B J's Restaurant & Brewery
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Lunch
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
14 Reviews for B J's Restaurant & Brewery
My family loves this place. the food is great,the beer is great...BUTT (and that's a big Butt! by the way.) Like I have read here on YELP before.,Ventura County has a knack of ruining good restaurants! The wait here is way too long even on a Wednesday, and when I was there with a few friends to "have a few", I was told that I can only have a limited number of beers(two...TWO! ,that's why I am here DAMM It!!). Why? I was told because the local gang members get drunk and start fights. Thanks A-holes for affecting my life. Stay in your hood! You ruined Toppers(good too) and now a place that REAL PEOPLE that can live in society would frequent ! I love the food though!, The Fish Tacos are good and any Pizza you have is good. I love BJ'S, but I hate the B.S. That comes with living in OXNARD!
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Inconsistency is the key here. I've gone when it's busy and had great service, I've gone when it's dead and had really bad service. I've noticed that this BJ's has the same problem as other reviewers have had at other BJ's locations, high wait staff turnover. My wife, friends and I frequented the Oxnard location for a while after it opened (twice a month, for about 9 months) and never have seen the same wait staff in there...ever.
I've found that the batches of beers can be inconsistent as well (not to mention the food but you don't come here to just eat)...my favorites are the Berry Burst Cider and the Brewhouse Blonde and have never had 2 pitchers taste the same from visit to visit. Not that they still aren't tasty (I will kill for the Cider...don't test me) but just noticeably different from batch to batch.
One protip I will give to new visitors and regulars...don't be afraid to pipe up if you have a problem with your food or service...on several occasions my friends and I have taken exception to a plate of food, an excessively long wait for the food itself, or a snotty waiter/waitress and left with a gift card of significant denomination (once I think we ate for free and recieved 2 $50 gift cards when we had to wait 2 hours for our food on a busy Saturday night). Which shows the management at least pretends to care, even if they really dont. LOL
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- i really don't like the service here, service can get pretty bad, busy days are understandable, but on slow weeknights? i've been to BJ's on days when it's pretty dead and still got bad service.
- me and my friends got strawberry lemonade for a drink coz we're underaged -_- but its ok though coz it's the best strawberry lemonade ive ever tasted. but the service again, sucks! i would be halfway down my meal and yet no one came to offer for a REFILL. i tried to slurp really hard to get the employees attention, but none came. one of my friends had to go to the register to ask for assisstance.
- the wait for an employee to take your order can take foor ever too. i hate it when they do that, i mean a certain amount of time is alright, but a really long wait for them to come and take your order isnt.
- i really DONT like how you cant make any reservation unless its a party of ten, well from what i heard of, i actually dont call myself, so you should double check on that. is there something wrong with making a reservation for two, for example a date? geez mann.
OVERALL:
im not a big fan of the place. i would only go here on parties, i wouldnt want to go here on my own interest. i'd rather eat at the in&out which is a few steps away. i'd recommend ordering the pizookies (spelling) and the strawberry lemonade at this BJ's
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I've never had horrible service whenever I go; however, the food seems to be getting worser with each visit.
The atmosphere here is really young---not chucky cheese young, but 17-35(?) young. This demographic has positives and negatives: positive, your server will always be near proximity; negative patrons tend to care more about flirting with waiters, so waiters stay close. Like last night, my waiter was super attentive, but motivation was drawn from the adjacent table that kept flirting with him. It's not the first time I witnessed that behavior at this restaurant; however some other people might find it a bit offensive.
So, with that in mind, this is the type of restaurant you are stepping into.
The food now is something less then average. I ordered a Field of Greens Salad that had a vulgar taste and scent of industrial white vinagre. I never knew screwing a vinaigrette up was possible, but Bj's proved me wrong. My boyfriend ordered a chicken alfredo pasta dish that was pretty al dente and the sauce lacked substance: it taste like simple watery butter sauce. For the flavor, constancy, and presentation: I think a Marie Calanders microwave meal would have been better.
On lighter note: the beers are fabulous and they have a wide variety to choose from. I enjoy their dark ones mostly. Their mixed drinks aren't bad and run average for a chain brew-restaurant, at 10-14 dollars a glass. Because of their decent bar, they get to have 3 stars. :)
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Compared to the BJ's in Thousand Oaks, this room seems larger, decorated the same with TVs, black ceilings, stone floors, brown accessories and food/service is similar. I kind of felt ignored though at the host station while the girls discussed seating strategy in hushed tones. We didn't have to wait because we got there relatively early for lunch. Lunch was fine, Avocado rolls were a little spicy. The kids liked the spaghetti. I tried their Maibach (sp) beer and it was pretty good. Pizookie was excellent. When walking to the restrooms, I noticed the brewery equipment and while looking in I saw a nice long line of ants behind the glass walls no doubt getting their drink on. Luckily they filtered the beer before I drank it. That's about the only thing that turned me off for our visit. When we left, the lunch line was out the door with people waiting with vibrators in hand. Not those kind of vibrators you perv. Pager vibrators.
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This was our first experience at B.J's and I would definitely go back. Our friends had suggested going to dinner on a Saturday night (they have been before) and said we should probably go around 5:15 to beat the crowd! When we arrived there was already a crowd waiting for tables. So off we went to the bar with our little beeper for our (according to the hostess) approximate 20 minute wait. My hubby and friend had their blonde beer (not sure of exact name) and myself not being a beer loverr had a sip and it was pretty good! While we waited, we started thumbing through their huge menu with lots of selections.
We were seated at a great large round booth located by a window in about 15 minutes. I highly recommend when you arrive for any meal, see if you can get a table serviced by Dillion. What a great waiter! He gave us a little run down of BJ's since it was our first time there and he seem to really like working for this company. Somehow the subject of root beer came up and he said they make a fantastic one. My husband asked for a sample and he ended up bringing two large glasses for each couple to share! It was very yummy.
We ordered their hot wings and while they were a little spicy for me, the guys really liked them. My hubby ordered a thin crust basil and cheese pizza as he knew he would be eating at least 1/2 of my delicious barbeque chopped chicken salad - which was huge! The size of their salads put California Pizza Kitchen's to shame. My friend ordered their Italian deli salad (think that is what it was called) and she took at least half of it home. Her husband had the beef dip sandwich with huge delicious steak fries.
Dillion came over several times to check on us and my friend jokingly mentioned ice cream would be great in the root beer. Not five minutes had passed and here came Dillion again with another "sample" root beer with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream! She was in heaven.
Dillion brought our check and said there was no hurry, just wanted to give it to us when ever we were ready. We felt no pressure to leave, even though there was a lot of people waiting for a table.
We will definitely go back to B.J's as I really want to try their deep dish pizza, which is a one of their specialties. Sure hope Dillion will be working!
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It's true the service at BJs really does vary greatly from visit to visit. Sometimes my frineds and I would get awesome service, really attentive but most the time you'll have to do a little waiting and maybe a little waving to get their attention if you need something.
Besides the service, the food is usually good. If you've never tried it, you have to get the pazookie for dessert. Never tried the beer but everyone keeps mentioning theyre good :P
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We've always had good food, good service, and GREAT beer at BJ's. They have an extensive food menu, and a wonderfully large beer menu (I have a hard time choosing between the Jeremiah Red and the Tatonka Stout). Their salads are big and delicious, their pizza is deep and tasty, and their Pizookie... oh, the Pizookies leave me speechless. Did you know you can order a GIANT Pizookie if you're with a group?!?! It's the size of a large pizza, and it has a half-gallon of ice cream sitting on top.
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Seriously, I dont care how good the food is (i used to come here often to order pizza and pizookie. The food is actually really good) THE SERVICE IS HORRIBLE. Last night I got an attitude from the hostess. Who can enjoy dinner when the second they walk in the door, they get an attitude from someone who is supposed to serve you? Its doesn't make for the start of a pleasant evening. Then they sat us in the crappiest area, when the restaurant was empty, and when we asked to be moved, the waiter went and got the manager. The manager came over and then too gave us attitude and told us if we wanted to move then we needed to pick up our own menus and move to a different table. By that time, I was so sick of being treated poorly by people that I am paying, I just up and left. I highly do not recommend this place.
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This is a cookie-cutter franchise of a fairly large chain, so don't expect anything especially different here from any other BJ's.
That said, BJ's serves a tasty variety of beers - mostly their own proprietary brews, but the raspberry lambic is also notable.
The pizza is only average at best and most of the specials are doused in barbecue sauce or alfredo, but if you're very specific when you order, you can usually kluge together something decent.
The Pizookie is a dessert to be reckoned with. If you want to order one, you should plan to split it with someone. It is a huge, deep-dish cookie, served hot out of the oven with two scoops of ice cream on top. Try to have someone on hand who can roll you out to the car at the end of the evening.
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I would give less stars if I could. They have the most horrile service. I once went, they never gave me my water, or even took my order, after like 30 minutes, they took our order, it took another hour to get our food, and our food was cold. Horrible food, horrible service. I do not recommend this place. However I've been to other BJ's locations (Laguna Beach and Irvine) those locations are much better and serviceable. I guess it's good to go on your birthday for the free piezookie. Sadly this is the only hotspot restaurant to go in the Nard.
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THIS REVIEW DOES NOT COVER THE FOOD... ONLY THE BAR.
But they do have a great beer selection.
Their brews are good and the Belgian selection is the best I've seen in the U.S.
Menu looked too "chain restaurant" to motivate me to eat anything there...
This place is a Brewery & Restaurant, meaning lots of beer choices. Which is a good thing. Big props for all the beers. Food: portions are big, mostly with lots of sauce. Comfort food. The sandwiches and hamburgers are good. The place gets packed, so don't be surprised if you have to wait. But the place is pretty efficient and clean.
The biggest plus is the beer selection.
One of the better family friendly chain restaurants, but they have some cool aspects to it. I must say that it's probably one of the best Chicago style pizza over here. I had some mustard ish sandwhich which was not that good. I do not recommend the sandwhiches but pizza is a good solid bet.
I love the beer that they "brew" there ( I hear that they the restaurants don't always brew the restaurants onsite). The sampler is pretty cool. I do love the Blonde beer.
They have pretty good happy hours there as well. The lettuce wraps and the drinks are I believe 50 percent off.
They do offer a HUGE Pizzoukie where you share with 5 or 6 of your friends. I believe you can even mix several types of cookies. They used to give a certain percentage to cystic fibrosis research on Tuesdays, however, I don't know if they still do that.
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