CJ's Patio Grill — Restaurant in Loveland

Alright, I decided to do a review after my second time coming to redeemed CJs. Yes, this is the one that was on bar rescue. I guess it's a cute way of starting conversations if you decide to go here on date. On to the review!

I extremely love the ambiance of the restaurant, especially being a former 3rd shifter. There are no blinding lights here. I went at 1 pm and 6 pm, one on the spur of the moment, the other actually planning to go. Both times were not that busy, so I enjoy knowing I can go here and enjoy my time. I was greeted the first time of coming, I think my waiter was the bartender. But he was nice and Hayleigh was nice during my 2nd time.

I thoroughly love the drinks. They do carry pepsi products for those who are not the drinking type of people. For those who are, the drinks are fabulous! I am an avid fan of bourbon and whiskey, so congrats to bartenders who make the whiskey mules. The Iowa mule personally is my favorite. Yes, they were consistent, so 5 out of 5. The fuzzy pixi was good and tasted like a baja blast! So that was fun. They do have a wide variety of alcohol, and I rarely order specialized orders. But for those who like that, there you go. I will say the alcohol pairs very well with the food, and I shall go into details in for the food.

I can not express the sparks of love I have for the food here. 1st time, we started with the firecracker shrimp; which has quite a crunch, and it's perfectly cooked for me. The burgers are awesome here. I would say they have the lightest buns in Loveland. It's also toasty for those who enjoy texture. I devoured my burger because I ordered medium rare, and it's one of the best burgers I've had in Loveland. I am fiend for the fries here, despite being steak fries. They crunchy are consistently fried. I had the mushroom swiss burger, and my fiance had the jalapeños burger. The ranch is savory and tasted house made. The 2nd time: we had the sampler. It was so good. I will say a few chips were burnt it's not enough to lose a star over. The wings were moist, crunchy, and everything I look for in wings. I will say the firecracker wings are not as good as the shrimp. It's great and now I know for upcoming times I go there. Chicken tenders are mediocre. They were the only part of the sampler I was not a fan of. Though the drinks at least make the tenders great for snacking on so on the aspect of a bar hopper, it's great. The salsa is good, tastes very zesty, and has pico in it, I assume. The bread roll I had was very fluffy and tasted great both on its own and with the blackened salmon. Veggies were perfectly cooked, with a crunch, so there were no soggy vegetables in this review. The rice pilaf is where the food loses its star along with the other infractions. I don't expect much, but it tasted artificial and had additives in it. I personally was not a fan. I am going to tear up over the brownie. Even thinking about it makes me want to run over to CJs and get one. I did not think the brownie could get any better than I got a corner brownie! I have never seen my fiance like sweets, so superb rating for the brownie with ice cream. It's inviting warm and chilled with a little bit of whipped cream. Also, it is a great way to end your dinners. I am intrigued by the cobblers, so maybe a 3rd smaller review for those will be in order. Overall food in 4 out of 5 stars. Drink 5 out of 5 stars.

Hope you liked my review, and thanks for reading for those who made...

I wanted to like this place, really did. The first few times we went, we got ok burgers and sandwiches with great service. 3/5 stars. We returned and tried the steaks for dinner which were horrendous (cheap cuts of meat and not even close on the temp). Well, won’t try the steaks again.

Today we returned for lunch because the kids like it and we decided to make a pit stop. Here’s where the fun begins-

After about 10 minutes in the joint we get to ordering drinks. I order a hazy IPA and receive a red ale. Not a huge deal because I do like red ales and decided to settle rather than send our friendly server back. The girls order sodas and get the news that the CO2 is out, so- lemonades. Mom orders a medium mushroom burger….. but they’re out of mushrooms. So, she instead orders a medium well cheeseburger. I order the Baja fish tacos and the kids get mac n cheese and a second cheeseburger. Both burgers come out medium rare, my Baja fish tacos come with zero cilantro (can only assume they’re out of that too), overcooked like chewy chicken and their rice “pilaf” is white rice with canned tomatoes. The excuse for the lack of ingredients is they got slammed over the weekend (St. Paddy’s)….. well it’s Tuesday and you guys are quite literally right next door to a grocery store with produce.

If this isn’t all enough already, the CO2 magically appears and so do the kids original soda orders on top of their lemonades. Yay more sugar. No offers on refilling the adults beverages though.

We struggle to eat our trash can meals, and decide to get the kids a few of their fudge Sundays. Nope, they bring out 2 giant brownie Sundays which not only did we not order but cost twice as much. The sweetest part of the Sundays was one of the kids found a nice big hair in hers.

I don’t complain for discounts or remakes. I typically tip 30-40% on our meals as I spent the better part of a decade working in food service. I chose to let this one ride and see just how bad it could get. It got that bad. And the thing that ticked me off the most is that I still left a 10 dollar tip for the worst restaurant experience I’ve had in my 5 years of living in Colorado.

I hope the owner(s) of CJ’s don’t reach out to “make it right”, because if they can’t even get a handle on their restaurant or have standards, don’t bother. We won’t be back.

120 bucks for lunch for a family of 4 was hilarious for that kind of food quality, regardless of the 4 beers ordered between 2 adults. We will speak with our wallets elsewhere.

P.S.- beer is cold and fries were alright. Welcome to Mcgraffs where the ranch is the best thing...

I usually don't do reviews but I'm really hoping somebody with CJ's will see this and make any changes they need to. This was Thursday, October 24th. Maybe they just had really bad staff that night?

CJ's has always been a great place, even before the Bar Rescue. I don't know why it was so bad this time, but it was REALLY bad. I'm hoping it was just a one-time thing but I'm not sure if I'll be willing to go back to find out.

I ordered the BLT. It's described on their menu as: "Thick Pecanwood smoked shoulder bacon with fresh spinach, grilled tomatoes, warm cream cheese & crushed candied pecans on sour dough bread."

When I had it before (maybe a year ago?), it was just as described - and DELICIOUS. Best sandwich I think I've ever had.

This time, it was a MAJOR disappointment. The 'bacon' was more like the greasy end cap from a ham. Limp tomato and spinach. No cream cheese. No nuts. It was bland and kind of disgusting. I didn't eat much of it.

How do you screw up a blt? I didn't think you could, but CJ's managed to. If it had just had normal bacon it would have been better.

My husband had the Messy Jess: "Sliced turkey breast, smoked ham, bacon & pepperoni with melted cheddar & mozzarella cheese on sour dough with BBQ Mayo, lettuce, onions, & pickles."

He's had this before and loved it, but like with my BLT, it was nothing like the first time.

It had the meat and cheese but NO mayo, NO lettuce, NO onion, NO pickles. Just gristly meat and some cheese. It was so dry he couldn't eat much of it.

If it wasn't for fries we'd have had nothing to eat.

We had out-of-town company with us and were horribly embarrassed that it was so bad after we told them how good the place was.

As I said before, I'm going to hope that this was just a one-time thing. It's always been great before and plenty of people say it still is, but I really don't know if I ever want to go back. I certainly won't...