BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Pinellas Park

So I wasn’t gonna write a review, but this one deserves it because of the way my party was treated. I’m a frequent customer at the restaurant 3 to 5 times a week with 4 of my friends. we enjoy BJ’s restaurant and the waiters and waitresses that serve us very well and for the past 3 weeks we’ve been letting everybody know, including management We’re going to have a birthday party with approximately 40 people there And we needed to get the space they usually set up for parties. The day of the party, we were told no one knew anything about the party. None of the tables were set up the manager Johnny had no idea that we were coming, which comes to find out He was the one who took the reservation and forgot all about It. So we get there to decorate At 3 PM and Johnny approaches us and says you can’t start decorating until 330 and He proceeds to tell us that we have a window between 4 and 6 PM that the party has to start and end and everybody has to be gone.!!! So naturally, we started decorating at 3:30. Johnny, the manager was not welcoming or Accommodating at all.!! He was more aggravated that we were having our party there an it showed in his attitude!! I had to set all the tables alongside with one of their waitresses, the guest arrived. There was no orders taken for drinks until about 4:30 The waitresses were absolutely amazing for their first time catering a 40 top birthday party. Might I add it was 40 professional ladies and men in many fields there was no children involved so it was all adults that spent good money.. Everything started going smoothly when Johnny was not involved. At the end of the party, I helped collect all glassware, dishware, and silverware to put in one area for the bus boys helped roll up all the table cloths cleaned up after ourselves, and reset the tables the way they were only because I felt bad for the waitresses and I wanted to be as clean and helpful I could be for them and the rest of the employees . At the very end, there’s a few people left and everyone was saying their goodbyes. We had the balloons on a booth table because we’re about to walk out the door. Johnny The manager came up, grabbed all the balloons in a very rude and rushing Mannor to hand it to me and said we need the table. We have people coming to sit. I said oh OK. I’m sorry no problem. I deliberately waited for five minutes to see if anybody got sat down And nobody was sat down mind you there was plenty of tables and booths available in the area. I approached him and asked him where the party was that was sitting at that booth that you rudely came and grabbed the balloons and shoved them in my face, his reply was we sat them somewhere else so I immediately fired back at him and said you have been treating us disgustingly the whole time we’ve been here you’ve not been accommodating at all or kind to any of our party. He proceeded to put his hand in my face as if to shut me up and said That’s not true at all I told him to put his hand down that’s rude as a manager to put his hand in somebody’s face when they’re talking!!! He walked away to run toward the kitchen, and I told him he was the worst manager in hospitality, and this is not the position he should hold in any company. I knew I was in the right when all of his staff meaning the waitresses Agreed unanimously that they don’t understand why he was treating us so badly. The staff was so apologetic for his behavior and embarrassed that he had treated the party so badly and they didn’t understand why. Needless to say, I’ll be speaking to Marty the GM and I’m bringing it to his attention how horribly we were treated and not to mention the Person‘s birthday got their food last overcooked and cold. I have nothing bad to say about the restaurant or the staff. It was literally all to do with the manager Johnny and his complete disgusting...

There was a misunderstanding by the bartender. We came in a 3:10pm, part of the happy hour crowd. They served us dinner time margaritas and the bill was $10 over expected. I thought it was a mix up and asked for a correction; the bartender was completely apologetic and professional about it being a misunderstanding and wanted to refund the difference; she was superb. But new management came in and tried to escalate the issue by telling me I had to pay for the misunderstanding because “I did not specify I wanted a happy hour margarita” (they automatically specified my appetizers as happy hour costs). I have been returning business to this location for 4 years and now I’m hesitant to return over $10. I want to keep coming back because everything is superb, but the new management might need more training in customer service for return business. It’s more cost effective to return a customer than to secure the $10 and lose a customer forever for one bad experience. This is a great location with great staff, management just needs to let go and let their staff bring the returning business. We will come back if we feel at home; this was my first time in 4 years feeling out of place at my local BJs. I feel uncomfortable returning with this management.

The MOD did speak with me and told me he’s “not going to argue with me.” I fully understand; I did not want to argue. I got a top shelf liquor in our margaritas, but I did state we were there for Happy Hour when we entered at 3:10. The bartender mistakenly served us top shelf margaritas; it was a simple error. Restaurants are buying bottles at a fraction for what they sell drinks for so they can afford the simple honest mistakes; the fact that the manager drew this out 15-20min to correct made me feel incredibly uncomfortable in my hometown bar.

I just don’t know now. The bartenders and the staff there are amazing at consistency and hospitality. It’s new management that I’m concerned about. I work in customer service management and I respect how difficult situations can be with false claims, but you have to consider, “what brings the customer back to spend more money?” And the manager working December 10th, 2024 made me feel so uncomfortable that I might not return. The bottle was $25 and you want to lose a customer over a $10 difference? Come on. Keep me coming back.

The MOD did correct the issue and changed the bill so that is commendable to an extent (although it was at the bartender’s persistence to do the right thing), but it took an additional 20 minutes at the time of billing to resolve when we were planning to go see a movie that we ended up late too. This review is being written in hopes the GM reads it; let your MODs relax and return business. This location has a lot of return business and we want to keep coming back. I want to keep coming back; I just don’t want to get into awkward confrontations over $10 charges instead of doing what’s right by the customer. Your bartenders are awesome, waitstaff is superb, just do a check on managers that could really make this the place people talk about coming to in our...

Issue 1.

Tonight 1/4/2025 I ordered the prime rib special and I specifically told and showed the waitress the picture of the prime rib and said "do not bring me some small piece of meat". (I said that because my friend ordered a steak and in the picture was a nice piece of meat but what he had after he cut all the fat off was a piece of meat the size of a Filet Mignon). I wanted to make sure that did not happen to me. When I received my meal my prime rib was 1/2 the size cut the long way. I explained that I was not happy and the waitress asked me if I wanted her to order another one. I said yes.

For $34.00 they should make sure they are serving close to what they are advertising.

Issue 2.

This is in reference to the gift cards sold. What a sham. I feel bad for people who purchased these cards as a Christmas gift.

It seems no one at BJ's understands how these gift cards work or the bonus gift cards or the VIP card. BJ's is selling gift cards and are not explaining everything to customers. I know why because if customers knew what I am finding out BJ's would never sell a gift card as customers would not waste their money.

I purchased the $100.00 gift card that came with a $20.00 bonus card and a 20% off VIP card. I also purchased a $50.00 gift card with a $10.00 bonus card.

There were things that were never told to me. These cards cannot be used before 1/2/2025 and they are only good until 1/31/2025.. The VIP card cannot be used on specials. The VIP cannot be used with other gift cards.

Tonight I tried to use the VIP card and the $20.00 bonus card in which I was told neither could be used on specials.

The waitress said for me to read the back of the card.

Tonight when I got home I got the magnifier glass and read the back of both cards. The VIP card could not be used on the special. The $20.00 bonus card could be used as it states clearly that this card can only be used for "food, merchandising etc only at BJ's restaurant". It does not state that it cannot be used on specials.

I don't understand why the waitress said that I could not use this $20.00 gift card.

I used the $100.00 gift card and supposedly there was not enough to cover the balance so I handed the waitress the $20.00 bonus card. When the waitress said that I could not use the card on my meal because it was a special. I paid the balance.

When I got home I went to check my purchases on the $100.00 card and did not realize that the waitress did not return the card to me. So I have no idea if the gift card was used up.

I go Wednesday for the Wing special. Weekend for the Prime Rib special.

I have 2 bonus gift cards. 1 for $20.00 and 1 for $10.00 so if I can't use these gift cards for specials like the waitress said what good are...