BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Puyallup

Of all of the places we visit and enjoy, the rule is to always keep an open mind, even if we have made multiple visits..and for the record, I have never had to delete a review before this one. So first for everything I guess. My review was a five star First off, keep in mind that this is Graduation Day for 4 different high schools in the area. So we of course attempted to get online and join the wait-list which errored out twice. We tried to call on our way, no answer. We arrived and were greeted with what we felt like was instant disgust. We could not have made the hostess any more miserable trying to check in and walking in the door. By site, an empty place, but with a serving background that means absolutely nothing. This location is snug inbetween a Red Robin and an Olive Garden and they had lines out the door, but after our experience it's clear why this restaurant did not. We met friends heading to the bathroom while waiting who gave us the 'run while you can't face'. Apparently the food time was ridiculous and they had wished they never checked in. And although I tried to explain our issue with the check in system and call upon check in, the wonderful hostess made a point of taking every customer after us that had gotten through on the system while we sat with three very hungry littles. The hostess was clearly not a fan of any customers. Being that we were able to enjoy first hand her grumble every time someone walked in. We checked in at 3 and were given a 20 minute wait time, it is now 350 and the hostess has not returned to the podium in the last 15 minutes. We are walking out at 350 because I cannot ask these kids to wait to eat any longer. And to be honest, attempting to approach a waitress while taking the kids to the bathroom again and again was fruitless, really miserable, avoided us at all costs like the plague. As we left our hostess magically appeared and mumbled as low as possible that she was gonna go clean a table for us now...well thank you..how darn nice. An empty restaurant yet no room for anyone, miserable staff, no communication, nothing like our other three or four visits. Not even close! And..... .it just hit 4pm, we are traveling through town to another restaurant and we just received our text that our table was ready.....exactly one hour later. Thank you for being my first deleted good review and for making our son's big day feel like an inconvenience.

Just as an update, we traveled down the road to another restaurant who upon arrival explained they were short staffed and the wait would be 20 minutes or sooner and apologized (which was not necessary). We explained we were understanding and thanked them for the honesty and warm welcome. We were seated shortly after and turned our day around. We squished 7 a booth, there was no one to get our dirty dishes and it was still the best dining experience I've had in a while because they were authentic, hard working, thankful we were there and attentive. We tipped well and...

Came here on a Sunday afternoon and the restaurant was not at all packed, or busy. I found it a little off that although we were seated right away, we were not spread out comfortably between the other guests. It felt even more uncomfortable and cramped in a not busy restaurant when they sat a party of 5 right next to us so close that it looked like we were all there together. Thankfully it happened to be a friend, otherwise I would have requested to be moved. The waitress was great although it took a while for her to even acknowledge us upon our arrival at the table. It was a bummer that they were out of salmon but I opted for filet minion in place of. My bf got the shrimp scampi and we ordered wings for an appetizer. The wings were not edible as they were not fully cooked. Parts of the inside were still cold, and they still had a very rubbery soft feel to them. The waitress noticed my face and asked me about them so I told her, she kindly removed the wings from our tab but then our entrees came out. I ordered my steak medium well, and when I tell you it was more like a burnt hockey puck, that is without exaggeration. I was barely even able to cut through the meat, there was no seasoning or flavors, and I ended up just asking for the tab and leaving almost my entire meal there. My bf said the shrimp scampi was good though.

I’m dissapointed because I have always loved BJ’s and my kids enjoy going there as well. Not sure what happened this day, but it was a terrible experience and I’m hesitant to even go back. Hoping they correct the staffing, seating, and food issue soon. They are a great restaurant typically!

Update 3 months later:

Since the reply from BJ’s to my original post, & them claiming they “wanted to make it up to us” , we have called on a few occasions to take them up their offer since we easily spent over $100, and was always told the manager was not in.

My boyfriend (who was the one with me at the time) finally called and spoke to a woman who said she was the manager, listened to his story and then claimed she couldn’t find the receipt in the system, nor could she find my review. (The date we were in was July 12th btw. And my review is the first one that pops up when you pull them up bj brewery Puyallup in google )

Anyway, he read her my review, she apologized, and then proceeded to take down his email with the promise of sending a gift card that day. We still have not received the gift card, nor have we heard anything further from the establishment. It’s very dissapointing and unfortunate that a restaurant my kids and I loved so much didn’t make good on their promise. We were loyal customers until this moment, and now I will make sure to tell everyone I know about my experience and discourage them from coming here at all. It’s about principle and follow through...

I go here often, I have for years. The customer service aspect has gone downhill. I was here a few months ago and the person I was with and I waited for a long time to be greeted once we were seated. We ordered our food and it got to us promptly. Not once did our server check in with us and we were done with our food for nearly about 25 mins. before our waiter came over to give us our bill. Then the waiter took forever to come grab our card and cash us out. Okay whatever, things happen. I went back a few ago on my lunch break and ordered their Pazookie meal. I got the grain bowl thing and the rice or whatever they put in it was rock hard, like they scraped the rice at the bottom of a pot and gave me it. Again, things happen, it’s whatever. I give people grace. What really did it for me was yesterday. Again, I was on my lunch break. I placed my order about 15 mins before my lunch and went to pick it up. I got a text message telling me that my order was being packaged at 11:40. I had never done an online/takeout order with them before so I walked in and said that’s what I was there for. The person at the front cut me off and pointed over to the takeout area. I went over there and there wasn’t any workers or anything so I waited, and waited. A guy came out a few times and didn’t acknowledge me. So finally, I went back up to the front and told them I’ve been waiting for nearly 20 mins. and I needed to get back to work. The same person that pointed me over to the takeout area looked at another hostess and told her to help me. She went to the back and then told me it was going to be an additional 10 mins. I said no I can’t wait, please refund my money. She went to grab a manager (which took and additional 5 mins.) He comes out, stares at the takeout screen for a few and I asked what was happening because I needed to return to work. He said, “We’ve had several catering orders this morning.” Um okay? Your establishment sent me a text telling me my order was being packaged. He said give me your email and I’ll make sure to send a gift card to it and get you a refund. I go back to work and continue to check my email and card, several hours go by so I call and see what’s up. The same guy gets on the phone and tells me he doesn’t know how to do it but the manager that comes in at 4 does and will get it handled for me. They refunded my $14.33 after several hours but never sent me a gift card like I was promised. Definitely don’t recommend this place to anyone as the customer service is lacking and the quality of their food is nothing to brag about, and they’re expensive. There is a lot of better quality places who actually treat their patrons with respect. I will be telling everyone I know not...