Sampan Inn

Great sushi and, although we did take-out, the atmosphere seemed great while we were waiting for our food to be ready to go. Neat little place with pretty good prices.

Sampan has a good menu, friendly owners and a nice atmosphere.

The staff is very polite and professional. The food is consistently good and presented nicely.

The only downside is that it tends to get pretty crowded but it's for a good reason.

You know, by far this might wind up being the weirdest place I have ever reviewed.  Part of me doesn't really know which way to go with it.  I'll explain.

I'll just get the downside out of the way right now.  Don't come here expecting great service.  They just don't seem to care if you're there or not.  Now, they're not openly mean or anything, and maybe it was because they were busy.  I don't know.  But they just don't seem to be on the ball.  From walking into the room and not being shown a seat (which is no big deal but it's awkward if you are a first timer), to waiting a good while to get a menu, to waiting even longer to get our order taken, to getting our soup before we even had silverware, to not getting any complimentary crispy noodles with duck sauce while other tables did, to actually getting an eye roll from the waitress when I asked for a water refill (after waiting quite a while just to get their attention), something just overall isn't right.  

Also, as many have mentioned, the layout is just odd.  You walk into a very average decorated Chinese restaurant, and if you choose, you can go up the steps and eat in a far nicer Japanese themed room.  It's almost like they've created a have and have not atmosphere.  If you wind up sitting on the boring side, you might feel cheated.  

On top of all this, another weird quirk, my wife and I got two completely different menus.  I got the all Japanese menu with no Chinese options whatsoever, while my wife got the Chinese menu.  We had to switch just to see the other choices.  

Just a lot of awkward things going on here.  

Now, time to get past all of this.  Because I think I know what's going on here.  They don't have to have great service apparently.  Because they know.  Oh yes, they know.  

They know that once you have the food, you'll come back no matter what.  

The Coconut Shrimp appetizer is nothing short of fantastic!  I wanted to order 4 more... and I mean 4 more full plates of it, not just 4 more shrimp after we finished.  

The wife decided to try the General Tso's Chicken after seeing great Yelp reviews on it, and even though she doesn't always like General Tso's, she loved it here.  My taste of it confirmed that it is quite tasty.

I went for three special sushi rolls.  The Amazing Tuna Maki had three types of tuna in it, topped with a pepper tuna.  The Pink Lady came out wrapped in crab leg meat.  And they had a special Lobster Salad roll that had Shrimp Tempura inside, and lobster salad on top.  Each one of these rolls had a special flavor, and was something creative I never had anywhere else.  As some have said, they're not always rolled as tight as they should, which provides a challenge.  But the rice seems softer and better steamed than most places.  It's a trade off.  

The food was good enough that I decided to keep them at 4 stars on that basis alone.  Just don't come here expecting anything more than good food.