With the exception of weekday lunch service, Sam's is a bar first and restaurant second. However, it's a pretty good bar (and the food's okay, too).
The bar has the standard mix of medium and top-shelf liquors and a half-dozen taps, along with Jaeger and Fireball dispensers. The draft selection varies but there's usually a couple of craft or craft-ish beers to choose from and a decent, but not overwhelming, bottle/can array. Prices are standard issue for the area: $3 for a Pabst tall boy to $6 for a glass of craft. Service is pretty efficient, mostly attentive, and friendly.
The menu is mostly sandwiches and deep-fried bar food. The signature item is the Samburger, a half-sausage half-beef hamburger that's solid. The wings are also worth checking out. Most of the sides come out of a bag (does any place really make its own jalapeno popper?) but for a bar, it's not bad. Also, and this is pretty important, the kitchen stays open LATE. If Sam's is serving alcohol, it's also serving food. The pre-cut fries taste a lot better at 1:00 a.m.
There's also live music on the second floor most weekends and some week nights, with a decent sound system and reasonable cover charges. And it's also a regular meeting place for several social groups, like book clubs and beer appreciation groups. All-in-all, Sam's is a place worth going.
I used to go here ALL the time a handful of years ago but stopped after some of the staff moved over to the Tavern. I recently went back for wings (which were always my favorite), and they were dynamite. The Tavern gets their food from Sam's now, so I order wings every time I go there, too. Sam's is usually pretty empty these days, so sitting at the bar can feel kind of awkward. Still, the wings... Ah, the wings.
Review Source:Best bar food in downtown Charleston hands down. Â Happy hour specials are good and the service is pretty friendly. Â The Sam burger is awesome--a blend of ground beef and breakfast sausage. Â Like no other burger you've ever tasted! Â Big list of other sandwiches to choose from too--all good. Â Wings are awesome too--good size, cooked well, tasty hot sauce with just the right amount of heat. Â Colorful crowd too.
Review Source:A friend and I ate here before Live on the Levee last Friday night as we weren't bowled over by the food trucks' offerings or beer options.
We sat at the bar and ordered a couple beers and reviewed the menu. They have a lot of bar food (apps) and sammich options and all sounded tasty.
I had the roast beast au jus and my friend got the rachel, both were served with chips and a pickle and we both cleaned our baskets. My sammich had crusty bread, lots of beast and cheese and delicious au jus - a very good representative of this may favorite sammich genre.
Been a while since I've written a review so I'm gonna try to knock out a few tonight...
Sam's is great for what it is...a bit of a hole-in-the-wall with good, inexpensive food and beer.
At first I was a little put off by the fact it seemed I was the only person in there that wasn't an employee or regular, but I was well taken care of at the bar.
I got the prime rib sandwich since it seemed to be their specialty, I wasn't disappointed.
Most importantly, at least on the night I was there, my Guiness was poured properly!
When I go to a bar, I expect a few basic things. First, I expect that the bar will have alcohol. Second, I expect that the bar will have reasonable service. Most importantly, though, I expect that while I am sitting at the bar, I will not see roaches crawl up onto the bar to try to share my beer.
While Sam's Uptown Cafe has at least a minimum level of success on the first point, and the second point brooks no complaints...
...oh, who are we kidding? A roach crawled onto the bar. That's beyond the pale of gross.
Now, heck... I understand that any place that serves food is going to have -some- bugs, but when we're talking about bugs crawling around in plain sight, one HAS to wonder what is going on the the dark pantries and cupboards.
Look, maybe their food is good. Maybe. Their beer selection was about what I'd expect from a sports bar. But... but...
Roaches man, You know I hate 'em. Sorry, Sam's. That's just NASTY.
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