Sean B
Google
I hate that I have to leave this review because I really love BJ’s; they have good food, decent pricing and all else. All of that being said, the service is subpar at best.
I work in the restaurant construction industry, not only that, but was a project manager directly for building BJs across the country. I have been there at the end of construction, present for their training of the new crews at dozens of locations and heard it hammered into all the new hires about the seven steps of service. New hires would not even be allowed to pass the first round of cuts if they didn’t get every single question right on their initial training tests.
Oh, how they have fallen.
“No auctioning off of food”. This went from a standard step of training of “what not to do” to something that happens every-time I eat at BJs. On my visit last week, there was a salad that was ordered by a child in our party and no one remembered he had ordered it. The child was in the restroom when the salad came, so when it was being auctioned off “Caesar salad? Caesar salad???” and no one knew whose it was, so we sent it back. If the food runner was following protocol and knew what seat position had ordered it, then it would have been a non-issue.
Salad came 3 bites before our entrees. 4 sets of apps came out 15-20 mins prior, but no salad. Once the salad came, it was either eat it or a warm entree; not both.
Pre-bussing….argh this is my biggest pet peeve. We ate dinner with plates upon plates, upon plates piled up in the middle of the table just to make room for our dinner plates. Not one plate was pre-bused of all we had and for the 20 minutes after our food was dropped off, no one returned to our table. No checking on the food. No asking if we needed refills, no asking if we wanted to put our desert order in. Nothing.
Eventually we went to the front, asked for the manager and she was helpful to get things going. They got the piles of plates bussed and put our desert order in. She was responsive and helped make the best of a bad situation, but sadly the tone of the night had already been set.
I wish I could say this was the first time, but it wasn’t. The level of service has really dwindled to the point of where I just expect my salad and appetizer plate to be on my table until after the check has been paid. Even with 2 people eating, the food will be auctioned and the 7 steps of service is something no current server even has a concept of.
I’ll still go here, but I now just temper my expectations to be realistic for what I know I’ll get. I’ll likely enjoy the food but not to expect more than the service you’d figure to receive from a Barstow truck stop at 3:30am.