Perfectly Styled, but Oversalted

On Wednesday night, while looking for a place to watch the Flyers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals (sadface), we had a chance to drop by Sampan for some food and what we had hoped, were game time beer specials. We did not find any game time specials, but we did find a beautifully decorated restaurant and very gregarious bartenders and waitstaff.

The restaurant was moderately packed for a midweek seating, which we were pleased to see. Sampan is another one of those newer restaurants that has been getting great reviews, and we hope to see it succeed. Rather than wait a few minutes for our table, we opted to sit at the bar, which is located in the middle of the restaurant, in front of the open kitchen, with the two separate dining rooms flanking it on either side.

:: Sampan Philly ::
address: 124 S. 13th St. Philly
what we ate: beer, oxtail dumplings, rabbit dumplings, "cheesesteak" buns, pork shoulder
What I loved right away about this bar is that though they only had three beers on tap, they were awesome ones: Stoudt's American Pale Ale, Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale, and Brooklyn Brewery's Brewmaster’s Reserve Dark Matter. Unfortunately, we had missed the Happy Hour specials, so they were a bit on the pricier side, but at $6-7 a pint, that is fairly standard for good microbrews. Besides, as our very friendly bartender pointed out, the Happy Hour specials would have only knocked $1 off of the price of the pints anyway.

When looking at the menu, we found that there was such a variety of dishes on this pan-Asian inspired menu that we were having trouble making choices. Finally, we decided that we absolutely had to try a few of the dumplings and one of the meat courses.

Interestingly, there were a few items on the in-house menu that doesn't appear on the website, like the first dish we tried: oxtail and kimchee dumplings.

Oxtail &  Kimchee dumplings: diced tomatoes + soy sauce + scallions
These looked like traditional gyoza and the presentation was very pretty with the colorful red tomatoes diced and spread over top. Unfortunately, with each bite, we found that the marinated oxtail was quite salty. The saltiness might have been mitigated by a larger portion of kimchee, but strangely, the tiny negligible amount of kimchee used hardly contributed enough flavors to make its presence known.

From this dish forward, I was a bit confused by the plates that were delivered to our table. It seemed like the actually plates of food that arrived and were placed in front of us were slightly different than the menu had described. It was a bit odd and I couldn't help but feel like I was eating someone else's food that had been accidentally given to us!

“Philly Cheese Steak”: Bao Bun + Shallot + Sriracha
Our next dish was the Philly Cheese Steak dish, which was described to us as a bao bun that had the top half sliced off, toasted and topped with shredded short ribs and shallots. In other words, an Asian play on Philly's signature sandwich. Sounds good, right?

What arrived (and you may be able to see this from the photo) was a dish that looked like cheesesteak bruschetta. While the meat was indeed shredded short ribs, it was resting on top of what looked like slices of french baguette, that had been toasted then soaked in beef jus. Confused, we asked our bartender which dish had just been delivered and he confidently answered that it was the cheesesteak on bao buns...

Hmmm. Okay. So we thought, well, maybe looks are deceiving...

But after taking a bite, we were more convinced than ever that this was just sliced baguette. Also, more of a concern, was that the meat was again SUPER SALTY. Sigh. I almost didn't want to finish this because I found it to be so unpleasant. But we did - only because we were starving. Then we waited patiently for the next dish.


Rabbit Dumplings: Spring Peas + Bacon + Shallot

I had really high hopes for this one. I mean, with rabbit, you always have the fear that it could be game-y, but I've found it is usually deliciously flavorful when it's stuffed in a wrapper like a dumpling or ravioli. Once again, the presentation was beautiful, but the taste fell short.

I know you'd expect the bacon pieces to provide just the right amount of salt here, but the ridiculously salty rabbit meat itself once again made this dish difficult to enjoy.

Pork Shoulder: pickled cucumbers + greens + chojang (Korean-style spicy sweet chili pepper sauce)
Finally, our last dish arrived.This was probably the least tender pork shoulder dish I have ever eaten. Sigh. I did enjoy the Asian-pickled cucumber slices that topped each piece and I found the greens to be a refreshing flavor, but the meat itself was dry and bland, at best. And I didn't think that the overall flavors worked particularly well together either.

So yes, another disappointment.

It seems like the biggest draw for Sampan has always seemed to be their lunch menu - with its wide array of banh mi sandwich options and satays. I feel like I can't truly comment fairly on Sampan's food until I've given those sandwiches a shot, but as for dinner - I would say stay away from the items we ordered. After the final course, we debated next steps - we were still hungry, and thought it'd only be fair to try another dish from the menu (like the Pork Banh Mi), but we ended up just leaving without trying anything else. We disliked everything so much and had already racked up a surprisingly high bill that we felt there was little that could redeem the experience on this night.

Will definitely report back if lunch is any better. But for now, I don't really want to think about Sampan's food any more.