BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse — Restaurant in Sunset Valley

We came in last night and were generally disappointed, especially at their price point. Things started badly when the greeter was nowhere to be found for a couple of minutes when we entered the restaurant. Eventually someone, who I later learned was a manager, came upfront and seated us.

A waitress timely appeared and took our drink orders. I had their Jeremiah Red, an Irish style red ale that I particularly enjoy. When we got the menus, we were surprised at how much the prices have increased. I considered the New Orleans Jambalaya, but remembered how watered down (way too little red pepper and other spices) it has been the last several years and at $23.45 I wasn't willing to chance it. We both settled for the Jumbo Spaghetti and Meatballs at $18.75.

My beer promptly arrived and it was delightful as usual. Our food arrived after a while and it was tasty and in generous portions. My partner saved half of hers for lunch, while I ate all of mine and it was really too much even for a hungry adult.

When we were ordering, we observed that instead of the usual garlic bread that spaghetti is usually served with, BJ's spaghetti entre features a Garlic knot. When we started eating, we noticed that neither of our meals contained the promised Garlic knot. We flagged down our waitress and pointed out that missing Garlic Knots and she said she would get some from the kitchen. As we were finishing our meal, the waitress came back to report that the kitchen was out of Garlic Knots and that they had failed to inform her of that. She offered to get a manager when I expressed my frustration with the missing Garlic Knot and soon a manager appeared. I told him that I had been very considerate of restaurant managers and their staff during and after Covid, but that it had been a while since then and they should have recovered from the staffing and supply chain shortages. I expressed frustration that they had run out of part of our meal and had failed to tell us of that in a timely manner so that we could have ordered something else instead. He didn't really have an adequate response and this review followed.

Our waitress wasn't very attentive, but I think most of that was that she wasn't well led. She didn't bring out any of our food or beverages and didn't even check in with us to see that the food was to our liking. When we needed anything from her, we had to flag her down. It took her at least 20 minutes to find out that they were out of Garlic knots and she didn't offer solution to the problem.

The manager was similarly unapologetic for not having his waitress timely notified of the missing Garlic knots or of the missing Garlic knots at all. He wasn't problem solving either. A better manager would have better managed his waitress and his kitchen.

I think we will skip this BJ's location from our eating out rotation for six months or so to give them time to sort out their issues. A week or two earlier we dined at a local family owned and run Italian Restaurant for at least 20% less and without...

Our experience here was incredibly disappointing, mainly due to our waitress’s attitude. From the moment she greeted us (if you can even call it that), she seemed annoyed and unhappy to be serving. She never smiled and was generally unfriendly.

The real issue came when my dad’s broccoli and cheddar soup arrived cold and lumpy. We politely asked another staff member—the person who brought our food—if she could reheat it. She was friendly and took the soup back, assuring us she’d handle it. However, by the time the rest of us had completely finished our meals, the soup still hadn’t been returned.

When I flagged down our waitress to ask about it, she snapped at me, saying, "That’s because you’re supposed to ask your waiter. The other waitress has no way to get into the ticket to see what you ordered." Her tone was rude and dismissive, as if we had done something wrong by asking another staff member for help. I explained that we weren’t aware of this “rule” because no one had communicated it to us. Instead of apologizing or offering a solution, she doubled down—lecturing us about what we should have done rather than taking any responsibility for the situation.

At that point, I told her I didn’t care about their internal processes—I just cared that we had been served cold food and that nothing had been done to fix it. Instead of addressing the issue, she kept shifting blame and refusing to acknowledge how poorly handled the situation was.

I did ask to speak to the manager. He was very kind and apologized for the whole situation. He took the soup off our ticket—which was appropriate since we never got to eat it—and also gave us a 25% discount. That was appreciated.

However, what was upsetting was that after we spoke to the manager, our waitress kept hovering around our table while we were reviewing the check and paying. At that point, I would have preferred not to deal with her at all after how rude she had been. It almost felt like she was trying to pressure us into tipping. Despite the poor service, we still left around a 20% tip, but the whole experience left a bad taste in our mouths.

This was an awful dining experience, and we probably won’t be coming back for awhile. When I go out to eat, I expect at least a basic level of customer service—servers who are friendly, professional, and appreciative of our business. Unfortunately, this waitress clearly...

I’ll start with sharing that my husband and I share the same birthday- 1/31. We travel for work and flew back home to Austin for family pics and birthday Burch with our kids and grandkids. We chose BJ’s because of the yummy food, good drinks and overall good experience in the past. We came in on Saturday 1/27 since our days was falling on a Wednesday and we’d be back at work in Atlanta by then. Our waitress was aloof and walked away in the middle us placing drink orders. Then she interrupted my husband placing his drink order, touching his shoulder and staying “I wasn’t done with her”… not very polite, but okay. Our glasses of water were empty for 15 minutes at a time and only refilled when we requested; she then convinced my son who ordered get chicken fettuccine Alfredo, to get it “Italian” style and then a chicken Parmesan showed up, not a chicken fettuccine Alfredo… she wasn’t thrilled about replacing it for the correct meal and told him “It’s what you ordered”… next issue was that our kids convinced us to get the bday dessert, that we initially didn’t want, but then thought we could share it with the kids and grandkids… Since it’s pretty rare that a couple shares of birthday and we would be asking for two complementary desserts, my husband and I showed her our drivers license is proving that it’s our birthday in a couple of days and not months out. The waitress then proceeds to lecture us about how people take advantage of free desserts (then corrected herself and said “I mean the servers do too…”!?!?) - told its why I showed her our ID and since our actual birthday fell on the upcoming Wednesday, we’d be back at work - and we’re out that day to celebrate our birthdays with our kids. She thanked us for understanding her need to charge for the two desserts; she made the whole situation awkward! We cancelled the dessert we didn’t actually want anyway… Then the check came… she said for parties of 10 or more 18% gratuity was included… okay, except three out of our party of 10 for children… Two-year-old, four-year old and six year old- all we behaved, polite and not problematic (didn’t even make a mess) … we are chronically 20-35% tippers - if the service is up to par— clearly it wasn’t- overall this was an awful birthday experience and rest assured we will take our & money and...