The Common — Restaurant in College Park

Great Gathering Place - Some Menu Fails Went for a 3rd visit today. The atmosphere is always welcoming and comfortable, and the the service is usually attentive. Last visit I tried a fish dish with a sweet potato mash. It tasted great but I'd never seen sweet potato mash as more of a condiment and was a bit disappointed in that. Today, I ordered the octopus with intent to share it around the table. The 3 of us who tried it were sure it tasted of lighter fluid! You could taste the char, but even stronger, the distinctive smell and taste of lighter fluid or some sore of combustible. We asked the waitress how the dish is prepared, but got no definitive answer. Other items have been good or great. Wings, flat breads, crab cake...

The Common is the hotel restaurant located at the College Park Marriott on the University of Maryland campus. I stayed at the hotel for a couple of nights and ordered from the restaurant several times. The restaurant serves American food in a casual, but modern setting. I really like the burger and Smith Island cake here that I got for takeout. However, I found my dine-in experience to be lackluster with slow service. Pricing is on the high side for what you get, which is to be expected for a hotel restaurant. As I was short on time, I think this restaurant served its purpose of offering food for a hotel guest. However, I would have likely ventured to a nearby local restaurant instead if not for the...

I made reservations for Christmas dinner about a week prior to Christmas day. When we got there we found out that the restaurant was closed because the power went out the night before. Oddly, there seemed to be power when we arrived at 5 pm. No one ever called to let us know. Guests at the hotel had to let us know what happened. So, we had to scramble to find somewhere else to dine on Christmas. I think the staff probably wanted to be off for the holiday. I graduated from UMUC so gave them the benefit of doubt despite tepid reviews. We ended up at Ram's Head Tavern at Savage Mill and had a...