BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

I want to start with, this is the first 1 star review I have ever left. I make a point to do reviews when I love a place but have never done this before. It was so bad that I have to do it. The service here was absolutely terrible! It was not just that the service was bad, but they were downright rude to us. We had a large group (17 people) when we came in but I let them know right away that we could be split up. I had tried to make reservations earlier in the day but they said that they do not do same day reservations even for large groups. We had a team of wrestlers that had just weighed in and they were starving so we would take tables any way possible. After waiting for 45 minutes and watching group after group after group be seated ahead of us, I apologized for bothering her but mentioned again that the boys were really hungry and we will take any tables available. I was told that we will be seated when our tables were ready and they were just waiting for one more table to get cleared. She also stated that we should have called ahead to let them know we were coming. I explained that I did call but my reservation was refused. So, 15 minutes went by and more groups were seated (by this time it was after 9:00 PM) when I approached the hostess again and explained that we will take anything available and it's been over an hour. By this time, some of the groups that came in after us were seated, ate and were leaving. There were multiple empty tables. She said we will be seated when they are ready to seat us. We ended up getting a manager and were seated about 5 minutes later. We stayed seated with no waitress for another 12 minutes. During this time, I saw the hostess talking to a girl who ended up being our waitress. We were all ready to order but she would not take our orders. She said we can order drinks and appetizers but she will not take any dinner orders until after all drinks are brought out. It took another 17 minutes for her to bring our drinks. This was after we spoke to the manager again. He was very nice and apologized repeatedly but nothing changed! Then the waitress stood at the end of our table staring straight ahead so I asked if we can order and she nodded her head. I know you might be thinking that we were not treating her well at this point but honestly we were doing everything possible to get some food in these kids! We were kissing her butt!!!! She finally took all of our orders and the food came out after what seemed like forever. The food was basic. Some of it was cold and she basically refused to give any drink refills. I asked 3 times and never ended up getting it. When my bill came I had 4 extra items added to my bill that had to be removed. She did not speak to us at all and never smiled. I thanked her repeatedly and tried my best to remedy the situation multiple times by being extra nice. It got me nowhere. We were there almost 2.5 hours when there was no wait for anyone but us and it took us 15 minutes to eat and be ready to go. ...

Before the holidays, I dined at BJ’s 3 times within the span of a week. 5 stars for the first and third experiences!

The first evening, I believe our waiter was named Zack. He was wonderful, very friendly and helpful. We tried the root beer glazed wings - delicious, as well as a tavern cut pizza. No complaints.

The second evening was a Saturday, but we went a little later to avoid the dinner crowd. Before ordering, we asked if the double bone-in pork chop was available. Our waitress, Mallory, said yes and took our order. I would guess 10-15 minutes later, my chili was brought out. We were confused because he also ordered chili, a caesar salad, and another side since the weekend special comes with 2 sides and a salad. The server was not our waitress, so we decided to wait until she came back to the table to question it. Several minutes later she returns and states BJ’s is out of the pork chop this evening, so he changes his entree to the ribeye. Mallory then asks if we want to pay for the additional side. This was slightly frustrating, as we had previously asked before ordering the pork chop, but we went ahead and dropped his chili from the order. When the steaks arrived, they not only looked unappetizing, but were also not the correct temp. Both of us ordered medium. Both were well done, and the taste was not worth the money spent. I had also added shrimp to my order, which was a disappointment as well. They were small and pale, and looked as if they were microwaved shrimp you’d buy frozen from Walmart. Not surprising, when I ate one it was rubbery. Thankfully, I had $20 off in rewards, but the bill and tip were still over $100. The best part of this evening was the chili. I would say Mallory was near polar opposite of Zack. She was not friendly or helpful. She wasn’t outright rude, but disinterested and clearly wanted to be anywhere but working. Although it wasn’t the best service and experience, I didn’t plan to write off BJ’s. I did complete a survey stating although the experience was disappointing, it wouldn’t be my last.

On the third evening, Jessie was our waitress. She was amazing, very friendly and honest. I told her about my recent experience and she went above and beyond to rectify. I did not expect anything out of it, but was grateful Jessie listened and seemed to care. Thanks to Robin and Jessie, I left with a $50 gift card! Even before the gift card, my experience was much better than the last. While we were dining, Zack even stopped by to chat for a moment since he recognized us from earlier in the week.

Thank you to Zack, Jessie, and Robin for friendly service and great dining...

It’s very sad to see that Tracy Sanchez someone who works for the restaurant has to come up with blatant and disrespectful lies to try to validate the reason for the rudeness we experienced while we were at BJs Fort Wayne. Even though we were a large party I myself asked the manger that was upfront and told him the number of people that we had for our party. Which he said that he could assist us and have it covered. Some members from the party arrived at 6/6:10pm to make sure we got our seats taken care of which we did not get seated until close to 8pm. When we realized there was not enough seats to accommodate our party we then asked servers if we would be able to take tables that were empty but just needed to be cleaned off. They were more than happy to assist and was able to get those seats cleaned. With the new tables we were informed that we would have separate servers from the big party, which we were okay. Even though we were apart of the party at the end of the day we were still paying customers.

The reason why so many people left is because management was extremely uncooperative. Why stay in an establishment and get treated poorly when I could take my money and family else were and be treated with respect. Not once did anyone by any means lay hands on and waiter or waitress. Could they have been bumped into each other because space was so tight yes that is a possibility but no one stepped out of their way to cause harm. Regarding the cursing I find it laughable because we are a group Christians who truly live by the word of God. So Tracy I don’t know where you heard your information from but as a bystander you should look at all the pieces of the puzzle before assuming anything. Your main waitress treated us like we were second hand, if this is how you treat paying customers then you won’t have to worry about me or my family ever coming back to your establishment. Better training needs to occur about how to take care of bigger parties. We were told to leave over a Cesar salad that the waitress didn’t know who it belonged too.

To me there is a bigger problem that you/ BJs are not seeing, I have read multiple reviews regarding bad service so we are not the only group/ party or people in Fort Wayne that are having trouble with your establishment. I pray that God will fix what needs to be fixed at your restaurant in order to better yourselves as an...