Kobe beef that melted in our mouths.

Rock shrimp - a bit more on the salty than sweet side

Lobster stir fry. Great ingredients, mediocre pairings.

Kimchi rice with egg. I can make this. In fact, I do.

Roasted duck on a tamarind tortilla

Exotic flavored softserve


Sampan is a newly opened restaurant in Philly. We decided to give it a try and both order the tasting menu, which offers you 7 items for $40 per head. It was an economic choice considering you could easily go over $100 for two people here. As with all new restaurants, there were still some operating kinks that need to be ironed out. And if I can make my contribution to mankind, let me take this opportunity to point them out on my blog. 

First off, the place was packed to the brim. It wasn't overcapacity by any means; it's a very large venue with a lot of tables, and every single one of them were full. Now, assuming that they took all this into account, the server and kitchen did not seem like they were properly staffed to manage such a large volume of diners. We waited sometimes up to fifteen minutes in between dishes, and probably twenty minutes just for our dessert. Our dedicated server would disappear in the 'back' and sometimes someone else would bring us our dishes. A total of three different servers/staffers severed us (including our own server). It was a bit confusing, sometimes chaotic all around us, but the food came at a snail pace. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was happening in between every dish. For a place that offers tapas style dishes, they probably need to streamline their serving time. 

Sampan
124 South 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 732-3501

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars for a decent start for a new restaurant and earnest attempts at fusion dishes