BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Sacramento

9:30 on a Friday night I stopped in to have a drink and some dinner. Walking up to the building there are three waitresses standing outside smoking. I walk inside it's a full crowd. I wanted to sit at the bar ended up sitting at a high table in the bar area sat there for a long time nobody would come and take my order ask me if I want to drink because they're all outside smoking. Went back to the reception area maitre d asked if I can be sad at a table because nobody wanted to take my order or even acknowledge I'm there. They sat me down at a table the waiter was at the end of the row talking to two people a total of 10 minutes past I had the time to review the menu to decide what I wanted to eat the two girls in the table beside me kept looking at the waiter hoping he'd come back I guess they needed something as well after a period of time they finally got up and left. I waited for about another 5 minutes while he stood down there yacking to the couple finally I got up and I went back and asked for the manager the manager came out he was in the back in his office doing who knows what not monitoring the employees or the service. He asked me what the problem was I explained that when I walked up there were three waitresses all standing around outside smoking there was no waitresses on the floor in the bar area to take anybody's order, I asked to sit in the restaurant area, I am formed him that the waiter was down at the end talking to some customers wouldn't acknowledge anybody else I explained the other two girls got up and left because they were waiting for him to come back and kept looking at him he asked me who the waiters was what was his name. I asked the greeting people the guy and the girl what the waiter's name was as I pointed him out to them, all of a sudden they couldn't remember his name and didn't know who I was talking about. I pointed it out to the manager how they're trying to cover up for the guy by suddenly not knowing who I was talking about or his name. Eventually they came up with his name and I pointed this fact out to the manager as well how they're covering up for his poor service it seems to be rampant in his restaurant. He offered to seat me out of Booth and serve me I explained to him the damage was already done twice his service is undependable. It is poor Management on his part for allowing three waitresses that take a smoke break at the same time when the restaurant is full of patrons. The fact that the waiter had too much personal Chit Chat going on with the other patrons to acknowledge anybody else in the restaurant. I pointed it out to the manager that I am formed the waiter that I was going to complain about him, and he took off they couldn't find him. I pointed it out to the manager that in a restaurant seating area that there were no waiters or waitresses in that area at all. Very poor service I do not...

My family and I flew in from Indiana to visit my sister and she was kind enough to watch our one-year-old so we could have our very first date since she was born. We decided on BJ's because it had such a large variety of food and were so excited. We called ahead so we would not have to wait long on a Friday night and were seated at about 8:20 p.m. ordered a few drinks and appetizers. The stuffed mushrooms were amazing but the zucchini strings were completely cold. We placed our order expecting it to take a little bit of time because they were packed.

After about 30 minutes our server came up to us and told us that it was taking a little bit longer than normal and apologized. We continue to wait. About 15 to 20 minutes later, a gentleman came to the table, I can only assume it was the manager-he never introduced himself, and told us there was an issue in the kitchen and they dropped my husband's food and we're remaking it currently. he apologized because it had been over 45 minutes and it was coming shortly. I had ordered a salad and told them that if it was ready they can bring it out and we could eat that while waiting for his Burger. He said he would go check on it and didn't come back until at least 10 to 15 minutes after that. Saying that he was comping our entrees because the burger and salad were still not ready. We continue to wait. Shortly after my husband's sandwich came out but my salad did not. About 3 to 4 minutes later they brought my salad and told us that our entire meal was comped for the error. My salad was all right, my husband said his Burger was pretty good.

Besides waiting over an hour to get a burger and a salad, one of my main issues was as soon as the manager came to our table it was like we were barely an existing customer to our server. She came to fill up my husband's water once and asked us if it were food was okay but other than that we barely saw her at all. We are so disappointed because it completely ruined our first date night away from our baby. We didn't even order a dessert that they offered for free as well. I barely touched my salad, and we left shortly after.

Being a past server myself I fully understand that things go wrong and it was nice of them to comp our entire meal. But neither the manager nor the server went out of their way to give us a better experience and make us feel more at ease with their error. We were very unhappy with the fact that it took over an hour to get our food, but I was more disappointed with the lack of personal care during the whole experience. giving a table a little extra attention when you know that their order was messed up and is taking much longer than expected might be an annoyance on a busy Friday night but perhaps it would have made the difference of me writing...

Think twice before having a big event here!! There are some events that are extremely important because they only happen once! The one I'm posting about is my recent retirement party. This was a very important and special day for me. Clearly, the restaurant manager didn't recognize or care how important my event was to me, my family and my friends!!

Let me back up for a minute and discuss that Sacramento has over 200 restaurants to choose from in our area and was ranked 6th in top "Food Cities" in America in 2021. I looked at many restaurants for my special event.

I chose BJ's for my retirement party because we've always enjoyed the food and the atmosphere! We normally go to the Arden location, but the one N. Freeway (which we have dined at a few times) said they could accommodate the larger number of guests that we wouldhave at my event. We even specifically went to the N. Freeway location a couple of weeks before the date to see the room where the party would be held. We were told that we would have half the room at the minimum or the full room if another event wasn't booked.

Instead of giving us half the room as promised, our tables and chairs were crammed in like sardines in a can!! I couldn't visit with those who came to celebrate with me. Navigating to get food was a mess, again because of the set-up. The servers couldn't serve drinks very well. And a drink table should have been set up for the drinks included in the price! Intead, guests had to wait for the two servers, who did their best in a bad situation!!

To make matters worse, when the other group started coming in, there was no separation or anything! The other groups' guests came trapsinng through our sardine can and interrupted my party.

I was so embarrassed that my family and friends spent good money to be treated so poorly!! I felt terrible and tried to apologize. It was very short-sighted on the manager's part because the restaurant may have made few extra bucks by cramming us in like they lost a customer and I hope...