If there’s a restaurant I can choose to eat everyday, this will be the one. I love many of their dish, I am talking about the traditional Cantonese food, not American Chinese food ?Customer service? You know when you come to these kind of restaurant you are looking for food, not customer service, so don’t expect too much on it ?
We discovered Sampan delivered during the pandemic and ordered dim sum and some other dishes from them several times. Mostly things are good except this past week the shrimp & chive dumplings we got were deep fried? Not sure what happened there...
Great food!! My favorite dishes were the spicy crispy bean curd and the chive dumplings. We also got stuffed eggplant, scallop dumpling, string beans, bean curds, salted egg yolk, Shumai, and the sesame balls.Lots of vegetarian and pescatarian options. The dim sum prices were very reasonable (~$5 for each small plate w three pieces).
This is our family's go-to for authentic Chinese food. We've been eating here for many years and it continues to be my mom's favorite, despite their recent move to Fredericksburg (I'm still trying to help them find something down there that can hold a candle next to Sampan but I don't think it exists!). We always get the large seafood meal and the quality is unbeatable. We recently just had our usual with a fried cod and a sweet and sour sauce (I think it was new??), and that sauce is what's prompting me to write a review! I didn't know you could make a sweet and sour sauce that tasted so good! Highly recommend the fried cod, the duck, the chicken, and the sesame balls (and the seafood meal in general if you are looking to feed a lot of people). If this place can please my Asian mom, then it's definitely worth checking out!!
One of the rudest experiences I have ever had when attempting to order food in any setting. I asked to order take out and the manager pointed at a stack of menus. When I attempted to ask a question the fellow grew flustered and agitated and put his hand in my face, mumbling something. I told him I did not feel welcome in his restaurant and would be leaving. He didn't care in the least, got snarky and started waving his hands about. I worked in the restaurant business for many years, never seen the like. Some other employee walking out for a smoke break at the same time apologized for him.
Ordered seafood combo. With XO sauce $25.8. It is very disappointing. Only three small peeled shrimp and several pieces of Squid. No scallops, no nothing other seafoods as combo. I called restaurant and complained the dish. He said “ That is should be” . What kind of service it is. Never go and never order again. This dish size is similar to lunch box. Very bad experience
Today we went out to eat at Sampan Cafe, this place is usually a staple in our family. First they completely forgot one of our dishes, and we let that slide because we usually always go there and it was a busy day so it was understandable. Then we ordered 2 shrimp fried rices to go. As we went home and open the two boxes, the rice was completely soggy and it didn’t even look like fried rice. Usually the fried rice has a yellow tint to it but today it looked like plain steamed white rice (no color) with eggs and shrimp mixed in. We called up the place to inform them about our fried rice and they accused us of not knowing what fried rice was and completely dismissing our concerns. The whole time the person on the phone had a rude attitude and tone of voice until we sternly repeated our concerns. He then again dismissed our concerns and then hung up the phone. Needs to improve customer service.
We used to dine in or take out at Golden Hong Kong, since they closed down we were looking for a replacement restaurant which is near our home. Our friends recommend Sampan to us.The first impression is good, servers are speaking Cantonese and I heard that some of them are from Hong Kong, feeling so good. Taste of food is good as well, like regular HK style at estates, of course cannot compare to those high end Michelin stars restaurants in Hong Kong, already feeling so satisfied in NoVA as Golden Hong Kong is closed and Hong Kong Pearl gone down too much. We wil try other dishes next time, hopefully they are good too.P.s. only HKgers understand what Cantonese foul language wordings and tones mean real good Chinese chefs are working in this kitchen. I only heard this from Sampan and Wegmans Alexandria so far.
One of the BEST Cantonese restaurants in the area. This place has been here for a long time. I actually just discovered it. I usually go to Seven Corners to get Cantonese food but that area can be really hard to navigate and hard to get around during busy hours. I try to avoid it and now that I have discovered this place I can.One the reason why I say this is the best is because of HOW you can order DIM SUM. Many people will argue with me that other places are better because they have the carts and its a whole experience. I could care less about the carts as an adult. I care about he quality of the food that I am paying for. My experience with the carts is that the food is cold or hardly hot. This makes huge difference in texture which is tied to freshness for me. The flavors of the filling even begins to diminish because of the fats starting to solidify due to the low temperatures. Then when that happens you just throw soy sauce all over everything. That makes for bad experience for me. I understand that most people would not agree with me.THIS place has dim sum a la carte. Which means the dim sum you order comes out fresh. So when everything comes out they are taste and are prepared as they should be. Would you want cold McDonalds or Popeyes? No. No. No.I have only explored parts of their regular menu but everything I've had has been amazing. For example:Spicy Crispy Pork Chops: Fried Garlic and Shallots with a thin breading that has explosion of umami.Ginger Scallion Lobster: Succulent and flavorfulChow Foon: Classic Wide Noodle goodness that has a nice chewy texture to each bite of the noodles.Salty Fried Rice: This is one the best unheard of dishes in the area. The rice has little hints of umami in each bite and isn't as oily as other fried rice's I have had.Buddha Delight: If you are vegetarian...THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO EAT TOFU!!!! They use a soft/silken tofu that is fried to perfection over a gravy sauce that is delicious.I highly recommend this place to anyone who loves Cantonese Food.
Best Chinese food. I have dimsum today. So authentic, like back in China.