Photo by Amanda Slater.
Another guest review today, this time from contributor Fabio.
Date of Visit: 7 December 2011
Although I like seafood, I have never really sought to visit specialty seafood restaurants. So when visiting friends from Hong Kong asked for some recommendations, I had to ask friends and work colleagues for some suggestions. It’s a bit strange that Adelaide, which has such great range of quality seafood, does not appear to have a specialty seafood restaurant of great repute like Doyles in Sydney. Sammy’s on the Marina was suggested by a work colleague and ended up being chosen by my friends.
We arranged to visit after work on a hot Wednesday afternoon. Getting to Sammy’s can be a bit tricky and I suggest ignoring the Maps app on the iPhone, which directed us to somewhere south of Colley Reserve! Sammy’s is tucked in around the corner of the most northerly part of the marina complex and overlooks the marina’s breakwater – don’t get confused like we did and go into the neighbouring restaurant!
Being a warm day, we chose to sit inside and we sat towards the front of the restaurant with pleasant views overlooking the marina and sea.
For entree I decided we should have something which wasn’t seafood and we had to share the Three House Dips. There were 3 dips: beetroot, avocado and cream cheese.
After some indecision as to what to order for mains, we decided to go with the waitress’s recommendation of 2 platters: Deluxe and Sammys. All platters are served with chips and a Greek salad. For 5 hungry people this turned out to be a mountain of food and we should have probably skipped the entree or invited another person! Both platters were superb, but the Deluxe had the highlights for me – the lemon herb scallops and garlic cream scampi.
For drinks, we limited ourselves to just a single bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Shaw & Smith, which again was the waitress’s recommendation and proved to be a sound choice.
Despite being a bit pricey ($240 for the Deluxe platter and $150 for the Sammys platter), my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Sammy’s proved to be a good choice and whenever someone visiting Adelaide asks me again to recommend a quality seafood restaurant, I’ll readily suggest Sammy’s on the Marina.
Why are dips always so predictable and boring? Come on chefs, think of something new and interesting!
That’s so true!
Will not be back! ever! We visited from interstate and heard sammys was great. Were seated and had to step over an umbrella stand to be seated. Our first drinks arrived in a good timely manner when the waitress went to serve my son his drink she did not see the umbrella stand and fell awkwardly hitting her head on a steel beam divider between to glass panels & landed on the ground all twisted & up went the drink. Our first instincts was to help the poor girl up and make sure she was ok, she was in a bit of shock and hurt. Another waitress took her out back, we told the waitresses she had come down very badly and my be hurt and to check and keep an eye on her. My son ended up wearing a full glass of beer over his head & down his shirt he was drenched, I copped the tail end of it and was partially wet. We used our serviettes to mop our selves up. One waitress came to see if we were ok & we told her to go check on the girl. We were not offered clean serviettes & we had to ask for another drink to replace to spilled one on us. Our dinner arrived and was good however went to pay we were charged full price even for the beer that was spilt on us, I said we should be somehow compensated as we sat wet to eat our meal and did not even get offed a bottle of wine or desert complements for the mishap. I asked if he was the Maitrde which he said he was, I asked him that in his position why did he not assist us to check on our care as customers, he denied he did not know what I was talking about, I said I had seen him go to the the waitress as if he was consoling her, he denied he did not go to her. Long story he only gave me $21 off the bill 3 beers. Never again!! I will now send a email addressing this incident to the manager who clearly has the unprofessional staff as front of house whom has no customer service skills what so ever!
I am really pleased you’ll be emailing the restaurant because I think sometimes it is too easy to have a bad experience and not let the venue know.
Your experience sounds particularly shocking. I have heard other people comment that the table layout can be less than optimal. Perhaps Sammy’s needs to consider fewer tables!