Surprisingly, despite the name of the restaurant, BJ’s Brewhouse was not my choice for Dining with Dad. I play in an indoor soccer league on Wednesday nights and Chloe has been going with me the last several games as she’s found it exciting to watch. This week we stopped by Costco on the way home and BJ’s happens to be in the same area. As we drove by, she casually mentioned that we should try it sometime. Who am I to argue with that? It was one less decision I had to make and I knew they would like it so BJ’s it was for this week.

Now that I get off work at 4pm and Chloe gets home from school at the same time, we’re able to get out early. We arrived around 4:30pm so we were instantly seated. We had time to look through the appetizers and chose the chips and salsa with guacamole. I was talking to the server after it arrived and Chloe and Alex dug in so quick I didn’t have time to grab a picture of it unscathed. Luckily they didn’t devour too much before I snapped one. They thought it was funny for some reason and started staging the dish for another picture, sticking chips in the guac.

The salsa was Chloe’s and my favorite. It reminded me of the salsa from a restaurant I went to as a kid, Zachary’s, over in Zanesville OH. It’s no longer around, but the salsa they made, Jose Madrid, is still made and sold! This has put me in the mood for this salsa, and I’m going to have to go find it here in Columbus!

Chloe knew what she wanted almost instantly. She saw a picture of the Root Beer BBQ Boneless Wings on the menu. She wasn’t too sure about the root beer though. They also had a BJ’s Peppered BBQ sauce. She wanted BBQ but we weren’t sure which one she would like. I asked for a sample but out server just said he could bring out whatever we wanted on the side so we went that route. It came out with the root beer one only which Chloe didn’t like so the server was going to get us the Peppered one. I went ahead and asked for the Cherry Chipotle glaze one as well. Chloe’s favorite and the only one she went with was the BJ’s Peppered BBQ. It tastes like a traditional BBQ sauce. I tried all three and while the root beer and cherry were different and could be ok in a small amount, I wouldn’t want probably more than one with those sauces. The flavor was way too strong and it just doesn’t seem to go well with chicken.

Alex surprisingly was quick to find his choice as well. BJ’s has a decent size menu and it took me a while to decide and I looked online before we went! Alex is not a big pasta guy, but he went that route today. He chose the Grilled Chicken Alfredo, which of the pasta’s, is his favorite. He really enjoyed it and so did I as I have to try everyone’s!

So let’s talk about Alex’s picture. Tonight’s picture taken was a bit rushed. The kids were in a funny mood so I was trying to grab the pictures before things got out of hand. Because of this, I didn’t even review the pictures I took. As I was uploading them when we got home, I noticed that Alex’s picture wasn’t quite right. Oh well, it keeps things fun!!

I was going back and forth between two dishes. I ultimately decided on the Mandarin Orange Glazed Pork Chop. It comes with two sides but Chloe already claimed one of them. Her dish didn’t come with fries so before she ordered she asked if she could have my fries so I got those for her. For my second side, I went with the White Cheddar Mashed Potatoes. Surprisingly, Chloe loved the mashed potatoes and I think she ate more of that than she did the fries! Shh! Don’t tell her there was cheese in there. The pork chop was very moist as a good pork chop should be. It was so good I made the kids both have a bite. They both loved it too.

Tonight’s photo’s was a big problem for some reason. We’ve already talked about the two issues and the last issue was probably noticeable from the start. We like to try to get a photo outside the restaurant for every Dining with Dad. Tonight, we completely forgot to get one. Check back and maybe someday when we revisit, I’ll update this post with a picture. Now you have a reason to keep coming back to visit our blog.