The Common

For a hotel restaurant, this place is definitely in the top. We stayed at the hotel for about four days and the service and quality of the food remained consistent. The place has great options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Service is always attentive and extremely friendly.

My wife and I don’t live too far away from The Common and decided to try out their dinner options on a late afternoon. We were pleasantly surprised how well it looked both outside and inside. If we had driven, the restaurant has a free adjacent parking garage. Several events were going on when we arrived and quite a few people were there but it didn’t seem to affect the restaurant’s service. We were quickly shown our table and the wait staff were always nearby if we needed anything. They were quick to respond to our requests. My wife had the Maryland crab soup and bacon cheeseburger entrée. I had the same soup and the chicken entrée with fingerling potatoes and leeks. After reading some of the previous reviews, I wasn’t expecting too much but was impressed with the quality of our meal and its preparation. Our total meal cost a little over $ 50 for the both of us and we thought it was a fair price considering the food, service and nice restaurant décor & environment. I spoke to the front wait staff on our departure and asked about their breakfast buffet since it was mentioned from another reviewer. The cost is $ 16.95 per person and they have a nice variety of options including an omelette station. Since we live nearby we may just try it out, too. All in all it was a nice dinner experience and we wouldn’t mind returning.

Perfectly acceptable hotel restaurant. Service was fine except they seemed unsure what tondo when I as a solo diner asked for a table and not a seat at the bar. Breakfast was fine but ridiculously over priced. But that’s typical.

Charged me $ 3.18 for a Pepsi and told me I could not get a refill by the extremely rude bartender because he was not the one that served it to me. I will not be going back here.

Hotel restaurant is not bad at all.
Nice breakfast buffet. Proper croissants.
Short rib panini is delicious. Home made fried.
Thursday nite ayce wings, three kinds. Get them off the buffet. 15 bucks.
Happy hour 20% off apps. Four dollar house wine and pints.
Decent service. I’ll be here again!

This place is of only slightly better quality than an Applebees. I would be honestly shocked to find out that they make anything in the back. They’ve changed their menu recently – it’s gone from a relatively bad but uncontroversial typical American dinner to, basically poorly done sandwiches. I have to wonder if they’ve lost their chef and replaced him or her with one of the waitstaff.
I went with a large group, and despite having made a reservation well in advance, it turned out they couldn’t seat us all together, despite the fact that they have in the past. Interestingly, the manager assured us that they have in fact never seated us all together, and perhaps more preposterously, that no restaurant could. We are not 40 people. We were 16. Of course, despite attempting to contact them multiple times in advance, they never let us know.
Then the food came out. Pre-​made hamburger buns with iceberg lettuce, American cheese and blackened bacon, frozen and reheated french fries. My chicken caesar salad had quite literally 4 croutons and a puck of overcooked and basically unseasoned chicken that must have been microwaved. Even the dressing tasted like absolutely nothing. Salads with great chunks of cheap salmon filet served with a scab of skin that needed to be peeled off before consuming.
The wine was fine, but the server literally could not open the bottle himself.
The manager made not the slightest attempt to apologize, and the food really displayed their lack of care. Don’t eat here. Why give them your business? You can find just as awful food with better service elsewhere in College Park, and you can find much better food for the same price. This place is, unfortunately, at the nadir of the intersection of price and quality.

This was our fourth time eating at The Common and we are happy to say it was as excellent as the last three times! The restaurant décor is classy and inviting. Everything from our appetizers, (buffalo wings, soup) to our meals (steak and hamburger) were delicious and cooked as ordered! We always ask for our favorite server Hirute, who is always warm, friendly attentive. The manager should be proud that this restaurant has become a consistent favorite of ours.

Watched the guy bartender snap at, diss and generally be a jerk to a group of women for seemingly no reason at all.
Our food was fine, the space is cool looking and the leather seats are comfy.
But watching that one balding bartender act jerkish was pretty offputting.

This place is located in the Marriott College Park next to the University of Maryland Campus. We spent a few days here in mid-​June for the National History Day finals held at the college. I really liked everything about the restaurant. The food was great and very afford ably priced. The service was super as well with everyone on staff going out of their way to accommodate us. The bar was awesome with a ton of draft beers available. We watched the Warriors kick the crap out of Cleveland during the final 2 games of the NBA Championship here. It was a great place to have to spend time away and see our team win! We really liked this place.

Crab soup tastes like Progresso. Ordered an Old Fashioned, but got a Manhattan. Nice atmosphere though.

I just lost 2 hours of my life waiting for dinner in an empty restaurant that had more waitstaff than customers. The waitress seemed nice, but seemed not to understand that she is suppose to check on her tables. I would never go there again. The food was just okay, nothing special and not worth the wait.

Went there for the first time tonight and it was terrible. The draft beers aren’t 16 ounces. The staff are extremely unprofessional and talk about customers in front of us. Complaining when a woman ordered a cocktail and he actually had to do something. Threw dishes and glassware into bussing tub. The line cook was about to smoke a cig when we put in the order and he seemed so blown that he had to go make it.
Now comes the worst part: the food.
I ordered the chicken sandwich and it was awful. I think the grill marks were stamped on and it was microwaved. Gross.
My husband had the fish and chips and the tartar sauce tasted like plain mayo. The fries were soggy and burned… tasted like they were sitting under heat lamps for hours.
I ate 2 bites of my sandwich and the bartender never asked how the food was. I’ve been a server for 10 years and this is an awful restaurant. Enough said. Pass.

I made a reservation for 8 for my Mom’s birthday. The restaurant is on the conference center side and NOT the hotel side. The décor is VERY aesthetically pleasing; I can definitely see this spot getting a lot of traffic during games. However, on this Saturday afternoon at 2, we were the ONLY group in there until a party of three came.
We had two kids — the kid menu is very good. We got a variety of meals — from salads with salmon added to burgers and crab cakes. Everyone enjoyed their food. We did have to send one item back, the grilled cheese — because it had a sauce that the 8 y/​o lad did not like. I am sure that they mentioned it on the menu, but he swore (well he CAN’T swear in my presence) that the menu didn’t say it.
All in all, this is a great spot. I had a class on campus after our lunch so I grabbed my pc and sat in the lobby area — of the conference center. That was very relaxing and their free wi-​fi was da best !

We decided to dine here after a sweep of Tom Izzos Spartans. GO Terps!
When I heard one of our party making a reservation to a hotel restaurant, I thought it was a little cautious but upon arriving decided was definitely necessary. This place looks like the hot spot to go to after a MD basketball game. It was filled with coaches, players and fans. The place was riddled with Terrapin Red.
Our group of 6, All MD fans, were sat in the back at a high table. We began this experience with a few orders of wings and bacon burger sliders. We ordered a little light as there was only 3 sliders for 6 people, I happened to be one of the lucky 3. While I was eating this standard slider, the other 5 were smashing the chicken wings. When I went to wipe my face of the mayo from the burger, the wings were gone and everyone was saying how good the bbq sauce was. So good, that we decided to order another round. Needless to say, there was only about 10 wings per order. One of the party was on his fifth diet coke, they use small glasses (this is a classy establishment) but he must have been extremely thirsty after his «shortcut» from the xfinity center to the parking garage. He then proceeded to eat a wing with a fork. He does live in Massachusetts now, but grew up in MD, this was a move I have never seen before, and hopefully will never see again.
Next was the main dishes, 3 salads (1-​Greek, 2-​Waldorf) with grilled salmon on them. The salmon looked cooked to perfection and the critics agreed. Maybe a slight salty, one said. The pickiest eater in the bunch said «Now that… That was a great salad!»
«Phenomenal» was the word used to describe the mushroom ravioli and was completely scarfed down except a few spots of sauce. After the night he had, I thought he would have ordered 2 entrees. Pre dinner, This guy put in some good work and I’m not even taking the «shortcut» into consideration.
Next was on off the menu order. The requester did ask nicely so the kitchen said yes. The penne with cream sauce, some sort of cheese (meant to be like Alfredo) and grilled chicken. «That is a huge bowl of carbs «, his brother gracefully pointed out. If your looking to carb up, this is your dish. He said he liked it but I always thought, teenagers had big appetites. Or maybe that was just when I was a teenager. He packaged up the rest and said it will be a late night snack. I’m not sure how that really turned out.
Finally, I order the chicken dinner. Which was grilled chicken with arugula, tomatoes and beans. After reading it on the menu I was expecting something a little different but this dish was plated like an arugula salad on top of chicken. It could have been a eh, 8 star dish but the chicken was dry. The taste was good but dry chicken is hard to muscle down, I did somehow find a way since I was also a part of that «shortcut». I was famished.
By this time Mr. Shortcut was on his 10^th Diet coke and the attentive waitress had finally brought a carafe to the table for him.
Overall a great experience, the company was way better than the food for me, but others in the group were very happy with their dishes.
I would give a 3.5 but Unilocal only allows whole stars. If I were to go back, It would not be my first choice, but I would follow. I would order the salmon which looked to be the winner of the table.
The best part of the night was when Mr. Shortcut paid the bill. THANKS AGAIN UNCLE TIM! (Whoops, anonymity has been broken). Had to thank him personally… THE NEXT ONE IS ON ME, Jeremys Steakhouse is in our near future, I REFUSE TO LET YOU PAY A PENNY.
#MDTERPSBBALL
#OTTLAW

Loved the ambience, the décor, the staff. Its modern hip and contemporary. The bartenders Alex and Gigi we very accomodating. Had the crabmeat pizza not my favorite too doughy and bland didnt really taste the crab meat. I shall return.

This place is disgusting. I ordered the sea salt fries which were soggy and greasy and half cooked. The $ 28 dollar pasta with shrimp would have been improved with Kraft mac & cheese. There wasn’t anything specific about the dish, but it just tasted like instant pasta with some poorly cooked tomatoes dumped on top. For the price, I expected a little more effort. Whoever their chef is, should be fired.

I really enjoyed the décor and never would have known about this place except that a family member was staying at the hotel. Very modern and interesting décor. The service was really friendly and the bar was fully stocked.
The rigatoni was well received. I had the skirt steak and while it looked nice but it was thin and WAY to salty… The fries were fine.
This looks like a good place and I will go back and try something different.

We stayed in the hotel upstairs for 3 nights this restaurant definitely saved me from starvation numerous times considering the closest place to eat is at least 20 mins of walk away.
Right from the first night of arrival, after a long frustrating day of travel and desperately in need of some drinks we were greeted by a super friendly bartender who offered us free beer samples even it was 5 mins before closing. My boyfriend bought me a turkey sandwich to take back to our room and not only it was yummy it lasted me a
the following day! It was barely enough but truth is truth. We had 1 dinner and 2 breakfasts there after that and in my opinion the Common isn’t a cheap place to eat but the experience of good taste, big portion and friendly staff in a cool yet relaxed space is worth every dollar. And don’t forget location location location!
Tips: cheap but great selection of beer!

The restaurant was PERFECT for my cousins’s engagement lunch. The menu choices were: bacon cheeseburger with French fries, chicken Caesar salad, or chicken breast on ciabatta bread. The burger looked the best so I went with that. It was good. The décor for the restaurant looks beautiful– updated and modern– just as it pictured here in Unilocal.Very impressive. It’s literally on the University of Maryland’s campus. I recommend the hotel and restaurant for a special occasion, to grab a drink at the bar, or for casual dining.

This place just opened on the UMUC Marriott property and it is in no way your typical hotel restaurant. Very cool design and a casual atmosphere make this a great place to get a drink and a fantastic meal. I had the Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf with the Watershed Martini (cucumber & gin). I would come back any day for the exact same meal.
Tip — their breakfast buffet is amazing if you can’t get up in time!