Sam’s Kid

Food is great, but you’ll wait a while to be served. Also offers carry out. The Pad Thai and blackened tofu was excellent.

I wanted to try this place for the longest, but every time I would stop by it was closed. 5^th times a charm (literally). My wife and I were the only people in the restaurant which was odd, but we like each other’s company… so whatever. There was a cute old man in a blazer who sat us, brought us water and took our orders. We both love noodle houses, and weren’t too hungry, so we tried two of the noodle soups. They were both cheap and good. Asian fast food. An asian lady, came down stairs, cooked us dinner and then went back up. The food was simple and tasty. Not gourmet, but it was good cheap eats. The experience was a bit peculiar, but I liked the dinner so I’d go back… if their open.

Worst service imaginable

After reading other reviews I have to qualify this by saying that this was a DELIVERY order. I did not step foot in the restaurant.
That being said, my husband and I were hungry, feeling lazy and did not want to cook. Nor did we want our usual chinese or pizza. Wanted something different.
I stumbled across this menu in my kitchen and it looked interesting. We called to make sure they could deliver to us and they could. What I initially wanted they were out of, so the gal on the phone made some suggestions. My husband got the pad thai and I got the szechuan beef. It was delicious.
The rice that came with my beef was jasmine, nice and fluffy. The veggies were crisp. Not too much sauce, not too hot. The beef looked restaurant quality (as in, better than what I’d get from my usual chinese take out place). It was thinly sliced and not too fatty.
The pad thai was interesting. I personally dont’ like my pad thai too fishy (some places over do it on the fish sauce). This wasn’t fishy at all. After a few bites I realized I detected fennel. Sounds so strange, but it added a sweet but familiar flavor that I’d never experienced in a pad thai dish before. Unique.
The delivery guy was weird though. He pulled up and then CALLED us. In this day and age, don’t we all have GPS on our phone?
THe food did take a while to arrive, but they gave us a heads up on that. Sounds like this place can be hit or miss, so if I go into the restaurant I’ll post an update. Otherwise, if you need a new takeout or delivery place in fells, this is a nice twist.

This is one of the worst restaurant experiences both my mother and I have ever had, and we go to a LOT of restaurants.
For what this place lacks in seating /​décor, it makes up in pretentiousness. Their attitude doesn’t make much sense, as my mom «looks» like your ideal diner, i.e. a put-​together woman who doesn’t mind spending money for a nice dinner (if you get what I’m saying).
Please do not go here especially if you are gluten free or have other dietary needs; they told us they not only would not accomodate a special diet, but were hesitant to SERVE anyone with one (and they didn’t put it nicely, either).
In all fairness, I didn’t get to try the food because we actually left. Perhaps the food is actually delicious. I hate walking out of restaurants once I’ve sat down, but it was just that atrocious. I have never seen such rude service, especially from a no-​name restaurant.

Very cute spot in fells point with a lounge-​like feel. It appears to be bursting with potential at initial glance, but regrettably fails to provide the sort of experience one would expect from a popular asian fusion restaurant.
The space is small but fitted with an eclectic warn décor. However, the service quickly dampens the mood as you may wait a long fifteen minutes for a cup of water or a proper introduction of the menu. The menu is a decent collection of interesting Asian dishes with a twist. The prices seem OKAY but ends up being quite deceiving given the serving size and quality of the dishes. For example, the tuna tartar was very tasty, but the fact that two potato chip sized pieces cost $ 9 takes away from the joy of sesame flavored delicacy. The Thai beef salad was nice. It’s sweet yet slightly salty with surprisingly satisfying cold noodles to accent the fresh lettuce.
Overall I think the idea of Sams Kid is excellent with a cute but suave décor. The service was shoddy and overall experience just lacked the charm.

I moved back to Baltimore from Los Angeles just about 1.5 years ago. Needless to say, I have been craving great ethnic food (which is overly abundant in lalaland!). While I have my usual Thai staples in Baltimore, none of them really stand out… until I went to Sam’s Kid with some friends a few weekends ago.
1. Ambience: Not the bar/​pub environment that’s typical of the Canton/​Fells area. Very open, airy and bright. Nice light wood floors. Good table spacing. and very laid back. The space is divided into: front table area, then couch eating/​loung area, then back bar… but all flows seamlessly together to create an intimate space.
2. Service: One thing to note — they send out your food in the order that you requested them. So we got our appetizers after our 1^st set of entrees, since we ordered them in between. And also, not everyone was served their entrees at the same time… So just be wary of this. (Hence, the 3 stars, especialy because no one told us this prior to ordering).
3. Food: Everyone at our table was very satisfied with his/​her meal. My friend recommended the pad thai, so I went with it. It was not the typical pad thai experience with a clump of peanuts on one side and a clump of bean sprouts on the other with your sticky noodles. The colors were vibrant and the tastes exploded into your mouth in between. A little spice with a ton of flavor made every bite exciting. This paid thai was adorned with asparagus stems, tomatoes and other less ‘traditional’ ingredients. I started to wonder if I had ever really eaten Thai before! As a note, its pan-​Asian, so they offer other Asian cuisine. The drink menu was also pretty varied. The chef even came out to speak to another table… it was a sigh of relief to at least see that she was Asian :))) Asian or not, though, the food was awesome.
4. Misc: Btw, if youre not looking upaward, you could easily miss this establishment. With its red brick façade, you might pass it off as another one of Fells bars… Look up and youll see the Sams Kid sign illuminated on the second story façade.
Bön Apetit!

The good:
The food was overall pretty good. The portion sizes were large enough that I felt more than full after eating the entire plate. The menu had enough variety that the vegetarian in the group was able to find something filling as well. I like spicy foods, but the items on the menu that we were warned of as being «very spicy» I found to be over-​hyped. When a waitress says something like that, I want to be crying by the end of the meal. I was not. That is just my personal preference though as I enjoyed my food as did the rest of my group.
The bad:
The service leaves a lot of room for improvement. An ordered appetizer was never delivered, but as the portions of the main course were so large, no one particularly cared until it was included in the final bill. The food also took longer than it should to prepare, given that we were one of two parties in the restaurant.
The ugly:
I cannot complete a review of this restaurant without commenting on its appearance. Once inside it is a colorful and open atmosphere, although the 80s/​90s mix that was playing through lunch did seem slightly out of place. That being said, we almost didn’t have lunch here because of the confusing outer appearance. There is a single sign hanging from the outside that barely hints at a restaurant being present. From the outside, this place looks like an apartment building. Upon further investigation, there are menus outside. However, these menus are posted next to a door that does not work. Luckily, I was able to see people inside and tried a door further down to get in. While waiting for the food to arrive I noticed several groups of people try to enter from the locked door, give up, and walk away. Eventually one of the employees came out with duct tape and made arrows to the working door.
Something like that should only happen at a newly opened restaurant.
Overall:
Good Asian food, bad service. I would definitely try the place out, but don’t have high expectations.

Wandering around Fell’s one Saturday evening, my boyfriend and I stumbled upon Sam’s Kid. We’d been by several times before but never noticed the restaurant within the unassuming interior.
The place is small, and we were able to get the last table that was available – a rickety 2 top. We used the old «sugar packet» trick to steady the table and enjoyed our evening. The service was decent and the food was good. We weren’t very adventurous and split edamame, pad thai, and a California roll. My only complaint would be that for as small as the restaurant is, it’s quite loud.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to get to Sam’s Kid, but it’s a good bet if you’re in the area.

When you’re looking for that special little hidden restaurant find, you’re probably expecting something understated in décor. From the outside, you wouldn’t even know this place is there, and if you manage to see the sign. the name says nothing of an incredible Asian Fusion restaurant that many don’t even know exists.
Walk in and be hit with a style that might define it’s name with a deco-​style that will again make you feel a little uneasy about the quality of food served. But, once you sit down and start off with a pot of honey-​ginger tea, you will know this is going to be something different.
The dish that revolutionizes the typical cuisine of Baltimore is the calamari. It’s so unique that you won’t have calamari of this style from any other place in Baltimore. With a light fried crispy coating, immersed in a sweet sauce and made of a smooth and clean part of the squid that makes you think it is liken to a noodle.
The ingredients are fresh, clean, and solid. You won’t get a processed food that rips away any full taste of meat. Keeping true to Asian flavors, some may not be used to such non-​Americanized entrees,
With the reputation of this newer restaurant still underspoken, it maintains a charming neighborhood feel. From the owner/​chef almost never taking a day off, the sights will be familiar on repeat visits.

Usually good pad Thai and other dishes but the tempura is always great.

It’s a funky little place in Fells Point. Like others said, service can be spotty.
Food is decent. However, avoid the pad thai… it might have been one of the worst pad thai I ever had in my life :(Maybe I just caught them on an off-​day but the flavors were just off… it seemed too salty and wasn’t sweet or sour enough.

Sure would be nice to have a vegan soup option, but I’ve been told every time I ask (and that’s a lot considering I love noodle soup) that the chef/​owner will NEVER make a vegan soup, since she considers fish sauce to be essential to making a good soup. Guess I’ll have to find a new soup spot…

Several visits later, an update is needed. Still love the food, but the past 2 times we had been the wok has been broken, eliminating over ½ of the menu items. Comments about wait staff’s laxisdasical attitude are accurate. Food is great, restaurant operations are poor.

I have to change my opinion on this restaurant. I would’ve liked to give it five stars, but on our last visit the food was worse (it was OK but nothing exceptional) and the service was terrible — awful.
Everything was screwed up. The wine came after I was done with my meal. The water came half an hour after we asked for it. Some hot sauce that we asked for twice for never came at all. It took half an hour to bring a menu back to the table (we wanted to order some sushi) and the waiter never came back to let us order the sushi — we eventually gave up on that. One entrée came 20 minutes ahead of the other one, and before the appetizer. The second entrée came with chicken instead of the shrimp I ordered. it took half an hour to go through the payment process. he forgot the salad of the people next to us and joked about it with them when they were leaving. some other people next to us walked out. It was embarrassingly bad.
The waiter apologized repeatedly, and he was a nice guy, but he lacked any sense of urgency or concern. He said it was extremely busy, but there were maybe 5 tables of 2 people each to serve. If he actually seemed overwhelmed or busy or even concerned I could’ve forgiven a lot, but he wasn’t even moving around quickly. It felt unprofessional, and I felt annoyed to even tip him.
Reading through some of these other reviews, service is a huge problem here — there’s plenty of evidence of that. There seem to be either not experienced enough or not enough waitstaff, but I’d start with «not experienced enough» — somebody who knows the service side of the business well needs to take over and crack down, otherwise this place is going to go by the wayside.

3.5 stars
It’s starting to sound like a broken record, but I agree with many of the other reviews on here.
I have been to Sam’s two times now, once for lunch and once for dinner. Lunch was great on a weekday afternoon with only two other tables occupied. Food was great and service was fine.
Tonight, 4 of us went for dinner. We shared about 6 different tapas and sushi along with a couple of wines and carafe’s of sake. Everything was excellent. To name a few, we had the fried tofu, the crunchy spicy tuna roll (nothing crunchy about it, but good), wasabi shu-​mai, pork dumplings, and vegetarian egg roll. I ended with the Korean BBQ soup which was excellent.
We had reservations for 7:30 pm on Friday night, but there were several tables available when we arrived. As the night went on the place was full. Our server was a tall man whose name I will leave out, but just be sure you don’t sit at his table. Service was horrendous. First he didn’t mention his name and seemed upset that he would have to come back to get our drink order. Maybe that is why he only cam back to bring food. Never speaking to us until it came time to pay the bill. Then he was very cordial to try and up his tip. At one point, as he was jogging by the table, I tried to grab his attention, and he said he would be right back. He passed the table again and when I called for him he actually put his finger out to gesture; hold on a minute. He then came back two minutes later with the check. To which I replied we just wanted water and drinks. He crumbled the check in front of us and scurried off again.
I really hate to leave bad tips, and I still ended up leaving him 15% (which I consider bad) but I don’t think that means anything to a waiter other than to leave him thinking that we were cheap. Anyway, it left a lasting impression and the next time I will try Mezza at Kali’s court or some other place in the area. They really need to fix the service or they will ruin a good thing.

I ate here a few weeks ago with my fiancé. We did not have reservations and seemed to have hit the lunch crowd. We waited for about 25 minutes for our table to become available and then waited for what seemed like a very long time until our server (I believe only server in the restaurant) to come take our order.
The food was delish! I had the curry chicken noodle soup (the name escapes me now) and my fiancé had the pad thai, which he said was «good.» I found the pad thai to be a great example of this dish. The portions are generous and we left with a full stomach and to-​go bags of left overs.
I would highly recommend Sams’ Kid, but be prepared for a leisurely meal. The honey ginger tea was fantastic, as well, however I think $ 4 for tea is a bit much. I am interested to know if their take-​out lives up to their in-​dining experience.

3.5 stars.
Somewhat an ambiguous place in Fells Point. I wouldn’t have found it if I didn’t read earlier that this place replaced Mehek (RIP…). It was a sterile looking eatery that still smelled like new paint and with incongruous furniture (A uncomfortable-looking/“modern-esque” couch placed in front of the restaurant) and art (a lone statue and some painting). My friends and I felt borderline awkward walking in there.
Service was decent probably because there were only 2 other groups of diners there.
The food was mostly hits. They ran out of vegetable dumplings (hmmm, a bit odd considering there weren’t too many diners?), so we ordered the «Ocean Spring Roll» to share instead. That was tasty (lots of seafood and portabello mushroom). We all ordered noodle soups: Chiang Mai, Seafood Curry, and Kowloon. Pretty similar dishes among the three: egg noodle, chicken or coconut broth, some veggies (bak choy, bean sprouts), and meat (chicken and seafood). All of us thought the noodle soups were good. Not too filling and the ingredients were cooked nicely.
It is nice that there is a new Asian eatery in Fells Point. I can overlook the decorative oddities for their fairly priced meals.

Good food, friendly, prompt service, reasonable prices. I am happy to have a place like this in Fell’s point. I think they got slammed after the positive baltimore sun review but now they are back up to speed.

Sam’s Kid opened about three weeks ago, and is still a few days away from their grand opening, I think.
Located right on the square in Fells Point, Sam’s is occupying the space that used to be Mehek, an indian restaurant. I was never overly impressed with Mehek, so it’s great to see something else at this address (and so close to my office).
The owners did a complete renovation of the space, and it’s a great re-​do. The dining area now covers two levels, and the second floor is now a loft on the first one. It feels open and fresh in here, with lots of natural light. With winter coming on, though, you might want to err on the side of caution and bring a sweater. It was a little cold inside at lunch today. There’s also a bar at the back of the place, but it feels a little bit like an afterthought right now. I think there’s more renovation to be done there.
The menu is sort of an asian tapas, with a focus on small plates, soups and noodle dishes. We started with some tasty pork and chicken dumplings, which were served steamed. I was a bit surprised that they weren’t pan-​fried, but I can certainly do without the extra fat, so it’s all good. I can see someone else being surprised by that, though.
Given the rainy, cold weather outside and my slightly foggy brain, I was all too happy to try the soup, and I wasn’t disappointed. The Chiang Mai had plenty nice-​sized chunks of chicken breast, spinach, bean sprouts and noodle in a delicious yellow curry and coconut milk broth. The soup’s presentation was impressive, as it came with a crown of fried noodles. There was plenty of food here too, and I ended up full before I was finished.
Travis ordered the pad thai, and found it to be solid and straightforward, if not the most exciting dish ever.
And that’s really what I would say about the food overall: they’re about 90% of the way to fantastic, but the flavors are just this side of surprise and delight. As Travis pointed out though, «if this is where they are after just three weeks of being open, they’re well on their way to being great.» I couldn’t agree more.