finally cleared it away. This should have been a red flag right there. Then, she disappeared for a while. When we came across her again, we finally started ordering some beers. Never did she ask us how everything was or did she seem to care.

Due to the fact that she was hardly ever at the bar, keeping our drinks filled was not going to happen. We finally decided to put in an order for some food. I got some boneless wings and another friend got a buffalo burger. After about 20 minutes, my wings came out and they were lukewarm with 3 tiny, miserable, soggy sticks of celery. All that for only twelve bucks or so! My friend who ordered the buffalo burger, must have waited about 40 minutes for his burger & fries as I had finished my wings and it was halftime already. I don't know how much his meal was supposed to cost but after trying a few fries, he rejected it saying the food was cold and I completely believe him. He said it tasted like it had sat under a heat lamp for about 20 minutes. Nothing there is cheap so, for what they charge, the food should be fresh out of the kitchen. So we went out to have a cigarette and during this time, we agreed to leave and not suffer anymore disgraceful "service" we...

The food at BJ's is quite decent although nothing extraordinary. However, the service experience has always been inconsistent until we had a complete meltdown today.

In the past, after ordering online several times, I would go to BJ's pick up my order only to keep waiting for the food despite being well beyond the promised delivery time. The experience at the restaurant was also hit or miss in terms of service.

Today I had an experience at the restaurant that led me to decide to never go there again. We arrived around 11:55 AM and proceeded to immediately order, not only drinks, but the full meal, since we knew what we wanted from previous visits. At 12:45 PM, after seeing everybody around us, including people who arrived well after us, receive their food, we asked for the manager. The manager promised he would check what had happened and eventually the food arrived, after we had spent about 50 minutes waiting for it. There were some mistakes in the order but nothing too bad.

The kicker came after we were done with our meal and we received an incorrect bill. When one of my companions, exasperated, asked how many things they would get wrong in a single meal, the manager rudely replied: "how many more do you want?". I have been in restaurants all over the world and sincerely I have never seen a manager mistreat a customer this way. The lack of professionalism was staggering.

BJ's was a place that had a good start in Bloomington but clearly things are going downhill very quickly. I would recommend to all my friends to stay away -- being mistreated after receiving so-so...