Sam Woo Cafe — Restaurant in Artesia

To Woo, or not to Woo? That is the question.

Occupying the former home of Cha2O, Sam Woo Cafe is the sister restaurant of nearby Sam Woo Seafood & BBQ on Pioneer/South St. Dim sum seems to be the food craze du jour, so I stopped by Sam Woo Cafe to see how they stack up to the rest.

Baked BBQ Pork Buns- As will all dim sum buns, more filling was what I wanted. The pork buns at Sam Woo Cafe tasted good, and they were hot & fresh upon eating.

Pan-fried Turnip Rice Cakes- These were excellent! My first time having turnip rice cakes, I savored each bite, dipped into the various sauces, available.

Beef Tripe w/ Ginger & Scallions- A meager amount, but good eating. The tripe tasted clean, with the ginger & scallions enhancing the flavor.

Service was good. I wasn't given tea, simply having water to drink. The wait wasn't long for the food. However, as expected, the tripe took the longest to cook. I received the buns & turnip rice cake, but had to forego going full bore until the tripe arrived. I would've preferred to wait for everything to be ready, so as to switch from one to another then another. Ample seating, with various TV's to watch. Parking is at the Artesia City Plaza, with Sam Woo Cafe situated on the right of Pirates Kitchen.

Sam Woo Cafe is a serviceable dim sum spot, with prices cheaper on some items, pricier on other items. While not the cart experience, I found the food to be delicious, and I'm eager for more dim sum. Of course, things get quite expensive when ordering with my eyes & my stomach, so I'll have to exhibit restraint by ordering only a few items per visit, next time I...

I think the reception personnel want to drive customers away. Maybe their business is so good that customer services mean nothing to them. I was there on a busy Sunday noon. We were told the wait could be 45min to an hour. So we went to the market in the same plaza for a walk. However they started to text me after about 25 minutes. I missed the first text message that told us table would be ready. When I saw the second message saying our table is ready, I immediately ran, literally ran, to the restaurant, but the receptionist guy told us our table is gone since we were not there when we were called. I was no more than 5 minutes late. He said we had to start waiting again. We couldn’t get the next table even we did wait the same amount of time as other customers. He said we had to wait right outside the door! First time ever experience such unreasonable and arrogant restaurant server. Definitely will not come again. Lunasia, half mile away, is of the same good quality but with cheaper prices. Alright, I will make his plan of driving customers away...

We were craving dimsum and we wanted to try a new spot so we decided to come here. I was very excited because of the high rating and the pictures food look good. However, the food was decent but nothing spectacular but the service was unfortunately poor and we had negative first time experience because of that. First of all, the person who was helping us had poor communication skills we had to explain every word and repeat multiple times, the food didn’t come in time for example we ordered chilly cucumbers and they never came we had to ask and remind them so they brought it at the end, we received couple orders that were sent to a different table we had to correct the waiters. It was just a mess I think they should invest in training the staff and let people who can communicate well in the front. Moreover, the understaff restaurant will create a negative experience for customers so maybe they should hire...