After a long day of driving, we decided to stop at BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse in Toms River, New Jersey, for a Sunday evening dinner. My better half and I visited the grandkids in Hopatcong, which entailed hitting the road early to allow us enough time with them. We were ecstatic to find out the wait for a table was only 15 minutes. This wasn't too bad since the lobby was crowded with hungry patrons. And believe it or not, the hostess was right on the money with the estimated time to be seated in this eatery located right outside the Ocean County Mall.
I ordered the Slow-Roasted Tri-Tip, which is an 8 ounce sirloin tri-tip with a peppered barbecue sauce. It came with white cheddar mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. Lori ordered the Prime Rib special. She didn't feel like having the soup or salad that started this meal, so I graciously offered to eat the salad. The salad came out after approximately 15 minutes while our drinks came out much before that.
Now came the wait for the dinner...and more wait...and more wait. We are now sitting for over an hour since we ordered. We asked the waiter if they had any bread, but he said they didn't. However, they do make sandwiches! The waiter came out a few times to apologize and even offered us a free soup which we declined graciously. He did explain that the kitchen had crashed and they were catching up on their tickets.
I felt bad for accepting Lori's offer of her salad as I was sure that she was starving by now. In all fairness to BJ's, we have eaten here before and never had this kind of wait. I began to think that the slow-roasted part of my meal meant really slow. The good part was that when the food finally arrived it was delicious. I knew that tri-tip is usually tougher than other cuts, but between the sauce and cook on it, it was absolutely delicious. I knew the waiter had to be right about the kitchen problem when I saw the manager bringing out plates of food also. Even though we were eating later than we had hoped, we still ended the meal with a dessert!