Sampan — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Sampan seems to be a perfect example of what separates a good restaurant from a great restaurant. There is food and then there is everything else. And the ball has obviously been dropped with everything else. Atmosphere non existent: they did their very best to have crammed as many tables on each side as they possibly could. This included the bar area. And bc of the overcrowding, everything just seemed a mess. Want to leave the table to leave the restroom, good luck. Nothing like having to squeeze between your and another diners table as they have dinner. Want to hear your dinner date’s conversation, best just staying quiet and listening to the conversation of the couple sitting two inches from you-there’s no need to yell over them. First table we received actually even hung past the seating bench, and had a super convenient wobble. Also, if you were hoping to cool down from the heat, you guessed wrong. Because the temperature nearly matched outside’s heat wave. So you and your new friends to your left and right get to sweat and fan yourselves as you have dinner. And you got to drink your room temperature water. Service was good & laughable. Our server was great. Provided recommendations, was very nice to interact with. Now to the hostesses. We got there early, checked in, we seemed to be obviously bothering her by checking in as she barely acknowledged us. Told us that we could sit at the two seats by the bar till it got to your reservation. Great, that was my plan. Who doesn’t love a cocktail. Well our time rolls around and nothing. We wait a little longer, nothing. I finally go up and ask the one hostess if we need to check back in at our time. She looks at her iPad and tell me my reservation is canceled. I tell her , I’ve been sat here so not sure how it was canceled. She shows me. So I thank her for showing me her iPad, I again say I’ve checked in already so again not canceled. She goes to the other hostess, backbriefs her. The hostess then looks at me and says, “my oversight,it was cancelled- do you still want to dine here?” And this is where it took the patience of saint not to say something snarky back. But yes, I obviously want to dine here seeing as I checked in 35mins ago and have been sat crammed at your bar waiting for this reservation. She seems surprised. I guess some people just take the accidental cancellation of a confused hostess as a sign from the universe and just go? Who knows. She proceeds to tell me to close out and we will get seated. Too easy right. We do that, she then says actually give us time, can you please just stand against the wall. Even better, why sit down with a drink when I can stand against a wall with even more people. Not sure if she was never trained, or just sh*t at her job.

To the food, overall was pretty good. The highlights were the pork bao buns and the salmon! Definitely recommend on those, as they were well done. The tuna cracker, the tuna was delicious not sure how I felt about it basically being on top of a hashbrown. The Korean bbq satay was ok, meat was just meh. Not sure you could call it Korean bbq or satay, as the meet was not grilled, and was more bulgogi-ish and wrapped on a skewer. The bowl of crispy Shrimp were good, ever so slightly coated, nice sauce, but they were underfried. So still had that bit mush. The duck was nice, but not great. Pad Thai was ok, generic, slightly heavy on the fish sauce.

That’s that. Not sure it lives up to the hype. Wouldn’t avoid it but I wouldn’t seek it out again. Seems like the idea is there just a case of quantity over quality. Just may need better management...

Loved my experience at Sampan! I want to say that this is my second time eating here and im writing this review today after I finished. I want to first give Kudos to the man that served us during Restaurant Week!! I know its super busy that week, but he was very nice and helpful with everything throughout the experience. I’ve forgotten his name, but he’s an Asian man wearing a nice full beard, and I also saw him on the second time too, which he was able to give me a cup of water as I was waiting for my party to show up. I think he usually serves outside but not sure since table shifts usually change in restaurant business.

My second time was even better than the last, and started even before I got seated. My party was going to be pretty late, and so I talked to a person over the phone and they were able to hold the table for at least 20-25 minutes after the reservation time- no garuntee, but thats wasnt a problem since I know its a popular spot and tables are usually push in/push out. They were super accommodating & nice and checked me in once my party got here!

My server was Izzy this time, and I thought she was an absolute 10/10 as well. she was super friendly and knew what she was doing. With questions about some food items, she was able to give us amazing details off the top of her head, and even recommended to balance our plate out with some other items as it was pretty fish-heavy (my party opted for the $55/each menu- I think its called Chef’s Tasting). She was definitely right, and the plate she recommended made a perfect balance to our dinner style. During our dinner we also experienced some negative things- unrelated to the restaurant, and she was super empathetic, and gave us complimentary champagne 🥂

Food-wise, I absolutely loved everything that they served us. I want to let the kitchen staff know genuinely how much I loved it, and my mom even said, “You dont even want to talk because you just wanna sit and soak up all the flavor.” and that says A LOT about the quality they make- especially because we’re full-time and registered yappers (we talk a lot). I especially recommend the Wagyu Beef (my personal favorite) as well as the NY Strip. Both of them melt in your mouth in a way where the sauce provided with it isn't even needed, but it’s definitely a bonus. The Wagyu Beef in particular, blends in your mouth with a type of tenderness that your tongue can break into without needing to chomp down on it, with a parallel hardness that once you do bite down on it, lets out the spices that melt into your mouth and perfects the harmony of the dish. Beautiful. 👌

Drinks: Recommend the Thai [something] drink, and has a great sweet flavor topped with I think a bit of cinnamon-not sure but it was my second time getting that too. Im not that much of a drinker, but I could definitely down a bottle of that in one sitting.

I gave the atmosphere a 3/5 only due to the loudness of the restaurant inside, but that’s expected. If you want to be able to talk with a small party, I would definitely recommend eating outside.

P.S. I’ve seen some reviews on here about the type of service done here, and I wanted to point out that it’s important to have understanding with the staff as well! Juggling multiple tables at once from the start of shift until the end is not easy, and a lot of things can come from it- I never had a bad experience with either servers or bussers/food runners, but I think it’s important to note that here. Patience and understanding is amazing on both sides, and im sure,...

I went here yesterday evening. I found out about the restaurant when I went to the graffiti bar this past summer. My friend and I got the chef tasting menu for $55 a person. We got to choose 2 small dishes and a dish from each category after. We got the thai punch for our drink ($12 each). I thought it would be fruity but it tasted like the smell of a fall candle. I would’ve liked it if there was less cinnamon in it. For our small dishes, we got the katsu bao buns and cheesesteak bao buns. The katsu was a 10/10, it could’ve used a little bit more sauce but it’s very good. The cheesesteak was 8/10, it could’ve used a little bit more cheese. It came with a salsa ( i think it was supposed to be like a ketchup?) That was a little spicy but good. Next we got the crab wonton taco. Now this was my favorite out of everything! It was fresh and delicious. It had a pickled jalapeños or pepper on the bottom! It was sweet and spicy! 10/10! After this we got the Waygu beef satay. It was cooked medium well. It was juicy but it took awhile to chew 7/10. The apricot sauce it came with wasn’t my cup of tea. Next we got the shrimp pad thai without peanuts. I’ve never had paid thai before. The shrimp was fresh and delicious. The sauce was good. I didn’t like the noodles because it felt like it was made from gelatin. But if you like pad thai, you’ll probably love this. Next we have the XO scallops. The scallops were seared on both sides but slightly uncooked in the middle. The bok choy was very good! It was a 8/10. The last dish was the beef short rib. It was a 10/10. The rib was soft and juicy. The noodles were great, i wish it came with a little more sauce. The dessert was ice cream (we had no choice, it seems this is their only dessert). The two flavors were Vanilla Skittles & COCO PUFF Chocolate. I didn’t like the vanilla skittles, the two flavors didn’t mesh well for me. The coco puff chocolate tasted like regular chocolate ice cream. Overall I don’t think it should be priced at $55, at best it should be $35-40. The bill was $145 at the end. Our waitress was okay, nothing special. When it came time to pay, she did hover and stand very close when i was choosing the tip. It made me uncomfortable because it felt like i was being pressured and rushed to choose an option. I went with the lowest which was $33 and some change. But she didn’t do $33 of work because other people brought our food out. She only brought the drinks.

I don’t think i’ll be going back to sampan itself, i had a better experience at the graffiti bar so that’s where I’ll...