BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Laguna Hills

I hate that I have to leave this review because I really love BJ’s; they have good food, decent pricing and all else. All of that being said, the service is subpar at best. I work in the restaurant construction industry, not only that, but was a project manager directly for building BJs across the country. I have been there at the end of construction, present for their training of the new crews at dozens of locations and heard it hammered into all the new hires about the seven steps of service. New hires would not even be allowed to pass the first round of cuts if they didn’t get every single question right on their initial training tests. Oh, how they have fallen. “No auctioning off of food”. This went from a standard step of training of “what not to do” to something that happens every-time I eat at BJs. On my visit last week, there was a salad that was ordered by a child in our party and no one remembered he had ordered it. The child was in the restroom when the salad came, so when it was being auctioned off “Caesar salad? Caesar salad???” and no one knew whose it was, so we sent it back. If the food runner was following protocol and knew what seat position had ordered it, then it would have been a non-issue. Salad came 3 bites before our entrees. 4 sets of apps came out 15-20 mins prior, but no salad. Once the salad came, it was either eat it or a warm entree; not both. Pre-bussing….argh this is my biggest pet peeve. We ate dinner with plates upon plates, upon plates piled up in the middle of the table just to make room for our dinner plates. Not one plate was pre-bused of all we had and for the 20 minutes after our food was dropped off, no one returned to our table. No checking on the food. No asking if we needed refills, no asking if we wanted to put our desert order in. Nothing. Eventually we went to the front, asked for the manager and she was helpful to get things going. They got the piles of plates bussed and put our desert order in. She was responsive and helped make the best of a bad situation, but sadly the tone of the night had already been set. I wish I could say this was the first time, but it wasn’t. The level of service has really dwindled to the point of where I just expect my salad and appetizer plate to be on my table until after the check has been paid. Even with 2 people eating, the food will be auctioned and the 7 steps of service is something no current server even has a concept of. I’ll still go here, but I now just temper my expectations to be realistic for what I know I’ll get. I’ll likely enjoy the food but not to expect more than the service you’d figure to receive from a Barstow truck...

Free parking lot Not too crowded or loud Friendly staff Despite great menu variety, sub par food and drink* I would like to mention however, that we arrived about 45 (maybe up to 35) minutes prior to closing time and therefore intended to order our food Togo and were prepared to wait however long (no rush and our apologies to the staff ('cause we've been there, done that, and are now "one of those" on this particular night)); so after placing our order, we waited at the bar.

Anytime I've been to any other BJ's, they've had a "Strawberry Fields" martini (or something to that affect) on the menu and its the tops. Upon seeing this menu was sans my "go to" drink option, I inquired at the bartender who assured me that he knew of the drink and that it would be no problem to make it... Worst drink ever (@ BJ's anyway). Passed it off (somehow) to my friend who just figured she'd down it mixed with her delicious tropical drink which, hey, thats her call (destroyed her drink but totally her fault). Anyway, we get our order and peace out just before (if not at) closing time.

We get home to find our food a mixed variety of either burnt or mushy...

No, we didn't call because: a. they were closed anyway b. we were just taking care of a personal matter that day/night with plans to head back home that next morning and c. mainly, we didn't want to deal with the stress that usually comes with "complaining" etc. etc.

*So this review is related to this particular BJ's on that particular night with those being the specifics potentially being the change and hopefully not the constant. But I'll let you be the judge. I will say, always, no matter what/where, I feel the majority of their menu is over priced; yet I still somehow end up returning at some point in life anyway....

Reposting my Yelp review since they just hit me with the pre-canned: "I'm sorry about your experience. Please talk to a manager next time."

Plan A was closed for July 4 so I looked online for an alternative. This place was close enough so I looked through their menu online and saw they were offering a free dessert if you signed up to become a member. Being the sweet tooth that I am, I was quite excited to pick up the reward with my $50 order. I called in to place the order and confirmed with the employee that the dessert would be free.

I got there and called the number on the curbside placard. No one answered so I called again. And again. And again... Okay, no problem they must be super busy for the holiday and understaffed so I walked in.

The two workers in the front were chatting with each other and there were no customers waiting by the cashier station. Why can't anyone pick up the phone when the place seems slow? I told the cashier my name, and mentioned the free dessert and showed her the coupon on my phone. She looked at me and told me that I had to wait 24 hours for that offer to go into effect. The heck? Why did the lady on the phone not mention that when I placed my order and specifically asked about the free dessert offer? I didn't want to make a fuss about it so I left, figuring I must have missed some fine print on the offer.

I got back home and checked the email offer. No mention of this 24 hour waiting period whatsoever. I might expect to be scammed like this in some third world country but in the US? On a holiday for that matter? Absolutely shameless.

The food was okay. Too salty. Or maybe that's just how I was feeling...