BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Cary

Me and a few of my friends have come to this BJ’s location multiple times now. Before I start with the complaints, I just want to talk about Jackie, our server. She is the only reason we come back to this restaurant, along with the (usually) great tasting food. She’s personable, kind, attentive, and all around the perfect server to fit our personalities. We always ask for her when we arrive and she has yet to fail us. Even today, which was a day full of complaints over the food, she did her best to keep us happy and was eager to help us in anyway she could. I want to say that, as a server, I almost never send back food if I don’t have to because I hate inconveniencing the staff. Now to the main problem of our night. Not a single dish came out warmer than lukewarm on its first trip to the table. The tables meals consisted of our starters of a chicken tortilla soup, a queso dip, bacon cheeseburger, shrimp scampi, and smokehouse burger. Going in order, the queso dip was cold the first time, lukewarm the second time, and only came out right when Jackie herself went to warm it up. When the bacon cheeseburger came out, it was lukewarm, but I felt bad sending it back and decided to eat it. The fries, however, were barely even warm. They tasted like they had been sitting in the window for a while. Jackie, again, came to our rescue. She got us another batch freshly made and they tasted fantastic. After that, the shrimp scampi came out, and yet again it was cold. We assumed maybe it was just cold on top as it had been sitting in the window for a while, but when we tossed it and tried tasting it from the bottom, it was still cold! We asked a staff member to just reheat the scampi in a microwave and it would be ok, but 15-20 minutes passed by and my friend still hadn’t received her pasta until JACKIE came back with it after we informed her. Finally, my friends smokehouse burger came out and wouldn’t you know it, it was lukewarm. After waiting for such a long time for it and upset by the lack of warmth, my friend ended up not even being able to eat the burger. Now there is one finally thing I have yet to discuss, and that is my chicken tortilla soup. Mind you, I had placed the soup as a starter, and it didn’t come out until after we were all waiting for nearly 30-40 minutes. Even when it did come out, it lacked the extra ingredients I had asked for. Overall, we did not have a good experience food wise, but I cannot understate the importance of Jackie as our server tonight. She did all she could to keep us happy, went to go get the food the food runners and kitchen staff should have checked for the first time, and even got us a manager to give us discounts because of our horrible experience. We still tipped her well, almost 50 dollars from our table of 3 combined because we did not want our bad experience with the kitchen to mess with her money. I don’t want anyone reading this review to think that the food is always this horrible or that the kitchen is incapable, because as I had previously stated we never had major issues before this. I just want to advise that anyone who comes here asks for Jackie because of the care and dedication she has to her tables as a server. I promise you will not regret having her there alongside you may any issues pop up throughout your experience at...

My domestic partner and I went for a lunch date on Feb. 23rd. We decided to try this place out because we’re always passing by. After my experience, we should have kept passing by. There was a little wait for the restaurant to be at maybe 20% capacity on a cool rainy Friday afternoon. It was not busy at all. We saw one waiter/host on our left he said he’d be with us in a sec. The another waiter/host comes from the right. I think it’s the bar area. In a kind of huffy voice he said sorry for the wait but one our hosts had to suddenly leave and that he’d seat us. Once seated my domestic partner and I ordered water with lemon while we looked over the menu for appetizers. The air conditioning was up entirely too high for a rainy cool day. We settled for wings and fries. When I went to drink the water there was no straw. The waiter brought us straws. I went to drink the water and there was black stuff floating in the water. The waiter brought another water. At this point I was deducting from the tip. While looking over the appetizers I was also looking for my meal. I was interested in the trio something. It can with a steak and a choice of a side. I was going to get the shrimp scampi. I don’t remember the other options. But after all the other little things that were already wrong I decided to stay safe and got a crispy chicken sandwich with same type of spicy slaw. While waiting on the sandwich I decided I didn’t want to order a drink with my meal. I decided not to drink the water although replaced it didn’t come with lemon as requested. The wings were a 1 out of ten. We had to ask our waiter for napkins because none were provided on the table or with the food. Once I received my crispy chicken sandwich, it was clear the sandwich was fried to capacity. I had to ask for another top bun because the first bun was damaged. I flipped the chicken over and can see a portion of where the chicken wasn’t coated and it was fried like jerky. I began pulling off chunks of hard over fried batter. When I got the new bun top I took one bite of the sandwich and decided not to eat the rest. The fries were cold. The menu prices here do not match the quality of their food or customer service. I will not be returning to dine here. And I’m sure it won’t hurt their pockets but a bad review whether it’s via online or word of mouth is...

UPDATE: 04/07/23– There was no wait time. The restaurant was clean. We were seated immediately. We were greeted by our servers, Justin & Emily. Awesome duo. We placed our orders. Everything came out in a good time frame. The avocado egg rolls were delicious. The food was fresh. We enjoyed our meals. We had small talk with our servers. We had no idea it was Emily’s 5th day. Justin & her work well together. I’m definitely returning here.

I went Saturday, 01/07/2023. TERRIBLE!!! We gave our name, telephone number & number in party. We were told about 20 minutes. After 30+ minutes, we went back to the hostess booth. “Oh we can seat you, it’s a 20 minute wait, what’s your name, we’ll add you?” Unbelievable. They never put us on the list. Said they would seat us in a few minutes. We added our name AGAIN. A party of 9, a party of 5 & a party of 2 were seated AFTER we put our name down again. We were there before them, we watched them be placed on the list.. We finally walked up to a manager, at this point, it has been an hour. He sat us at a table. Another customer complained that he got the text that the table was ready and same thing, they didn’t have him on the list and had to add him again. The Hostess stand needs training. After an hour, we were finally seated & ready to order… And we’re told they just sold out of the avocado egg rolls. SMH. WE DROVE 32 MINUTES, WAITED AN HOUR & THEN THEY JUST SOLD OUT OF WHY WE EVEN CAME. My goodness, I was ready to leave but my grandson wanted pizza. We should have cooked at home with all of these inconveniences. Honestly, Jasmine, our server, was the turn around point. She was attentive & courteous. She gave other food recommendations due to the avocado egg rolls being sold out. She was nice. My Turkey burger was good. I added the fried jalapeños & mushrooms. Delicious. The only reason I’d go back is for the avocado egg rolls. But it’ll be during the week. Clearly the hosting staff can’t handle seating people on the weekends. AND BE CAREFUL!! Their parking area has a pothole the size of a jacuzzi. It’ll tear your vehicle up. It’s on the 2nd row of the parking lot. And deep. They should have orange cones...