SamB's Restaurant — Restaurant in Bowling Green

Whomever owns or manages this restaurant finally figured it out. Instead of being a bistro masquerading as a fine dining establishment, this is a bistro with some fine dining elements. I went with a decent sized party and a variety of menu items were ordered, none of them were disappointing or unacceptable. Bowling Green absolutely needed a restaurant like this to make up for the fact of actual fine dining in the community. I think the price point makes a lot more sense for what you get versus the old version of this restaurant where you were getting food that was low bistro quality for fine dining prices, whereas now you're getting solid quality bistro food for appropriate prices. If you've had a bad experience with this restaurant in the past, I would say give it another chance. They've embraced a smaller menu and seemingly focused on doing what they do well versus doing way too many things. The steak that I had was not the best steak I've ever had but it was absolutely good and not overpriced. The fries sound like something simple, but it's often a failure point of an otherwise good experience and this was not the case. The fries were crispy, not soggy but also not over fried and rock hard. I never had a problem with the service at the old version of this restaurant and the service that this version is great as well. This is a good date night destination, it is formal enough to be an actual date but not so formal that you are taking your first date to prom so to speak. All in all I am retracting an earlier poor review of the old version of this restaurant and pleasantly surprised that the menu has been narrowed down into a smaller amount of things that...

I'll start off by stating that I'm an "out-of-towner" and so I can't offer comps to SamB's from the vicinity. Back home (Tallahassee), I'm a stickler for isolating the market and sizing up ratings within comparable area establishments.

I came for lunch back in August of '16 and I knew I'd need another visit to be fair.

In terms of ambiance / decor, I'm told this is one of BG's nicest. Perhaps so. Both times have been weekdays, and the restaurant was relatively quite.

The prices are in line with "nice restaurant" (I.e., white linen service) prices. The signature steaks (New York Strips) were 12 oz.

Both were ordered medium rare, however both were delivered medium+ (not quite medium-well, but closer to MW than to M), yet were flavorful. Both came with squash, mashed and green beans.

My steak had more gristle than I would have liked, and the green beans didn't seem parboiled in advance and were cooked 2 minutes to little for my taste.

I'm giving this a four star rather than the three-stars that it deserves solely because the server (very attentive) DID ask me if everything was ok and I already knew - from the chef who announced it previously, that there was only one New York Strip left after our two. Additionally, I generally don't make a scene when the meat comes over cooked unless it's absent of any red.

I probably won't return to SamB's - not because it's not good (I'm sure they do other dishes really well) but because whenever I'm in bowling green it's for a limited time and I know there are other restaurants where my...

We stopped while traveling south based on other reviews. We had a very different experience. The restaurant is nice with plenty of seats and a full bar. It's was moderately busy. We ordered two pasta dishes, spaghetti and meatballs and the shredded pork pasta with a side salad. The house dressing is very good. The one pasta dish with the pork was very good. If it was served at a warmer temp it would have been exceptional. The spaghetti and meatballs came out cold, and I mean cold, cold. We asked for it to be warmed and our server brought a new one out which was also cold and unevenly heated. We kind of gave up and decided to just order dessert instead. I feel like the waitress, who was one of the best servers we've ever had, was so outdone by the cold spaghetti she just forgot to bring it out. She was extremely apologetic and adjusted the bill, which we felt was fair. Maybe it was just an off day there with the heat....they have great coffee. Also, although it wasn't extremely busy, the noise level is above average. The wine was certainly flowing around us and there's a large selection with other specialty cocktails. Based on the service alone we would try this place again in spite of our first experience. We didn't get her name but she had a ponytail and wore fabulous jewelry on her right wrist and hand. She made up for the cold spaghetti lol. She was engaging and offered recommendations. She went above and beyond with the kitchen snafu. We enjoyed her personality and great effort to make our visit here ok. Kudos to...