BJ's Restaurants Opens in Brentwood, California and Dublin, Ohio

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Sept. 29, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BJ's Restaurants,
Inc. (Nasdaq:BJRI) today announced the opening of two new restaurants in
Brentwood, California (in the East Bay area of Northern California) on Monday,
September 26, 2011, and in Dublin, Ohio on Wednesday, September 28, 2011.

Our new Brentwood, California restaurant is located at the intersection of
Highway 4 and Sand Creek Rd. as the latest addition to the Streets of Brentwood
retail center, anchored by Rave's 14 screen IMAX theater. Our new Dublin, Ohio
restaurant is located at the intersection of I-270 and Tuttle Crossing Blvd. as
the latest addition to the Mall at Tuttle Crossing. Both new restaurants are
approximately 8,500 square feet in size and include seating for approximately
280 guests.

Our new restaurants feature 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 for both restaurants 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 excited to open two new BJ's restaurants this week," commented Jerry
Deitchle, Chairman and CEO. "Our new Brentwood restaurant is located in the East
Bay trade area of Northern California, where the BJ's concept enjoys strong
brand awareness and above-average sales volumes. Our new restaurant in Dublin
joins our two other successful restaurants in Ohio at the Polaris Mall in
Columbus and at the Tri County Mall in Cincinnati. Initial sales for both new
restaurants exceeded our expectations. The opening of these two new restaurants
represents our ninth and tenth new restaurants to date during 2011. We have
successfully opened four new operationally complex BJ's restaurants during the
past 30 days, which is a strong testament to the capabilities of our restaurant
development and operations teams. We currently expect to open two to three more
restaurants this year and thereby achieve our stated goal to increase our total
restaurant operating weeks by 11% to 12% during 2011." 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 112 casual dining restaurants
under the BJ's Restaurant & Brewery(R), BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse(R) or BJ's
Pizza & Grill(R) 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 (54), Texas (23),
Arizona (6), Colorado (4), Oregon (2), Nevada (5), Florida (8), Ohio (3),
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 54 of our current 112
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