Sammys on the Marina — Restaurant in Adelaide

Awful service ruined our beautiful dinner. Following our dining experience on the 9th December: We were early for our booking but had already walked past the restaurant and noticed other guests were being served drinks, this was just before 5:30pm and the advertised opening time was 5:30pm. We arrived at 5:31pm for our 6pm booking. The venue manager checked our booking and made an interesting comment, ‘oh is it 6 o’clock already?’ to which I replied, ‘oh sorry we are a little early, is that okay?’ The response that followed was again, sarcastic and patronising, ‘yes Molly, that is fine’.

We were seated by a lovely gentleman who then took our order, he was very softly spoken and helpful.

Another waitress set our table and provided us with a dirty platter stand that had some sort of sticky dark sauce on it, which is not what you would expect to receive in a restaurant like this. I requested a clean one.

Our platter came out with only one aioli and one sweet chilli sauce, I had to request the tartare sauce, this was the SA platter. We made a couple of alterations and one was missed, we had double of what we didn’t want and were missing the extra squid we ordered. I brought this up with the waitress and then the venue manager came over to speak to us. Once I explained the very simple situation the venue manager said ‘ okay well I will do this for you’ implying that she was doing us a special favour and not simply fixing their error. The error was fixed by the venue manager, with no genuine apology and shortly after we ordered another round of drinks via one of the waiters. Then before our drinks could be brought over the waitress came back and said ‘are you happy now? Is everything sorted out? Have you got everything you need?’ Which we found to be extremely rude and overcompensating. There was no need for her to come over in that moment.

Later we requested the bill but the waitress attended to another table instead and eventually the venue manager came over to us and I advised we had already requested the bill. She then brought the bill over and the platter we ordered was $190 in the menu given to us at the restaurant but the bill said $195. After some back and forth of me trying to clarify that the platter was in fact $190 not $195 the venue manager eventually said, in a frustrated tone, ‘ I am happy to take $5 off darling’ No apology, just a reluctant response advising they would charge the price that they advertised… That is a given and her response and attitude just added to the whole negative experience.

Our experience was ruined by two of the staff members being rude and by the waitress coming over to us at least 10 times during our time in the restaurant when she was not called over. Every encounter with the venue manager was unpleasant as she was always condescending, passive aggressive and sarcastic. The female staff member needs to reign in her attitude and provide better service.

We noticed two other tables get frustrated with this waitress and the venue manager.

The gentleman who took our order, wearing a suit, was lovely and I wish he had served us the entire time. The other waiters were pleasant also.

Only a couple of the staff members were wearing masks and therefore not compliant with the current regulations in SA

Sammy’s need to reconsider their chosen venue manager. The food was great but the service ruined our expensive dining experience.

I wasn’t able to post this at the time however did respond to a review request email from Sammy’s and had NO reply...

I've been here before and liked it & the service; this time was a bit different. What's changed you might ask? Many things. You have far less staff, and those who are there try though they forget things and bring out dirty cutlery; not a brilliant 1st impression... you are understaffed. There was a young chap who was asked what a certain cheese was and said "I believe that's chedder" - I'm no scientist though I along with everyone else knew it was cheddar also. What year, what brand, what animal, halal or no? These are questions I asked and never heard a word back in response to the cheese from the cheese plate on the desserts menu I ordered. Your waiter's assumed I & rest of the table was done when we were not and it felt rushed. It is courteous to ask prior to removing rather than swiftly taking something. Do not assume an overage person who would drink wine with dessert is underage and take that glass without asking. This is something that another table member noticed.... everyone in the restaurant had pretty coloured water glasses and ours were see through simple glass - why? Was this due to our booking method or a notation of xyz people booked via this place that yields 50% off, seat them here? If so - why did we as a table get given the worst for wear chairs in the establishment? I swapped mine - I was unhappy with it. Again with the assumptions. You looked at my elderly parents and expected my father to pay. Whilst he made some of the plans - I was the one to pay and whilst I tried to pay about 5x with my card, the woman kept talking to my elderly father and ignoring me. It was annoying to say the least. I wanted to treat my parents and sibling to a nice meal out and whilst I did - it felt rushed, too many assumptions on multiple levels from you guys, lacklustre treatment regarding chairs & honestly - why were we the only table with non coloured water glasses? Assuming there was a need for 2x steak knifes - my elderly parents only for the steak, which wasn't actually even for them... Assuming only the older adults of the table knew how to order - aka - my elderly parents. You didn't ask me what I wanted - you asked my parents what I wanted. The audacity given I paid the full bill. Truely.

Sammy's... you have a long way to come before I respect you as a restaurant again and you have to train your staff properly.... and hire more. That tall young fella had 0 idea what cheese was on the cheese board except "chedder" - it's like saying all red meat is red meat and should be cooked the same in every instance and pairings never matter. Try telling any chef worth their skills that and see how they react. Spark the medium rare vs well done debate.

Regards, A young looking legal lady with a passion for cooking and...

I went to this place on Saturday evening for a group dinner with friends celebrating a wedding anniversary for one of my galfriends (we had pre- booked a table since the group was big 25pax). The ambiance is good. The downside of this restaurant is their small/ mean meal portions, the price is also ridiculously high- be warned!! Several other ladies and myself ordered the Chicken breast- it comes as 2 small pieces on a mash potato bed. My partner ordered the Steak topped with prawns. I bet you the steak was not more than 100g, it was sooooo tiny- my partner was still hungry after eating it. Other men who ordered the same meal in our group had the same experience and had to feed off other peoples plates to get full. For 2 adults and 2 kids ( kids had kids meals) and soft drinks we paid $165. This restaurant needs to review their portions as they are giving customers an extremely raw deal. I would not recommend it unless you are planning to have a shared meal/ platter- this seemed massive. There was also a menu Special called Aussie Special- it came with lots of fish and the portions were massive- 2 of the ladies who ordered this could not finish their meals and had to share them around with others who were not full after the small mean meals. There was a couple sitting across our table devouring a lobster, I think it was a big enough one and this is what I will order if I ever go back to this restaurant. The place also gets very packed/ busy as the night progresses, the waiters don't care much about you. I ordered ketchup for my 2 kids- I actually had to request it 3 times from 3 different waiters. It only came after 15min of waiting- very dissapointing indeed. We also had a cake to cut and requested the waiters to clear our tables so that we could have some space to cut and serve the cake- no waiter cleared our tables- I had to personally clear all the tables with my daughter's help- this is unacceptable!! When it came to paying the bill, this was the real headache with ALL the food billed on 1 bill yet we were all paying separately. Anyway, I think this restaurant has alot to improve on before I can ever think of going back. Terrible...