BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Fredericksburg

This past Saturday was my first and last time eating at BJ's. Not half as good as Applebee's quality food at double the cost. First we waited a very long time for our appetizer. Asked the waitress about it and just got a "it'll be coming out". No apology for/recognition of the extended wait or statement she would check on it. The appetizer was actually pretty good - we were excited for our meals and to try this new restaurant. After waiting a while again, we get our main meals. Daughter's side was wrong. Not a big deal and an easy fix. Husband's cheeseburger has bacon on it that looks undercooked - not at all the crispy bacon you expect on a burger. The actual patty is not fresh meat- it is clearly a frozen premade patty the center of which was an off/bizarre shade of pink. Not what you usually see from a medium/medium well burger. I ordered the soup and salad. Salad was completely drenched in dressing - possibly an attempt to cover up the brown, wilted lettuce? Caesar was so droopy it almost looked like it was under a heat lamp at some point. Came with a sad looking bowl of clam clowder the top of which had filmed over by the time it made it to me. I am familiar with New England and Manhattan clam chowder. This soup was neither. I did not enjoy it but ate it as we hadn't had much to eat yet that day and we were hungry. Opening a can of Campbell's would have been more appealing. Before this Saturday, I had never sent food back at a restaurant, but I decided to return the salad - it was just too gross. The waitress tells me she will take that off our bill. The bill arrives, and I am charged $9.99 for the sad cup of soup as opposed to $12 for the soup/salad combo. What a joke! I would have expected the meal to be removed entirely or at least to be 50% off, as you did take half my food away. She also charged $10 ($4.95 x2) for each of my elementary-age children's fountain drinks (ages 9 & 10/ordering kids meals of the kids menu that states it includes the drink). We were besides ourselves and just wanted to leave at this point. To add insult to injury, my husband posted a review and the restaurant responded that we should speak to an on-site manager. I was a waitress for almost 10 years - when food is sent back the manager comes out to check on the table. No manager ever came to speak to us. Caught a glimpse of the kitchen otw to the restroom- it definitely can use a deep clean. One thing after another at this restaurant. Can I...

BJ's is a good place to check out if you are staying at the hotels in this area and needed something a la "Americana Grill" to have for dinner. The inside of the place has a nice feel to it, with nice lighting and a cool bar that sits above the restaurant seating. I think it's worth noting that the reviews of this place, particularly when it comes to service, are extremely accurate and I had the same experience.

My husband and I came here on a Tuesday night - not particularly a night I think is very exciting or busy for any restaurant, especially in this area. BJ's was pretty much dead. Despite only three tables filled in such a big restaurant area and just a couple people at the bar, we were still asked to wait 10-15 minutes. I'm a little stumped as to why we couldn't just be seated and waited for the servers to be ready, but I imagine the hostess just goes by the computer count instead of actually reading the room in terms of server availability....

That is, until we were greeted by two servers, one in training. They were both very friendly and quickly took our order for drinks. I wanted some time to check out the menu and it was a good thing it was my first time there and I took a while to figure out what I wanted, since they disappeared and didn't come back for quite some time.

My soda was flat, but the wings were good when we finally got our food which again, took pretty long. I think the waiting to seat problem was revealed pretty quickly in that the kitchen was likely understaffed. The food was not anything to write home about, but I have a pretty high standard for wings having moved from Buffalo. They were sauced alright for boneless wings, but I was given ranch instead of bleu cheese despite asking for bleu cheese. That's not the end of the world, but it definitely was not as good and a bummer when the waitress is nowhere to be found after the food was given to get a bleu cheese instead. My husband's burger (The Brewhouse Burger) was good, but not rave-worthy.

The food could be described as adequate - not great, but not bad. It's what I'd say is a step above applebee's or chili's, especially for a family. Would I come here again? Maybe, but only in a pinch, as there are much better options in the area, and only if I wanted to wait a pretty long time to be seated and then to...

First impression: Its a nice place. I enjoyed the beer and wine selections. However the menu is much too large. They should of shot for separate menus. One for lunch, one for dinner, one for bar drinks and desserts. Instead you get a text book as your menu which makes it really hard to decide what to eat.

Appetizer: I got the platter with boneless wings, mozzarella sticks, and spinach artichoke dip. Its supposed to come with the avocado egg rolls but there were out, which was okay cause I’d rather have more mozzarella sticks. The appetizer plate seemed too large for this appetizer there was a lot of empty space on the platter. The mozzarella sticks were definitely made in house, everything else was delicious.

Main course: I got the parmesan encrusted chicken. I could definitely tell that my meal was the first done at my table because the parsley was dried up by the time it got to my table as well as the sauce it comes topped with. The broccoli was much too soggy. The chicken was great could have been better if I had the sauce. Mashed potatoes were amazing.

Drinks: I got the Blondeale and a few glasses of Moscato, they were both fantastic.

Dessert: Pizzookie! I got the chocolate chip cookie one and omg it is amazing. The waitress did warn us that they are freshly baked and take 8 mins but sooo soooo worth it. I almost got the trio of pizzookies where you can pick three for dessert and I wish I had.

Its an okay place. For the price and atmosphere I was expecting more fine dining brewery but its definitely comparable to Applebee’s or Chili’s but twice as expensive.

Our server was great, had a lovely personality, and a great sense of humor. She was very confident which made for a pleasurable experience. I want to say her name is Kristin, but I could be wrong. It definitely started with a K and our visit was 12-22-2019...