BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in San Diego

On 12/4 at around 10pm, this was my first time being yelled at by a restaurant manager as a paying customer.

Paige was our server who had a friend sitting at the table next to us. While we waited for our food, she brought him drinks and told him about the BJs staff abusing substances while on shift. Whenever we asked her for drinks, utensils, or a to-go box, she would grudgingly take note of it and first talk to her friend right by us before fulfilling our requests. Altogether, it was blatantly obvious that she wasn't going to serve us promptly because she would rather talk to her friend while working.

This BJs location accepts Triton Cash as payment. I handed them my Triton Cash card, which has an expired date on it from 2 months ago, however I received it past the expiry date, and it was accepted on campus this month so I thought it would work at BJs. The manager came back and said very loudly "This card is not going to work". I said, "That's strange, it worked last week on campus". She put the card in my face, pointing at the expiry date and yelled "BUT CAN YOU SEE RIGHT HERE IT SAYS EXPIRED?" I told her "Yes, it's an old card, but there is money on it, I used it on campus last week, why won't it work here?" To which she yelled again, "CAN YOU SEE THAT ITS EXPIRED?"

In response I said "Well, that's very strange it won't work here because it works on campus, so I will go use it there then". She said loudly "YEAH GO USE THAT CARD ON CAMPUS YOU CAN'T USE IT HERE", slammed my bill and my card on the table, and left. My friend was holding up his payment card trying to diffuse the situation the whole time, but she was too busy screaming in my face to notice. We had to wait a bit longer for Paige to finish flirting with her friend for her to collect our payment.

I was calm during the whole interaction with the manager so I'm not sure what I did to deserve being yelled at while attempting to pay for my meal. Furthermore, as someone that works in customer service, I would never yell at a customer but rather diffuse the situation and nicely ask for different payment. These things happen - payments get declined and customers get confused all the time. I'm not sure what the deal was that night.

It's a shame because I love BJs, but unfortunately the table service here is terrible. I'm a little afraid of going back to this location for dinner - I don't want bad table service, and I definitely don't want to be yelled at by a...

So here’s the thing. I don’t like writing reviews. We’ve been here twice. We’re from out of town, and one member of our small 4 person group has severe dietary restrictions due to allergies and was thrilled learning that she could eat here the first time. Had a great experience from service to food to atmosphere. Our waitress was so friendly even though she was training. With all the questions we had, she never said I don’t know but instead was like, let me get you the right answer (usually her trainer with her knee the answer though. He was also lovely). That was on Sunday. Today, Thursday night, we go in and are sat on the patio. Our waitress was very nice and answered all our questions and was very professional and quick. We got our food, took a little longer than expected, but since it was so good the first time, we didn’t mind. But one member had a bigger burnt so bad, we couldn’t tear it with our hands. Sent it back. And the never with dietary restrictions got ice cold fries. Sent those back too. When she was sent to break though, the young man taking her tables over for her greeted us once with her, then we didn’t see him for a long time. When we finally got the fries, they were fresh. The new burger took another 10 minutes only because we had to hunt down a different waitress (couldn’t find ours, he had vanished). And it was burnt more than the first one. So we asked to remove it. And sadly she didn’t get to eat dinner. When he did bring the check, they tried to charge us for 2 burgers (the burnt ones), the fries (even though they took the first batch back) and the dessert they claimed would be free (which we took to-go and was still raw in the center of the cookie). So he left to remove those. And he never returned. So we got up and walked to the host stand and removed everything and paid there.

All that said, we didn’t ask for anything crazy, but their normal subs for the allergy which was a gluten free bun in the burger. Nothing was different. My food was great both time and I tried their cider and red ales. But being alongside my family as they were treated like that tonight was just uncalled for and so unexpected from our...

I’ve been to a lot of the various BJ restaurants but I have to say that I had a server named Fiona at this BJ’s and she is one of the best servers I have ever had. She was quick, attentive and very friendly with us. Sometimes I feel like you can get away from yourself at places and the server almost loses track of you but Fiona was phenomenal with us and made sure our food and drinks were exactly how we liked them. I’ve reviewed quite a lot over my time with Google maps, I have over 500k views on most of my photos and take pride in the places I rate and review. I will say that for a chain like BJs it’s certainly top notch. I’ve had good service in the past too here because I’ve visited this place often with a friend that lives nearby. I felt like with my recent visit here and with my experience with Fiona that she delivers that top notch service and that she really makes you feel at home and like one of the locals that lives around here. I would highly suggest asking for her if she is working because I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Our food was delivered quickly and just the way we like it. We ordered on a Wednesday and apparently that’s $10 cheeseburger night. My burger was cooked to perfection and I couldn’t ask for a better order. Anyone that’s looking for a great place to eat in La Jolla (with a good outside seating) I would highly recommend this BJs. I almost get to the point were I want to down play it a little because I’m afraid that there might be too many people here the next time I visit. I’d like to thank all the staff, management, owners and definitely Fiona for the wonderful service during my time here. I’m looking forward to my next visit, the burger, the fries, the wings, the steak, the sliders and beer selection have all been a wonderful treat for me, I wish more places would take notice. Anyways if you’ve read this long you might as well as go while you can before it gets busy. See you all soon!...