BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Columbia

My friend and I dined here on Saturday night, 1/04/25. I can honestly say this was the absolute worst dining experience I've ever had. We arrived around 8pm. After a 30 minute wait, the hostess called for us, and as we went to be seated our waiter loudly yelled at us that he was going to be our waiter and he's so excited to wait on us. We both thought it was an odd reaction and didn't understand what the point of him yelling like that was. Once we were seated the waiter came to our table, and immediately his attitude was bizarre. He acted irritated and annoyed with us. When we asked for drinks (cocktais), he said aight and walked off. We sat there perplexed because we were going to order appetizers, but instead he just walked off right after we said our drink orders. When he came back with our drinks he sat them down on the table and walked away without saying a word. Eventually, he came back and took our appetizer and entrees orders. He brought our appetizers out shoving them on the table and then running off. He didn't say a single word to us at all. We brushed it off that he was having a bad night and tried to ignore the attitude. The appetizers, brussel sprouts and chips and salsa, were very good. Unfortunately, our entrees were not. My Alfredo was awful. It was served cold and the sauce tasted like glue. My friends Philly was dredged in liquid and both the top and bottom buns were soggy. We pushed our entrees to the side and waited for the waiter, which ended up being a 25 minute wait. When he came to our table, he stood there and stared at us while we explained that the food was not good and we would like both entrees taken off our bill. He stood there, stared at us, and then said he would see if he could. He walked away towards the kitchen, turned around, came back to our table, picked up the plates, and then went back to the kitchen. All without saying a word. He never apologized, offered us to speak to the manager, nothing. When he brought us the check, I paid for our 2 appetizers, 2 drinks, and 1 salad, which was $45. I paid this with cash and he snatched the check from me and then crumbled the check up and threw it behind his shoulder as he was storming off. The reason why I am even writing this review is because of this - He stopped and spoke to a blonde women in a red shirt. He then turned around and pointed at us. The women was smiling and turned her head and looked at us with a smirk on her face. We thought there is absolutely no way that is a manager. Wrong. We ended up leaving the restaurant and then decided to call and speak with a manager to discuss this incident. When speaking with the manager, Melony, we asked her if she was wearing a red shirt, and she said yes. So the women he complained to and who clearly looked directly at us and smirked was in fact the manager. She then made excuse after excuse for herself and that employee. She said she never heard him say anything about our table and he is a great employee. We were genuinely shocked that the manager handled this situation with even less class than her employee did. Not only did this business lose out on money from us considering we were going to order 2 entrees, a take-home entree for my husband, 2 desserts, and other cocktails, ... They will never get business from us or our families again...

I had dinner here on Saturday night 12/16/23 and it was the worst experience I’ve ever had, mostly due to the server. His name was Gilbert and he was the worst server I’ve ever encountered. He wasn’t very good at his job from the start, taking over 30 minutes just to get our drinks. He never once offered a refill or asked if he could get us anything, and actually gave one of my fellow dinner guests an attitude when she asked him for something. When the bill came, we were quite surprised that it was all on one check. We knew there would be an automatic gratuity but we planned to pay separately and we were never informed until the end that this wasn’t going to be an option, not even when the reservation was made beforehand. We were only told about the tip. When we questioned the server about finding out what each of our meals came up to, he was very condescending, repeatedly telling us that he gave us the bill, even though he knew we were asking for individual totals. When we asked if he could get us a manager to help us separate it, he got even more rude, yelling at a table of women as he was standing over us. When we finally told him he didn’t need to be rude to us, he started cussing at us and the whole restaurant was staring. I’m a server myself and I was just completely shocked at this guy’s behavior. If I EVER did that to a customer in my restaurant, no matter what, I’d be fired on the spot. The manager did come over and very nicely gave us all our separate totals, including that automatic 18% tip that this server in NO way deserved at all. The server was allowed to continue to serve tables, even getting new ones while we sorted out our tables’ check. The food was good - at least mine was. I had the Alfredo and, while pricy, it was a good amount and was quite tasty. But the place is very loud. You can barely hear yourself think. I will not be returning and I have already shared my experience with friends and family. Between this aggressive and rude server and the complete inability to give each customer their own bill, or a way to get a total at the very least, I have plenty of other options for places to spend my money. I do want to say that Shy (spelling may be wrong) who was working the bar that night was amazing! She’s super friendly and made a connection with me, even though she was busy. Try...

Extremely Disappointed – Will Not Return

We visited BJ’s Brewhouse in Columbia on July 31st, 2025, as a party of two. While the food was acceptable, the service was extremely poor and left us frustrated and disappointed.

Our server quickly became overwhelmed, and the service throughout our lunch was unreasonably slow. After finally receiving our bill, we noticed a major error — we were charged twice, once for $40.09 and again for $71.67. When we brought it to our server’s attention, she casually said she had credited the incorrect charge. However, no refund appeared on our banking app, which notifies us of transactions in real time.

We also reminded her of the $10 loyalty credit she had promised to apply, which had not been deducted from our bill either. When it became clear we were getting nowhere with her, we asked to speak to a manager.

What followed was perhaps the most bizarre part of our lunch. We watched a man walk to other tables asking guests if they had billing issues—yet never approached us, despite our obvious concern. We finally called out to him, asking if he was the manager. He confirmed he was, and we explained the double charges and the missing loyalty discount. He also promised to get us a credit receipt. Again - when he returned- no credit receipt. He informed us that the system wouldn’t let him give a credit receipt. Although he informed us he has worked for BJs for 9 years. (but doesn’t know how the charge/credit system works. Instead of showing concern, apologizing, or even attempting to resolve the matter thoughtfully, “Bryson,” the manager, simply repeated that the charge was reversed and we’d see the refund in 2–3 business days. That was his entire solution. Meanwhile, another charge appeared on our card while we were still at the table, leaving us with three charges and no refunds visible.

There was no ownership of the issue, no apology, no compensation, and no empathy. Just a dismissive attitude and a shrug of “that’s how the system works.”

We’ve dined at this BJ’s location several times before, but after this visit, we will not be returning. Mistakes happen—but how a business handles those mistakes is what defines good service. Sadly, this experience showed us that customer satisfaction is clearly not a...