Bentley's Tavern — Restaurant in Town of Malta

Bentley's has gone steadily downhill the past two years or so. Now, on a rare good night, it maxes out in quality at the upper end of mediocre. However, recently it seems as though none of the old Bentley's that we locals learned to love even exists anymore. In fact, on average, Bentley's downright sucks.

At this point, I'm not sure which is worse - the service or the food. Allow me to walk you through my latest - and last - visit to the tavern and you can decide for yourself.

I walked in and sat myself, as you're supposed to, and my drink and appetizer orders of water and spinach-artichoke dip were promptly taken by a friendly, young waitress within 10 minutes. However, when I received the dip, the cheese that had been grossly melted onto the top was hard as a rock; it had to be removed from the dish so that I could dip the over-salted, store-bought tortilla chips into it. Once I removed the top layer of cheese, it revealed a second layer of unmelted shredded cheese and a lukewarm center. I ate only as much as I could pallet before the salt from the chips made my mouth numb. In that time I had been able to put in the order for my entree and expected it to be out a few minutes after they had cleared the appetizer. I sat and I waited... and waited... and waited.... Finally 45 minutes later (that is, 45 minutes after the appetizer was cleared) I managed to get the attention of our waitress and asked her to check on our food order. She barely even stopped to listen to me ask her to check on the status of my order, and effectively just walked briskly past me with a quiet acknowledgment that she had heard me. She never came back. Finally 10 minutes after that, I got the attention of a second, very unfriendly waitress, explained to her that I'd been waiting almost an hour for my order, and that'd I'd like the bill for the appetizer so I could leave. Her response was a half-hearted mutter, "oh, sorry about that," and instead of doing what any eatery with an ounce of class would do, brought us back the full, undiscounted check for the appetizer.

Now, it's not that I'm upset that I didn't get a free appetizer. It's that I'm upset about the fact that it was clear nobody working at that restaurant gave a crap about the customer experience. Both when my water was refilled and when the appetizer had been cleared, the waitress was moving so briskly that I barely even got a chance to say thank you, and I received no reaction from her when I did. She already had her back to me. I should mention I was one of for or five customers in a very empty restaurant, so it's not like it was dinner rush or they were understaffed. In 45 minutes of sitting, it had not occurred to a single waitress to check on our table. In addition, when I explicitly requested that the order be checked on, I was left unattended and with no follow up what-so-ever from the waitress I had asked (who was the same one that took my initial order). At a decent restaurant, somebody would have given us more than a mumbled and brisk apology or even offered something on the house. Bentley's apparently does not possess that...

Update: management at Bentley’s addressed their staff on everything that happened. They sent us a gift card and we went back to give them another shot. It was a very enjoyable experience.

Went to Bentley’s for a birthday celebration with a party of 16. The bill was approximately $600. When I arrived with my 16 yr old son and my 18 yr old daughter, a very inebriated man in a white tshirt (looking a mess) left the bar area and walked up to our private table to harass my 16 yr old son for wearing Camo pants. Said he is dishonoring the Marines by wearing those when he is not a Marine. We had words with him and we told our waitress that if they did not ask him to leave that our party of 16 would leave. The man in the white tshirt left with his friend (so we thought). We saw his friend come back in later (after we ordered) with a man wearing a black tshirt (didn’t think much of it). Until this man started staring at me and mouthing angry words directly at me… so I told the waitress again that he must be asked to leave. He was not asked to leave at that point, he continued to drink at the bar. Then he continued harassing my son AGAIN and actually putting his hands on my son to grab him and draw him in as my son walked past the bar area. I made my son and daughter leave, then my husband told the man to calm down and he shoved my husband almost knocking him over. When the man shoved my husband our friend stood up to go see if he was alright and one of the younger waitresses began cursing at our friend to “sit the f* down and mind your business” she continued to curse at him even after he said “you don’t have to curse at me I just wanted to make sure my friend is okay”. It took THIS MUCH for them to finally force that man to leave. Oh and we all paid the $600 bill. So no I will NEVER go to Bentley’s again. It was a seriously uncomfortable experience and I’m super disappointed. Bentley’s bar you can do better and stop serving seriously inebriated individuals. I have been to Bentley’s many times and I have to say I’m sadly disappointed after this experience. Oh and a few of this party of 16 have tried leaving a review about this and it keeps getting deleted. I have a screen shot of my review, so if you choose to delete it… I will personally share my review all over social media to get the...

I have walked by and driven by this place for over 5 years, always thinking it was just a kinda of bar that wouldn't have anything for me. However my recent Friday explorations had me take a closer look, and you know what they say about judging a cook book by its cover.

For my order I went with the pretzel sticks and the fish & chips with tartar sauce. I enjoyed everything on a whole, but I was pleasantly surprised by the soft pretzel sticks. They were much more than I was anticipating, and really satisfied my itch for a fresh warm pretzel. The fish & chips were no slouch either, the lemon included really enhanced the fried haddock with a nice tang and altogether paired very well the the tartar sauce. Though I will say the "chips" was a tad too soft for my liking, as I prefer my "chips" to be a bit more crunchy.

Now the price was a little on the higher side for what you might think would be bar food, roughly $41 for my entire order, but if you do happen to stop by you might understand the bar is only one part of this restaurant and has a lot more going for it than expected. It's pretty popular and can get crowded, so you may find parking to be a bit difficult.

Overall I will admit I was dead wrong about what Bentley's Tavern was, and what I got was pretty good. That said, the prices are a tad bit high so while this is a pretty short distance from my workplace and on my drive home, I think I'll save this location as a backup in case I have no other options...