So after a funeral, around 25 of us decided to stop in for lunch to visit and enjoy a great meal (or so we'd hoped)...alas, that was not to be the case. This is a review of the experience had by my husband, our 13-year old son and myself.
My husband ordered a beer...waitress came back and said they didn't have it. This happened 4 times. Finally, my husband opened the beer menu and asked the waitress to tell her what they did have. She pointed to a long page of beer names and said that they only had the first beer listed on the page. She mentioned quite a few of BJ's microbrews and some of the more 'routine' beers. He finally found one they had in stock. Then, I ordered a frozen margarita. it was half melted and pretty gross. I asked my husband if he wanted it... he took a sip and said it was too gross to drink. I then ordered an unsweetened tea. I had to ask 2 people over 10min for the tea. They finally brought me a sweet tea. I sent it back and said it needs to be unsweet. (I'm not diabetic but I try to avoid sugar when I can and Splenda works just as well as sugar for tea)...so she brings the correct tea and our appetizer. It also took about 40 minutes and asking 3 people for our son to get his Sierra Mist.
Now the appetizer: We wanted something simple and ordered chips/salsa. The salsa was pretty good. It had fire roasted tomatoes and a very good flavor. The chips were a mix of blue corn tortilla, red and white tortilla chips. They were not greasy and very flavorful, but too few. It made our $5.95 appetizer look sparse.
All the food came out in an appropriate time for a group of our size. Now, I will say that of the 20 people at our table, almost everyone had something wrong with their meal. My husband ordered jambalaya. He said it good but a small size for a $15.95 meal. I ordered a baked potato with the basics...cheese, bacon, sour cream, butter and chives. I had to pay $1.95 extra for the bacon and cheese. The baked potato was very dry and tasted old. I'm not sure how else to describe the flavor. The toppings were sparse (especially when I had to pay extra). The brought out a side dish with what appeared to be sour cream with the chives on top. So I loaded my fork with potato and dipped it in the 'sour cream' and chives then took the bite...it was only then did I learn that I'd just taken a huge bite of butter with chives on it. All I can say is "ewww"...I didn't eat anymore after that. My son ordered a cheese pizza. It also had fire roasted tomatoes on top. It was cheese bread (no sauce) with tomatoes sprinkled on top. The majority of the pizza was crust. It was poorly prepared and (I think) $14.95. When a 13-year old boy won't eat a pizza, you know something isn't right. :-) There were other issues as well: I couldn't get a refill on my tea, was unable to get a to go tea, my son never got his drink refilled. Oh, on a side note...this restaurant would not let us make a reservation, even with such a large group.
To read this, I'm sure you're thinking that I complain a lot, but let me assure you, my husband and I are very easy-going people. We enjoy friendly interactions with the wait staff, aren't overly picky about minor food issues and rarely every complain to a manager (I can think of 3 time in the past year, including this outing). That being said, some things warrant speaking with the store manager and when that doesn't bring desired results, going to the next level manager. This is one of those times. Let me explain (the short version):
When it was time to pay, my husband put his credit card in the folder and gave it to the waitress. Three other groups at the table paid with cards. About 20 minutes later, the waitress walked over to my husband and loudly told him that his credit card was declined. While she handed my husband the folder, she held up another folder and asked loudly, "who is Charles ..." My husband said that was him and she handed him the second folder. We then realized, she'd given us someone else's credit card (the one that had been declined). They'd put our bill with the wrong card and someone else's bill with our card. (Are you confused yet?) We take our credit card safety very seriously. We have close friends who have been the victims of identity theft. They had excellent credit history...now, after the theft, they've filed for bankruptcy and are struggling to rebuild their credit. We spoke with the manager, who completely blew us off. He didn't care to listen to our concerns and asked us if we'd "be happy" with a $20 dollar BJ's gift card. He handed it to my husband before he could answer. I guarantee the gift card is useless. We will not be returning to BJ's anywhere. We feel that it's average food for above average prices. read more