R J Bentley's Restaurant

While attending a conference in College Park, some colleagues and I looked for a 'traditional college bar/restaurant' for a quick lunch before our meetings began. With a couple of vegetarians, some picky eaters and a wide variety of tastebuds, there weren't many options but we landed on R J Bentley's. And it was fine. We chose the restaurant because it was featured on the Big Ten Network once for Campus Eats at the University of Maryland. Honestly the food was unremarkable but good enough for lunch. The vegetarians had salads that were 'ok' there was a burger choice, some fried pickles, a crab dip and a giant crab covered pretzel. I had the nachos with chili as a main entree. It was pretty good, but the chili was a bit sweet for a nacho covering. The pretzel stole the show for me, and I fully admit to loving it. The atmosphere was exactly as expected - college bar casual. It was nice to see that, and our server was a current student. He was fantastic (Hi Cole) we enjoyed chatting with him and learning about the area, the university and his studies. He probably wanted us to leave him alone but it wasn't crowded so we just enjoyed chatting with him. He did a great job as a server and ambassador for the U. Three stars feels about right. If I was there at night for a full college bar experience I'm betting the place would make it up to four stars, but for lunch I think 3 is right on the mark.

I was in College Park on a rainy day and had a hankering for some lunch near campus. I found a parking garage with an hour of free parking directly behind RJ Bentley's and saw their outdoor patio open. I was greeted by the bartender, Daniel, who also acted as my server on the patio. Burgers were half off so that was a surprise! I enjoyed the Continental Burger of Swiss cheese, mushrooms and grilled onions. A side of fries and a Coke hit the spot. My lunchmate had the Beyond Burger. Our entire lunch bill was $15. Unbelievable. I'd say this was typical bar food...burgers, fries, soda. Nothing special about it, just standard fare for cheap. The service was great and the ambiance of a local college bar was cool.

Cheap wells and amazing chicken tenders. They also have good honey mustard and burgers.

I'm laughing at myself. I don't know why I thought reliving my college days by going to a bar in College Park would be a good idea. First of all, the whole place was sticky. The bar tables, bar stools, door knobs, cups. I mean everything was sticky and everything even looked sticky (I didn't know that was possible). On top of that, it smelled horrible. All I could smell was urine and a lot of random not so pleasant smells. The only silver lining was the cheap drinks. Don't be like me and try to relive your college days. There's a reason it's called your past. Lol

This is basically a college bar, but not like a nice college bar like Looneys. The place looks dirty and is sticky. The service was good and the staff were nice, but the food is not good. Chili is sweet. Sweet chili is gross 1/10Fried pickles were okay but not really good 5/10The French dip was not good at all, just tasted bland and had a slight weird taste that I couldn't pinpoint. 4/10Even the Miller lite draft tasted a little watered down. I suppose if you were a college kid and wanted to come here drinking it would be fine, but other than that, I'd recommend skipping this place.

What a neat place. Tons of memorabilia on the walls, lots of charm between the walls. Ordered the crab cake sliders and was very pleased. A bit too much bread, but that's why they give you a fork. Fries were excellent, too. Service was quick and very friendly. Would not hesitate to come here again.

We had the Rolls Royce and LTD sandwich. The Rolls Royce was okay, worth the reasonable price. However the LTD was dry and not much flavor. Tables were sticky and bathrooms were questionable, but definitely had a college bar charm. Our server Jax was great!

The crab pretzel is a decent move for a quick bite to eat. Beer pitchers, tap pints, and mixed drinks (long island ice tea, tequila sunrise, jaeger bombs, stolli punch, Bacardi and cola, Irish car bomb, jolly rancher shots, etc). Some things never change.

As we start to tackle the college search for kid #2 I get to tackle the restaurant choices...and this will be fun. At an unplanned stop at the University of Maryland (where Wifey and I met) we decided to also grab an early lunch at one of our old hangouts - Bentley's. It actually hasn't changed much in 20+ years, which is a good thing I suppose. Service was still slow, but the food was still good. We started with some Fried pickles and Wifey and I went old school with a couple of Natty Boh's. My daughter had a Caesar salad with grilled chicken and a Grilled cheese (kid is an athlete and has the metabolism of a hummingbird); Wifey had the Lug nuts crab cakes (basically crab cake sliders); my son took a chance on the Salmon BLT; and I had the Mark VI burger with bacon and cheddar. In a nutshell, the service was very slow-especially since the place was empty. It wasn't the server's fault...food just took forever When it got to us the food was very good. Burger was a little overdone, but not ruined or anything. Crab cakes were pretty tasty and both kids liked their meals. Overall a pretty good meal...oh yeah, Natty Boh is as terrible as I remember!

Nothing in this review incorrect however Jamie, Brady, and Luis make this place the tits