CJ’s Brewing Company

We went to the Summer Drive In (i.e. the parking lot outside that opens during the summer for outdoor movies) and were hungry so we ordered a large round supreme pizza. It was delivered about 20 minutes later.
We attacked it like 4 seagulls attack a piece of bread on the beach. I don’t know what it was, but this pizza was heavenly delicious. The sauce was plentiful and tasty, the toppings were generous, and the crust was awesome.

First, the service was great. The waitress was quick to take our orders and came back regularly. We also received our dinner much quicker than I would have expected. Sadly, that’s about the only thing I liked.
It’s hard to find this place. I didn’t realize it was actually attached to the rink until we circled around the parking lot for a while. I never saw a sign to point us in the right direction. Parking is very cramped up on the hill by the restaurant, with larger vehicles sticking out into the driveway.
The beer selection is not great. They only had a few regulars and nothing spectacular. I was expecting a seasonal or two, but they didn’t have any.
The club sandwich wasn’t bad, but it seemed dry. I think it might be from having swiss cheese as well as cheddar. I originally planned to have a BBQ chicken sandwich that was on the website, but wasn’t on the menu in the restaurant (or if it was, I didn’t see it after looking it over a few times).
If you live close by, it might be worth three stars, but having traveled a bit to get there myself, I can’t see it being a place I’d return to in the future.

I have been to CJ’s several times and the food is great! For lunch at least 2x a month I get the Asian Chicken Salad for $ 6.99. Great salad, great price! During the lunch time the location can be slow BUT on ½ pizza day, which is Wednesday. The pizza is really good. I’ve been here for dinner a few times and I always have good service. Back when the Whalers were here the location was always packed before, during and after the game. Friendly place to take kids as well. Sometimes the service can be a little slow but it has never truly bothered me. Take advantage of the lunch time specials during the week. All of them are great and for $ 6.99 you totally get more than you pay for!

Just ordered take out! It was ok. I asked for my turkey club on wheat. It was on white. The wings were good. They’re not breaded and I ordered them plain. I thought the pizza was on a thinner crust it too was ok. I ordered the California club wrap. Not good – too much lettuce. It was turkey, lettuce and bacon. I didn’t have a menu when I ordered so I was basically ordering blind.

Love this place.
Servers are awesome. Try the BBQ ckn salad.
$ 5 pizza Wednesday seriously the best pizza in Detroit area.
I will be back.

Don’t waste your time. WAYYY overpriced and not worth it for the food you get. Seriously who charges $ 7 for chips and salsa?! Just because it’s connected to Compuware arena which hosts the whalers, compuware youth hockey programs and Catholic central hockey I guess they figure they can get away with a overpriced menu items, good that leaves a lot to be desired and subpar service to go along with inconvenient parking.
Plenty of better places in the area to go to. Especially max and ermas .2 miles up the rd — late night happy hour Mon-​Fri makes its a good cheap option for a post game bite to eat or drinks!

Basic brewery with bar-​type food. I wish they had some lighter options, but I ended up ordering the California Club, which is a wrap with turkey, avocado, bacon, and lettuce and also comes with fries. Half of it definitely made me full, but I tried to finish the whole entrée, which I regret in retrospect since I was stuffed afterwards. The restaurant was pretty empty when we entered on a Sunday night, so our large party of 8 had no trouble finding seating. I like that the restaurant sits up pretty high on a hill and has big windows looking out onto the surroundings. Perhaps a good place to have a party, or watch sports with friends as they have multiple TVs.

Order the pulled pork sandwich and fries both were quite satisfying. Seems like nothing special. Service was quick.

My family likes to support local breweries, so we made a special trip tonight to check out CJ’s. We should’ve stayed home (or went to Dexter or Chelsea). Not only was the food underwhelming and improperly cooked (a small step above a frozen pizza and a «medium» burger that had no pink inside), but the waitstaff was inattentive and the manager on duty acted as if we were bothering him by pointing out that the burger was way overcooked. Their IPA and Stout were average and drinkable, but not memorable or good enough for us to order a second round. Also, don’t trust the Specials section on their website to be accurate or honored, as we were informed after receiving our check that the free Sunday kids meal (with purchase of an adult entrée) was only for the Commerce location (couldn’t find that stipulation on their shared website). I guess if you’re at Compuware for a hockey game, you might as well stop by for a drink and snack, but don’t go out of your way to come here. I’m never going back.

Nice place! Clean, lots of tv’s, spacious with lots of seating. Everyone in our group was satisfied with their food, especially the burgers! Good beer selection too!

First time eating here today for lunch. Attended a going away lunch for a coworker. There were only 5 or 6 tables occupied, and just 2 people at the bar. The waitresses were not particularly friendly, and they were confused on who had our table. The appetizers were just OK, and took a very long time to arrive. The meals took far too long to arrive also, particularly with how light the crowd was. I had the Italian melt. Seemed to have one thin slice of meat, a little bit of cheese, and too much lettuce and tomato. I’ve had much better. The fries were interesting, but not very appealing. I could not eat it all, and I seriously dislike leaving food on my plate. The other meals did not look all that appealing. I will not be going back there given the service, marginal food, and prices.

We enjoy the craft beers and friendly service. We come most Thursdays for mug club night.

I am a HUGE fan of the Plymouth Whalers, so my only two experiences with CJ’s are directly after home games. All in all, I would have to largely agree with the majority of users about the service. I haven’t experienced service as bad as some have cited, but I have only done table service, as opposed to bar service, which hasn’t been bad.
CJ’s is definitely a bit pricey for what you get. I will say that. I would avoid appetizers if I were you. They are your typical, boring, uncreative sports bar appetizers. The Blackened Steak Bites appetizer may sound quite good, but you only get about 8 small little shriveled up pieces of steak meat that are drowning in some sort of a dry rub seasoning for $ 10. Based on the creativity of everything else on the menu, it’s probably just seasoned with some flavor of McCormick Grill Mates. I digress, but you get my point. Avoid those.
I was attracted to CJ’s after the Whalers game, because I caught wind that most of the players and their families dine here after the game, which is true. I was also attracted to try CJ’s because I enjoy their pizza they sold at the concession stands during the games.
A slice of pepperoni from the concessions only has 3 slices of pepperoni on it, so I assumed that the dining version of CJ’s would have more. Not the case. My go-​to pizza is a simple, two topping, pepperoni and black olives combination. I was shocked and disappointed to discover that even the dine-​in pizza at CJ’s still has only a mere 3 slices of pepperoni, and the black olives were proportionally as scarce. Maybe 8 – 10 thinly sliced olives per slice? It’s certainly priced as if you were getting much more. It’s a really greasy pizza, but something about it is pretty good. I just wish they weren’t so skimpy with the toppings.
I would go back to CJ’s again, but only if I was eating in after a Whalers game. I would not seek it out when it isn’t hockey season or as a stand alone restaurant.

This is a hockey sports bar, connected to two hockey rinks where high school and the OHL Plymouth Whalers play. It is delightfully decorated with hockey things from players who played for the whalers are now in the NHL.
I have ate lunch there several times, and it was delicious. I also have gone their for Pizza in the evening and it was fantastic. Every time I went there service was great.

CJ’s is a Thursday night location for a Metro Detroit Trivia League. And honestly, even though my friends work near here and trivia is a fun time, the venue makes it awful and I do not want to go back.
Service is mostly a miss. I learned quickly that you’d better get your beer orders in at the start as it takes most of a trivia round (that’s one HOUR) for that to show up. Food is the same way, but at least you’re only ordering the food once; people might want more than one beer over the course of two hours! And the nutty part is, on less busy nights when there are many servers working, your wait for food and drink is as long as it’d be on a busy under-​staffed night!
The food is your average American bar fare: inoffensive but unexciting wraps, burgers and pizzas, though the fries are pretty good (probably because of the extensive deep frying, but hey, we all can’t live forever). The beer is nothing special; I am spoiled by Ann Arbor breweries, but CJ’s just takes their stab at popular styles and slaps their label on it. Nothing distinctive and memorable.
What really soured me though, is their asinine policies when it comes to trivia gift certificates. Prizes are gift certificates to CJ’s in various denominations. I attempted to pay my bill with a $ 25 gift certificate I had earned the prior week. Turns out it doesn’t apply to beer; fair enough, I didn’t read the certificate and maybe its a legal thing. What confuses me though, is that by paying for my food with this gift certificate, my beer apparently switched from special pricing to «full» pricing, and I essentially ended up using perhaps $ 2 worth of that gift certificate.
As I had only managed to get served 2 or 3 times during the entire night, I did not feel like trying to question the manager about this «policy» and just wanted to get out of the place. I don’t think I’ll be back, and I desperately hope the trivia company picks a different Thursday venue in the Plymouth area, because CJ’s is awful.

How long does one wait for a beer? The 15 minute rule, like in college when waiting for a professor to arrive? It wasn’t like the bartender was MIA, she just didn’t care. She even washed glasses (even though there was a clean stack) while patrons tried to get served. After 16 minutes, the bartender gave us a chance to order. She recommended the Magic Hat #9. Wait. This is a BREWERY. Shouldn’t you be promoting your own product? In fact, the restaurant displayed signs of other beers. Not their own. Nice brewery.
The worst part about the experience is that there was another sucker inline right after me when we moved on. CJ’s is connected to Compuware Arena and is packed when the Whalers play. The servers can give their worst performance, yet have a line out the door. If you want timely service with a smile, I recommend the snack bar inside the arena.

I checked out CJ’s last night following a Whaler’s game and I was overall disappointed with the experience. With such a prime location I think they dropped the ball on reaching their fullest potential.
When I first walked in I was getting a good vibe. The layout was odd with a rather small bar smack dab in the middle. From visiting different breweries and «brewing companies» in the past I suppose I was expecting a larger sized bar.
Unfortunately, I can not comment on the food because we decided not to order any. However, the beer selection on draft was also a let down =(I believe they only had 5, maybe 6, options. I’ve been to hole-​in-​the-​wall places with a wider variety.
And to be honest, the service was mediocre. I don’t think any of the girls smiled once while we were there. The bartenders never engaged customers they were too busy talking amongst themselves. Did not feel all that welcome except the company I was in!
I would though, give it another shot if and when I attend another Whaler’s game because I would like to try their food. But I will definitely head in there with lower standards this time.

So they do a trivia thing every Thursday night, and my sisters friends cousin runs it so we go there quite often. Their service has never been good, but after this experience, I would rather bring in McDonalds from next door than give money to this place.
The place was pretty busy for a Thursday, but it’s connected to the hockey rink. You would think that they’d have crowds down pat. Not at all. The waitresses wear whatever they want, and they have extreme attitude.
We waited 15 minutes after sitting down to get waited on, and the only reason they did come over to us was because my friend put up her hand as a joke and someone just happened to be there. When she did come over, she was extremely awkward saying she didn’t know who our server was and didn’t offer to take a drink order until we asked. I wanted a beer, and she told me the server had to take care of that. Really now…
So I went up to the bar. Took 5 minutes to get my Blue Moon with only 5 people actually sitting at the bar… ridiculous.
We finally get our ‘waitress’. She takes our orders with attitude and leaves, never to be seen again… it was NOT her shift ending mind you. Some other people brought out appetizers like 15 minutes later. We waited an HOUR for our food. After some random people brought our food, no one returned to the table to ask if we needed anything. NOT EVEN TO REFILL OUR DRINKS… NOTHING!
At that point, we just sat there to play trivia. At the end of the game, we wanted to leave, and still had not seen our check yet. My friend goes over the to the waitress that was supposed to be our server and politely asks for our bill. The girl put her finger in her face!!! with no words… just the attitude.
I had had it, so I went to find the manager. I NEVER complain, but I felt compelled to let him know how RUDE this girl was. NOT EVEN AN APOLOGY. He gets our check and that was that. He did share that they’re under-​staffed but COME ON… she was soooo RUDE I will NEVER spend anything there again. And the manager is quite un-​professional not knowing how to deal with complaints. What a disappointment in the STAFF because the bar itself is pretty nice inside.
I left a dollar tip. I was told I should’ve left nothing… maybe they were right.
HORRIBLE

Looks like this place gets knocked for all sorts of reasons, and I guess I have to go ahead and pile on. I have been driving past this tap room (for the brewery out in the West Bloomfield/​Commerce Twp area) for years, but never felt compelled to go in.
We got the taster tray, which was actually 4 highball glasses with a generous 6 oz pour of:
Pale Ale
Vat 33 IPA
American Wheat
Rich-​Hagg Red
Despite claiming sweetness and mild hop character, the Wheat was unbalanced and too bitter. The sole drinkable brew was the IPA, but it frankly doesn’t compare to other local craft brews within a 15 minute drive (Cough… Corner … Cough… Liberty). Downright scary, though, were
the Pale and Red, which were both sour. Apparently there is a «sour is the new hoppy» crowd out there, brewing with Brettanomyces yeast. This tasted like something gone wrong though.
No good reason to go back. Not even the $ 5 pizza check-​in offer would get me in any time soon (it’s only good for a large 1 topping, which is about the same you will pay anyway).

Tried our best to eat here. Unfortunately when having a party, but still open for business to the general public, they feel it is fine to violate Michigan law and make it inaccessible to the handicapped by blocking off the long steep driveways with orange cone.
Called the manager who at first apologized then went into denial mode. Yes precious corvettes are more important than allowing the handicapped the right to park in their designated spots. Uh huh. Tell that to the state of Michigan.
The manager offered us compensation and we may take him up on it because we do actually want to eat in here but this place is kinda leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Needless to say it is not good business at all.
I will re-​review at some point.