The Bench Bar & Grill

Food is marginal quality, and in taste. Service is slow but pleasant. Atmosphere is mediocre. And prices are way too high for what you get, even for casual dining.

Quite good place to hang out! Even if one doesn’t drink, you surely can dance floor n here!

The food is great. It’s in a great area and right in front of the train station in stony brook. Also it has a lot of tv’s to watch a lot of sporting games and to have fun with family and friends too.

Local watering hole. This is definitely a college scene some nights. I recently went with friends for SBU homecoming and it was incredibly packed. The food was okay but I really went for the drinks and they were great. Also we were seated pretty quickly considering how crazy packed it was.

3 stars seems like the perfect review for this place. It’s good, but bland.
I’ve been here for lunch, dinner, ladies night, regular bar nights and every time it’s just been «eh»
The food is always good but the drinks are not. I’ve had bad wine, okay drinks and flat beer. Not something you really want to be served when your going to a bar for a drink.
The décor and set up is really on point! It’s very open and has a nice separation from the sit down restaurant to the bar. The staff is always very sweet and enjoyable. The drinks just really bring this place down.

My wife and I met here 20 years ago when it was known as the «Dark Stench». Now that it had reopened under new ownership it is the best sports bars in Stony Brook with food well above the common sports bar fare. This is where you will find me every Super Bowl Sunday for the past 3 years and I frequent the Bench every chance I get whether it’s a night out with my friends at the bar or a Saturday dinner with my family in the seating restaurant area.

this place is pretty bad. burgers are bland and overcooked. fries taste they they came out the freezer. might be worth going for a game if your completely out of optinos

Oh the bench… I’ve been here more times than I can count throughout my 4 years of college and I’m still not sure if I love or hate the place… Located walking distance from Stony Brook University and the LIRR station, the bench is your All-​American, rowdy, college sports bar.
Here’s the rundown:
You’d find me there on Thursdays for their INFAMOUS ladies night. In my opinion, probably one of the worst ladies nights… $ 10 cover charge to get in and ladies drink for «free» 9pm — midnight. Although there are two bars, it usually takes a while to get a drink because of the overwhelming crowd. And it takes WORK to get a drink 11:30-midnight so definitely get there early! Also, tipping generously is a MUST or your mixed drink will be all ice/​juice and zero alcohol. Also, after midnight when ladies night is over, guys and girls still have to pay the $ 10 cover… unnecessary in my opinion.
So why do I come here? Because ALL of Stony Brook University comes here. It’s just too convenient not to. The bench is ALWAYS a great time. Walking into a bar and recognizing half of the people there, you really can’t beat that. Even if you don’t know someone, it’s so easy to interact and make friends! Although the dance floor is a little small, the music is always great and people are always having a blast no matter how sweaty it gets or how many drinks are spilled.
Aside from ladies night, Friday and Saturdays are usually fun as well. Prices are reasonable and they have a good deal for wing night on Mondays — $ 15 for unlimited wings and beer from 9 – 11.
They usually have a good beer selection, but they ALWAYS run out of Corona which is REALLY annoying. Overall, the food is good — typical bar food but very salty. I do enjoy their mozzarella sticks (which are hand rolled!) and french onion soup every now and then, but again very salty. I also really like their sweet potato fries and maple syrup!
Another thing that’s kind of annoying is that the service is either AMAZING or HORRIBLE. There is literally no in between. However, that doesn’t really stop the college crowd from coming.
All in all, people don’t come here for anything crazy. If you’re a college student and here for a good time, this is your spot.

Cool place to watch any game. Good service but I’m a craft beer guy so be warned its not that kind of place.

Love the bench! Great beer selection and the food never disappoints and its walking distance from my house. What more could you want???

I have been to The Bench many times and you are always guaranteed a fun time. It’s right across from Stony Brook University and the Stony Brook train station. It’s a college bar and on Thursday nights it gets really crowded and it’s probably their most exciting night of the week because it is Ladies Night. Beware: If you are coming for Ladies Night be prepared to have 2 forms of identification with you. That’s a fairly new policy. For $ 10, girls can have unlimited drinks from 9pm until midnight… and because of that great deal the bar is PACKED. I mean… so packed that you may wait 15 – 20 minutes flagging down a bartender to refill your cup. It can get ridiculous at times, but having gone many times it is better to get to Ladies Night right at 9pm when it starts if you’re looking to maximize the whole deal. The place itself is nice. It has two bars, the larger bar being the most crowded and it also has televisions covering the entire thing. The dance floor is relatively small but the DJ is always really good. The bartenders are good and if you are a girl and leave a nice tip at the beginning of the night they remember it and will have you covered when you go back for rounds because a lot of the girls don’t tip when they go.
Besides the Thursday night craziness of their Ladies Night deal, I’ve been there for wings on a random Tuesday night and they were really good. The wings were pretty big and had a lot of sauce on them. To end the meal I ordered the Dessert Nachos and they were soooooo delicious! It’s basically pieces of fried dough cut into nacho-​looking shapes that are covered in cinnamon sugar and on top they put a few scoops of vanilla ice cream and drizzle raspberry sauce on top. Definitely a must try if you go there.
Overall, this was and is a favorite place of mine when I go visit Long Island. Never a dull moment in this place!

Mile high nachos now come on a smaller platter. Disappointing since I came here for the nachos. Hope the owner sees this and changes the menu back to where it was! They got rid of some booths in favor of a more open floor plan. I like the layout.

I recently went to the Bench with some folks after the Stony Brook Homecoming. Having not been an Alum of Stony Brook, I did not have the same connection to the events that the others did. I found the Bench to be a very nice place for folks to sit and have a drink. The back area had televisions with games on, the bartenders were attentive, and there was a good mix of people and not just undergrads running around, as some of the other reviews would have you believe. It did get louder later on a saturday night, but I was perfectly fine with that. While the front was jumping, the back still managed to keep a bar/​restaurant feel to it — with music, which was loud and was my preference. So maybe the Bench gets three stars, but for being where it is, and for being a consistent option, it gets that extra bump up.

Lively bar right near Stony Brook. I came for happy hour and it was great. Appetizers were half off and beer was $ 3.50. They’re pumpkin spice beer was awesome.

I ordered french onion soup and chicken pot pie. They were both a bit too salty for my liking and that’s saying a lot since i usually like my food salty.
It’s an OKAY place to go out with your friends, but don’t expect the food to be great.

Although it may be a fun atmosphere for girls on Thursday nights (ladies night) it’s not the most fun for guys who have to pay a cover charge and then proceed to pay outrageous prices for drinks.
It doesn’t help that they took away the 10 dollar beer pitchers.
Food at the restaurant itself is mediocre.

The bench is starting to show worse for wear. The table cloth I’m sitting over is disgusting with food stains from at least a month ago and I had to remove it or barf. While doing that I had to balance on my seat careful not to further loosen the screws. Wasnt sure it was a rocking chair or a bar stool.
The place at the moment is dead which is ok but why are tables still not cleared when the patrons left over half hour ago. I’m being kind giving two stars. That’s in recognition of what the place used to be. I’ve had some good times here but that was long ago. This is last time I’m patronizing until I see and read about some significant improvements. In sum the bench. Is a sad place. Just because it lies opposite a train station it doesn’t have to look like one. Yech!

After watching a pathetic Stony Brook football game, we came to drink away the loss. Typical quick-​easy-​to-​make bar food, as expected. The server we had (Becky I think?) was great, peppy and patient with us. We didn’t stay too late when the college crowd started rolling in, again as expected, but did enjoy hanging out there.

Stopped at The Bench during the mid-​afternoon for the hour and a half between an interview and the next Manhattan-​bound train. I sat at the bar in the back, and was one of a couple of customers there. The bartender was attentive, and rather conversational, which was nice because I was all alone.
The beer selection was pretty decent. There was the usual sports bar fare, along with a nice sampling of local brews, including beers by Port Jeff Brewing Co. and Blue Point.
I also ordered a side of sweet potato fries. The «side» was a huge plate, way larger than a normal side. And they were served with hot maple syrup. I’d never combined syrup with fries, so I also secured a side of ranch dressing (my usual dip of choice for sweet potato fries), but the hot maple syrup was fantastic. It went so well with the fries… it’s definitely my new dip of choice.
And the bathrooms were clean, which is a plus.

Located right across the street from the Stony Brook train station, this was where I spent almost every Thursday night of my senior year in college. Ladies’ Night is always insanely crowded, and the $ 10 cover fee is a bit steep for what you get. Despite there being two full bars, it takes at least 20 minutes to even get the bartenders’ attention for a drink. They usually have a pretty decent DJ, though, so the dance floor is always a good time. And if it gets too loud or packed for you, there’s a nice back area outside where all the smokers hang out. But if you happen to be female, I warn you that almost every guy you meet out here will try their hardest to take you home with them.
To be honest, the only reason my friends and I kept coming back was because the location is convenient and we didn’t want to pay for the taxi rides to and from Port Jefferson to have fun. If you’re an SBU student, you’ll always bump into someone you know — which could be a good or bad thing, depending on your track record. :P I’ve been here twice on a less busy night, though, and my experiences were much more pleasant. The space is actually pretty large, once you see it unoccupied by hundreds of college students. Their wings and burgers are surprisingly good, too!