BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse

Founded in 1978 as a Chicago-style pizzeria in Santa Ana, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse evolved in the mid-1990s to add an on-site microbrewery, and continued expanding the combined pizza and beer concept to over 200 locations – a number that’s held fairly stable since the early 2020s. Now headquartered in Huntington Beach (and at least at one point the largest public company based there) BJ’s has basically been on autopilot for years, sticking with a concept that reliably keeps short but steady waitlists of customers holding on for tables.

Each BJ’s location tends to be a cavernous, boxy design with space for over 200 guests, a brewing and/or barrel room, and a large waiting area up front, recalling years when upscale-ish chains like The Cheesecake Factory and CPK seemed to always be overflowing with excited customers. At the Brea restaurant we visited in 2026, faux stone arches, dark wood benches, and light wood tables evoked a classic brewhouse vibe, offset by modern touches such as a prominent fridge full of canned beers and generally professional, attentive service. Chalk signs add a collection of “craft” beverage options including “guest” and “collab” beers and seltzers, but the one we chose wasn’t actually available.

Thankfully, we were there for the food, not the drinks, though having visited BJ’s many times in years past, we tapered off years ago when the gap between its signature Chicago-ish deep dish pizzas and ones served at local places such as Rance’s and Tony’s Little Italy became impossible to ignore. On two recent occasions, BJ’s versions ($14 to $36, personal to 14″ large sizes) had devolved into nicely crispy-bottomed by unevenly doughy messes with underwhelming toppings, with the Pepperoni Extreme 11″ pizza ($24.50) shown here somehow including “double the pepperoni on every slice” without actually feeling “extreme” in any way. The chain currently suggests its deep-dish pizzas are Chicago-style with a California twist, but from the layering of ingredients to their quantities and quality, the only twist we could discern was that it’s a fairly basic pizza served in a Chicago-style container. Similarly, bone-in Buffalo-style ($18) and boneless Nashville Hot ($17) wings both arrived shockingly underseasoned but nicely tender inside and crispy outside, with celery, dip, and in the latter case pickles. Our group didn’t think any of the pizzas or wings we’ve tried here recently were worth ordering again.