BJ's Restaurants Opens in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Oct. 18, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BJ's Restaurants,
Inc. (Nasdaq:BJRI) today announced the opening of its newest restaurant in
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA on October 17, 2011. The new BJ's Restaurant &
Brewhouse is located at the intersection of Santa Margarita Parkway and Avenida
de las Flores as the latest addition to the 450,000 square foot Rancho Santa
Margarita Town Center. The restaurant is approximately 7,500 square feet,
contains seating for approximately 265 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 excited to open BJ's in Rancho Santa Margarita, which is located in the
heart of our home court market of Southern California," commented Jerry
Deitchle, Chairman and CEO. "Our Rancho Santa Margarita restaurant is our 11th
new restaurant this year. We currently have two more restaurants scheduled to
open before Thanksgiving (Fort Worth, TX and Anaheim Hills, CA). As a result, we
expect to achieve our previously stated capacity growth goal for 2011 by opening
a total of 13 new restaurants during the year." 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 113 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 (55), 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 55 of our current 113
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