BJ's Restaurants Opens in Austin, Texas

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., May 17, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BJ's Restaurants,
Inc. (Nasdaq:BJRI) today announced the opening of its second restaurant in the
Austin, Texas market on May 16, 2011. The new BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse is
located at 10515 N. MoPac Expressway in The Shops at Arbor Walk. The restaurant
is approximately 8,500 square feet, contains seating for approximately 280
guests, and features BJ's extensive menu including BJ's signature deep-dish
pizza, award-winning handcrafted beer and famous Pizookie(R) dessert. BJ's
highly detailed, contemporary decor and unique video statement, including BJ's
103" plasma display as well as several high-definition flat panel televisions,
creates a high energy, fun and family-friendly dining environment for everyone
to enjoy. Hours of operation are from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight Sunday
through Thursday, and 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

"We are very excited to open our second restaurant in Austin," commented Jerry
Deitchle, Chairman and CEO. "Our first restaurant in the market, located in
Sunset Valley, was opened in 2007 and continues to perform well. Our new
restaurant at The Shops at Arbor Walk achieved opening day sales that exceeded
our expectations. To date, we have opened three new restaurants during 2011 and
currently anticipate opening as many as nine or ten more restaurants this year.
Our next two restaurant openings are currently planned for Century City, CA and
Las Vegas, NV before the end of June. Investors are reminded that the actual
number and timing of new restaurant openings for any given period is subject to
a number of factors outside of the Company's control, including weather
conditions and factors under the control of landlords, contractors and
regulatory/licensing authorities."

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. currently owns and operates 105 casual dining restaurants
under the BJ's Restaurant & Brewery, BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse or BJ's Pizza &
Grill brand names. BJ's restaurants offer an innovative and broad menu featuring
award-winning, signature deep-dish pizza complemented with generously portioned
salads, appetizers, sandwiches, soups, pastas, entrees and desserts. Quality,
flavor, value, moderate prices and sincere service remain distinct attributes of
the BJ's experience. The Company operates several microbreweries in addition to
using qualified contract brewers to produce and distribute BJ's critically
acclaimed proprietary handcrafted beers throughout the chain. The Company's
restaurants are located in California (52), Texas (22), Arizona (6), Colorado
(4), Oregon (2), Nevada (4), Florida (6), Ohio (2), Oklahoma (2), Kentucky (1),
Indiana (1), Louisiana (1) and Washington (2). Visit BJ's Restaurants, Inc. on
the Web at http://www.bjsrestaurants.com.

Certain statements in the preceding paragraphs and all other statements that are
not purely historical constitute "forward-looking" statements for purposes of
the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, and are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby.
Such statements include, but are not limited to, those regarding expected
comparable restaurant sales growth in future periods, those regarding the effect
of new sales-building initiatives, future guest traffic, as well as those
regarding the number of restaurants expected to be opened in future periods and
the timing and location of such openings. These "forward-looking" statements
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause
actual results to be materially different from those projected or anticipated.
Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (i)
the effect of credit and equity market disruptions on our ability to finance our
continued expansion on acceptable terms, (ii) our ability to manage an
increasing number of new restaurant openings, (iii) construction delays, (iv)
labor shortages, (v) minimum wage increases, (vi) food quality and health
concerns, (vii) factors that impact California, where 52 of our current 105
restaurants are located, (viii) restaurant and brewery industry competition,
(ix) impact of certain brewery business considerations, including without
limitation, dependence upon suppliers, third party contractors and related
hazards, (x) consumer spending trends in general for casual dining occasions,
(xi) potential uninsured losses and liabilities, (xii) fluctuating commodity
costs and availability of food in general and certain raw materials related to
the brewing of our handcrafted beers and energy, (xiii) trademark and
service-mark risks, (xiv) government regulations, (xv) licensing costs, (xvi)
beer and liquor regulations, (xvii) loss of key personnel, (xviii) inability to
secure acceptable sites, (xix) limitations on insurance coverage, (xx) legal
proceedings, (xxi) other general economic and regulatory conditions and
requirements, (xxii) the success of our key sales-building and related
operational initiatives and (xxiii) numerous other matters discussed in the
Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its
recent reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. The "forward-looking" statements
contained in this press release are based on current assumptions and
expectations and BJ's Restaurants, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update or
alter its "forward-looking" statements whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.

CONTACT: Greg Levin
BJ's Restaurants, Inc.
(714) 500-2400