Sampan Thai Cuisine

Awful service. I ordered my pad Thai mild and the bbq spare rib. They called me to notify me that the spare rib was not available and asked what I’d like instead. I told them pork. My food arrived and the pad Thai was notably spicy. My pork was chicken. Not what I ordered. I contacted them and they offered to redeliver the pad Thai but not the pork because I’d tasted it (literally a bite before I realized it was wrong). Why? Were they planning to give this to another customer? They got my order wrong but wouldn’t refund or redeliver all I had paid for. Instead, they wanted to offer me 10% on my next order, as if I’m ever coming here again. Terrible, terrible experience.

This is such a cute little restaurant that doesn’t get a lot of appreciation so I feel that I should write a review on my experience. It was nice and clean every worker was friendly and sweet. Their food tasted great! But I have to say the Sticky Rice is definitely my favorite dish! I hope many people enjoy this place like I did.

not bad, I wouldnt come back.
Sexy thai girls here tho, asked for a phone number and she laughed at my face. Told me im ugly

Found this place on a late night craving for spicy thai seafood soup. I usually work late and not too many places stay open late… Had their TomYum seafood soup along with the papaya salad, and was surprised with complimentary tapioca desert at the end. Everything was delicious! Great find, will definitely be back.

Save your money. Terrible food. The angel wings are just fried meat. Crab rangoons did not have much crab, just cream cheese. And the shell tastes like lard. The barbaque short ribs taste like rubber. The duck with noodles, noodles are good, but the duck was tasteless. I spent $ 50 on crap I can’t eat. I would not feed to anyone.

A Real Review from a Thai Person. BE WARNED!
Decided to try the place out for the first time last night. We ordered Shrimp Papaya Salad, Boat Noodle and Thai Iced Tea. Barely half an hour later, we called for our check. Long story short, this place, based on my experience, was so horrible on so many levels that its owner should be ashamed to even still be in the business. Now let me take you back and show you why.
1) the waiter that we had could not care any less about his job or this place. He seemed nice and friendly but only at the surface level. For 20 out of the 30 minutes we were there, he sat at the counter facing his customers, talking on his cellphone to some friend about nothing but trivial where-​should-​we-​go-​this-​weekend stuff when he was supposed to be anticipating his customers’ needs. How nice and professional!
2) the papaya salad, which is a Thai staple dish, was the WORST I’d ever had in my entire life. The flavor was horrendous! All I could taste was fish sauce and, to add insult to the injury, the cheap, bad quality, stinky kind of fish sauce. I could not taste any lime juice or even just a tiny bit of its aroma. The chilli peppers they used were apparently not of the right kind. The texture of the papaya was so oh-​my-​goodness-​what-​the-​eff-​am-​I-​eating BAD! It was so raw, hard and chewy, which is an indication that the chef had absolutely no clue how to make papaya salad which is supposed to be lightly crushed and mixed in a mortar. I’m not even going to mention how badly cooked and old the shrimps were as it no longer mattered at that point. I was so disappointed and curious that, once my waiter got off the phone, I called him over to ask if the chef is Thai because the dish was so bad it would make more sense if he’s not. He said the chef is Thai then he apologized about the dish and then he walked away. I’m going to post a pic I took here before we left to show you that there was so much food left as I could not force myself to swallow any more of it down my throat.
3) the boat noodle was, however, pretty good even though, again, they used the cheap kind of skinny egg noodle that comes in dry form and you can get a huge bag of it at 99ranch for a few dollars.
4) the Thai tea was way watered down and they tried to conceal that by adding so much milk/​cream which is a big rookie mistake as milk makes the tea flavor even milder it was almost nonexistent.
5) the free sago dessert the waiter brought us at the end pushed our experience to the next level. my husband tasted it first and he told me that it tasted funny. I was no longer in the mood to eat anything but, because of what he said, I wanted to know what he meant. It tasted funny because it was SPOILED. The End.
I confirm that this is my truthful, honest and unbiased review. I was looking for Thai food because I was so homesick the only thing that could help make me feel a little closer to home would be Thai food. Living abroad has taught me not to put my hopes up too high when it comes to Thai or any exotic cuisines due to limited ingredients. This place managed to help with my homesickness by pissing me off so bad my focus shifted. Thank you, Sampan Thai Cuisine. I will not see you again. And to the owner, I wish you the best of LUCK. It seems like that’s all your business is running on right now.

i was visiting a friend in san gabriel when i decided to take a chance ordering thai food. i’m always a little hesitant getting thai food, especially when it’s delivery! i’ve had too many mediocre experiences.
BUT! i can happily say the food from here was great. we ordered tofu panang curry, beef pad thai and combination fried rice. everything was hot, fresh and delicious. the curry also came with a small order of rice that i didn’t have to pay for. i ordered medium spiciness for all the dishes and it was the perfect amount of heat. i have a pretty high spice tolerance and i would be frightened to know what the spicy level is like.
i’d definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for thai food in the area.

Quaint atmosphere, free drinks when you review on Unilocal.Pad thai $ 10, fried ice cream $ 6. High quality. Perfect for dates. Open to 11 on weekends.

I’m so sad, this used to be my favorite Thai restaurant. When we came a few weeks ago, we noticed that they updated their menus with more pictures. When we noticed the change of menu and the price raise, we assumed that they were under new ownership, but we were still down to try it out.
Ordered the pad Thai with chicken, I’m so so so sad about this, I’m really picky with my pad Thai and sampan was one of very few restaurants that I liked it from. When this came out, I already noticed that it was different. The noodles were super soggy and flavorless, and it was sweet? Which was really weird. I didn’t enjoy this at all.
Also ordered the crab fried rice, was also another one of our favorite dishes from sampan, it was just okay. A bit too salty.
After we finished eating, we were looking forward to the tapioca dessert they give after every meal, but the waiter informed us that they don’t have it anymore.
Overall, I’m sad to say that I probably won’t return. Only giving this place 2 stars because the friendly waiter, she actually noticed that we didn’t enjoy the pad thai (since we rejected to box it Togo), she was really apologetic about it and she confirmed that Sampan was under new management.

I’m so sad to give this review, because this was my GO-​TO FAVORITE (mom & pop) thai restaurant. However, after today I think this place has really disappointed me and I don’t think I’ll ever think of Sampan as my go to when I’m craving Thai food.
So first off, the last several visits before today’s has been meh too, because repeatedly we waited for over half an hour for our food when it was EMPTY. I still came back, because their food was so great! Today’s dishes actually came out pretty quick though. They changed their menus… and usually when places change their menus– their prices goes up too. It went up $ 1 – 2 (mostly $ 2)… like are you serious?! I rather go to Thai Paradise or President Thai if I’m paying that much. :\ Also, I was trying to order the Tom Yum noodle soup, but couldn’t find it anywhere on the menu so I asked them if they had it and they said they renamed it to Bangkok Noodle Soup… I was soooo confused. Not only did prices go up, their generous portions are not so generous… such a bummer. The pad kee mao we ordered looked like a lot until we took out one layer and it was just the lettuce that made it look stacked and full… deceptive much? Sigh, also my tom yum noodle soup was missing so much ingredients. The soup base did not taste like tom yum at all, but I had to admit it was good though.
Bye Bye Sampan, you were great for the past four years… i don’t know what happened.
Also, free drink if you write a Unilocal review about them, but she said it has to be on the day of soo I guess neverminddd. Not that I care for a free drink anywaysss…

This place is my fave go to place whenever it comes to Thai food. Today I came with the wifey and ordered the la na noodles, pad Thai, and papaya salad.
Everything was good and delicious. Good price, good service, and good dining atmosphere. They accept credit card too which is always good to offer.

So it’s pretty obvious I’m a white girl that got lost in this area on foot. The area is pretty much 100% Asian. Didn’t bother me a bit but had a lot of trouble finding food since almost no signs in sight were in English.
So grateful for the picture menu placed outside! The pineapple fried rice immediately got my attention so I went inside and ordered it. So yummy!
I’m not sure how to rate Asian food as it all seems to be around the same quality to me– but I liked it!
They don’t take Amex. Glad I had a MasterCard for business back up.

Don’t order from this place. I ordered through Grub Hub and it was never delivered.
I’m not looking forward to the hassle of canceling the charge on my credit card tomorrow. I wish I’d read the Unilocal reviews first. Avoid this place at all costs.

Placed an order at 7:14 PM, and I was told the order would be delivered between 7:56 PM and 8:05 PM. I received an update saying that the delivery window was now between 8:10 PM and 8:20 PM. I have called the restaurant three times and my order has yet to arrive. During the last phone call with an employee, she had the nerve to say that I placed my order at 8:00 PM, but I have an email confirmation that shows my order being placed at 7:14 PM. The employee said the driver was 10 minutes away; their driver has 2 minutes to arrive with my order.
*UPDATE*
Received a call from the driver that she was still 5 minutes away (after being told she was 10 minutes away, and waiting 20 minutes before she called). We called the restaurant back and cancelled our order. The employee that answered was rude and said we had to contact GrubHub to cancel the charge to my credit card. AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS!

This stop has pretty good customer service although it took a while for them to take our order. Upon entering, I was warmly greeted by the waitress. Food came out really quick and the portions are pretty big. The Yellow Curry is a must try! It’s my friend’s favorite dish and I am not a big fan of curry, but there was something about this one that blew me away. The flavors were really powerful, perfect amount of thickness, and it was cooked to the right amount. We also ordered the Pad See Ew and the Pad Thai as well. My favorite was the Pad See Ew, I couldn’t seem to put down my chopstick.
Overall it was good, I would definitely recommend coming here with friends and family, but the restaurant is a bit small so definitely come earlier for lunch and dinner hours.

Thai food is not what Thai spices are not, than do not like the taste of instant noodles Mummy. Do not understand how this restaurant reviews as well as three and a half … it fool the Americans have not been to Thailand? Low爆了的泰国菜，一点也不便宜。服务员跑过来解释一顿。就说帮我加辣椒 因为泰国菜是辣的
狂晕

I used to come here a lot. Till one day I had my reunion dinner with my collage schoolmate. And we found short and BLACK HAIR inside our seafood dish. It was a BUNCH… really DISGUSTING.
The waitress definitely has no experience with this case. She quickly took away our dish and latter bring back the check with had that dish CHARGED. Man. Unbelievable.

Went here after finding out that PaPa Walk didn’t accept credit cards. I guess when one door closes, another door will open. Sampan Thai Cuisine was open and they also accepted credit cards.
Credit Cards: They accept credit cards, but the minimum purchase has to be $ 15 or more. If not, they’ll charge you a $ 0.50 convenience fee.
Location: Located in the Hilton Plaza. Abundant parking spaces underground. If you want to rid yourself of traffic getting out of the plaza, you can find parking in the residential area.
Ambiance/​Décor: Very quiet little place to enjoy your meal.
Service: Loved the service even though the food came out a bit on the slow side. The waitress was very polite, sweet, attentive, and very soft spoken. This place is a bit understaffed, but she did a wonderful job in holding down the fort.
Food: It was getting late so I decided on getting a light dish for dinner. I ended up getting the Eggplant salad (which included grounded chicken and thinly sliced egg). The salad exceeded my expectations and I quickly devoured it. The dressing was lovely! Who doesn’t love fish sauce dressing? I sure love it! It’s like a version of the vietnamese Nuoc Mam!
Tip: Eat the salad with rice ($ 1.50)! First, put some rice on your plate. Secondly, you put some of the eggplant on top of the rice. Lastly, enjoy eating it! If you want more spice, they have condiments on the table for you to use. If you are meeting with friends or family after lunch or dinner, make sure you have some gum to mask the fish sauce smell! :)
Will definitely come back to try more food.

ordered their pai thai and noodle soup for my mom. We both felt the noodle was mediocre, the Guilin noodle at the opposite square is better.
The service was good. That lady adjust my terrible pronounce on the menu make me feel really cool and friendly. She checked ur table twice since we just ordered two water.
Last but not least, the place is really good at decorations, peaceful environment. You can bring ur colleague there and have a chat with ur work.

Located on Valley, inside the plaza with very little parking spaces. No need to fret. There are more parking spaces all the way to the back or underground.
Since we came at 9PM, we didn’t have any problems finding a parking space.
It felt like I stepped into a refrigerator as soon as I entered the restaurant. It felt good since it was kind of muggy outside. It took a while for us to figured out where to sit as there was only one staff and she was on the phone taking an order.
I felt bad for her; however, she did an outstanding job attending four tables on her own. She was very attentive, friendly and efficient. In addition, she thanked us for coming in and invited for us to come back again.
We ordered
–Thai iced tea was a little bit sweet but that’s just how I like it.
–Thai boat noodle was very flavorful and delicious
–crab fried rice was very fluffy and not oily at all. Each bite felt like I was biting the cloud. Yum!
–tofu pad see ew (from previous visit) was not oily and was full of flavor.
Portions were enough for two.
Improvements:
–make sure dishes/​utensils are clean before setting the table
–tables at the booths seemed a little far from the benches. I had to lean forward in order to eat my food (and I’m not talking about just a little leaning). I was in such an awkward position. Not comfortable at all.
At the end of this particular visit we didn’t get any desserts. Probably because staff was busy with attending four tables, but it should be consistent.
Overall I enjoyed the food and would come back. Hopefully there will be improvements at my next visit.