Sam’s Place

I just had a very good breakfast from the Breakfast Specual menu. Very pleasant and clean. Thank you, Milia, for a good start to our day.

I am only giving this place two stars because even though the food was overpriced, it was quite tasty. My problem was with the service. I ordered a coffee, put a few creamers in it, and after a couple sips decided I was not going to be able to drink it because it was very bitter. I don’t think I have ever returned a coffee at a diner, but this was undrinkable. I let the waitress know I didn’t care for the coffee, and she took it away. When the bill arrived, I noticed I was still being charged $ 2.65 for the coffee. I kindly asked the waitress to remove the charge, and she refused stating that I had to pay because I still ordered it. I told her I was not going to pay for something I didn’t drink, and she argued more saying no one else had complained and refused again to take it off my bill. I told her that I was not going to pay for the coffee, and still she argued with me. Once she realized I was not going to take no for an answer, she begrudgingly removed the charge. When she returned with the revised bill, she was visibly annoyed, and had a really bad attitude. No thank you at all for the $ 40 I had just paid for the rest of my meal. I left a big fat zero on the tip line, and left her a note saying that it’s never appropriate to argue with the customer, and that her customer service skills were horrible. This is only the 2^nd time in my life I have refused to give a tip, and it wasn’t an easy thing to do. Having worked in customer service for many years myself, I would NEVER argue with a customer, especially over a $ 2.65 cup of coffee that was hardly consumed. My family and I will not be returning to Sam’s Place ever again. I expect to be treated with respect when dining out, and that was not the case in this situation.

Went on the recommendation of a local patron on my first day in Novato, and I was happily surprised! We were a party of 6, and we ordered different entrees; all the food came fresh, with good flavor, high quality ingredients, and friendly service. Definitely recommend Sam’s for good American cooking…

Ate lunch with the kids (9 and 10). Food was good. I had the Breakfast Quesadilla and it was ginormous and tasty. Kids had a hot dog and pancakes. Both were good. Service was good too. We will go back again.

Based on one meal, I give it 5 stars for one of the best Turkey Club Sandwiches I’ve eaten. The roasted turkey was abundant-​thick, flavorful slices. The bread was actually toasted, unlike many local places that think toast is only a restaurant. The bacon was thick & crisp as I like it. There are daily specials and the plates looked full. Very casual here. I’ll be back.

From the outside, the place doesn’t really appeal to me, but we decided to give it a try. Walking into the restaurant, it was decorated simply and seemed like a nice place to eat. We decided to have breakfast at 2 pm. The only thing we could not order was a waffle since the equipment had been cleaned.
I ordered the corned beef hash and eggs (my favorite breakfast food) and it was delicious. Most corned beef hash meals contain both onions and bell peppers (my least favorite foods), but I was able to order the corned beef with just potatoes.
The food was cooked perfectly and the service was pretty good. Also, the prices are reasonable, so I will definitely come back and dine in the patio area with the dogs !

Since my last posting, I have tried several more specials. It seems strange but these all have made by chef Armando. I have recently had the «Chicken Parmesan» (which really is Chicken Parmagiana proper name) which rates 5 stars as it is crispy served with a delightful tomato sauce and is served for dinner on Tuesdays. However, I just wish they would serve it with mashed potatoes which will help balance the wonderful sauce for this dish. I also had the pleasure of having the filet mignon with wine reduction sauce is delish. On occasion for lunch they have a meatball sandwich on ciabatta bread which is excellent also because Chef Armando makes the meatballs and red sauce. The breakfasts are well prepared by the new cook who has been at Sam’s for about 3 months. The soups are still good. The Clam Chowder is very good but it is on the menu for 3 – 4 days a week which is tiring. They need to vary the soup variety more. The Novato Burger made with sautéed mushrooms, cheese, and chipole aioli is excellent and is made with daily house ground chuck like all of their burgers.

Food: ³⁄₅
Ordered «Huevos Rancheros». It was alright, not bad but nothing exceptional. Drinks were a little overpriced.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Despite being busy, the waitress came up to us right after we took a seat. Checked on us often. However, the food took a long time which is no fun when starving.
Location: ⁵⁄₅
In a medium size shopping center with lots of parking. Not difficult to find.
Atmosphere: ³⁄₅
A large place that is not well lit and has weird décor. Has a bar with televisions. Outdoor seating is not the best.

We’ve known Sam for a long time and always appreciated his friendship and business acumen. Recently he has hired Armando, the former chef at Grazies’s (now under new ownership) and he’s doing some amazing things in the kitchen. I recommended that Sam add the Eggplant Parmesan (see recent photo) which was a favorite at Grazie’s. He called me and said it’s now on the special menu so we went down tonight and it was better than ever! Sam has also added some other new and flavorful dishes which makes this a DO NOT MISS dining stop! Friendly service, good prices and great food!

I sort of have a love hate relationship with this place but lets get to this:
The restaurant itself:
Ran down with very low budget furnishing that in is in DIRE need of updating. Almost reminds me of an insane asylum, but don’t ask how I would know about that.
The food:
Really not great. Typical all-​American profile, but lacking in quality. He doesn’t make much of anything «fresh» here, and more often than not, it’s uncooked when served. My only recommendation for ordering for breakfast, where he seems to get most of his business, is the waffle/​pancakes. Everything else is not that great. Had a really bad experience with the omelets here, they weren’t even cooked properly and the hash browns were rather frozen. The customer service aspect of this place is failing, as he doesn’t take complaints well and gets offended on a personal level. You’ve been warned.
The employee roster:
I won’t comment on the chefs here because I don’t know about them but for the most part, the servers are actually quite nice and enjoyable. They are very accommodating. «Service with a smile» I guess. Upbeat and perky kind of vibe. It’s really not the waitresses here that are main problem with the overall restaurant.
The vibe:
It’s very casual here, and the majority of the people who come are seniors. They have a conference room here, where businesses will meet and stay for a meal. I feel like if they had a music thing here, or a karaōke night, (which they actually did at one point, but discontinued it because it was failing) it would bring in more people here. Sam’s wife is not very approachable here, and his kids are typical Marin-​ite snobs.
Overall:
I would not recommend this place. It’s just withering away at this point, I don’t understand why he won’t invest more work into it. Sam himself explained to me that he owns another restaurant in Terra Linda, and it’s more of his main focus. The Chinese place next door makes him look horrible because they get SLAMMED. I don’t really have much to say about Sam’s Place, other than cheap pricing, you can find MUCH better here in Novato.

I took my Granddaughter for dinner last week, and debated on updating my review, but, I had to.
I ordered a sandwich, she ordered pasta with parmesan cheese. The sandwich was bland, and the cheese on the pasta had mold on it. The waitress took the pasta to the cook, who tried to say it was «spices,» I refused to accept that, I could see the mold, the fuzz, so, I told her that wasn’t true. The waitress came over to our table to tell me she had the cook check the bag he got the cheese from, and it was all moldy.
This is the last review I’ll write for Sam’s Place, as we’ll never go back.

My daughter and I drive by this place at least 5 times a week, at LEAST. I can’t believe we’ve not stopped in until now. She suggested it, and I said… sure why not. Pretty darn good!
We had sandwiches for lunch, she the French Dip and I, the Ruben. I would have posted a before pic but… it looked so good, I forgot and started eating. (Sorry!)
Looked like they served a decent breakfast and dinner selection too. We’ll definitely stop in again now that we know how tasty it was, and the price was fair as well.

My boyfriend and I have been coming here for months and we love it! We hope Sam’s Place continues to be our «go to» place because the food is always so good, the servers are likable, and the service is incredibly quick!
I also talked to one of the servers last week and heard they’re updating their menu and adding Greek style foods and well as a large Thanksgiving style turkey plate with stuffing and gravy

Sam’s is the kind of place that doesn’t exist any more — a regular old coffee shop. No pseudo-​Vegas décor, no 50’s throwback, just yummy food. I’ve been here a bunch of times and enjoyed everything I’ve had. A good place for a comfort breakfast, which is exactly my plan today.

Went here for breakfast. I got pancakes w/​bacon and eggs. I love bacon, but this arguably the worst bacon I’ve ever had. Waaaay overcooked. The eggs were edible at best. The pancakes had a very strange flavor to them. My friend got a Caesar salad. She took maybe 2 bites and could not eat the rest. The coffee was terrible. The service was okay and they were nice, but the food here is absolutely awful. Will not be returning any time soon.

Very good breakfast and lunch
The have a big burger on a roll that was very tasty
Friendly place, underrated, and never have to wait like other overrated places in town.

It’s an «eh» place. Good for breakfast but I didn’t like lunch and wouldn’t attempt dinner. Zero ambiance so don’t bring a date! Great waffles and pancakes and awesome omelets! Lunch was the rubber lunch meat variety, so that’s always a yuk for me. Stick to breakfast people!

I am updating this to 5 stars because I heard they are fixing the place up a bit (they took down that enormous chandelier for one) and adding more items to the menu ! Now there is nice patio seating on the side and I tried their new salad special and chicken pesto sandwich. It was delicious ! As always love this place… When you eat here, you really feel like family
Previous Review:
I’m a big fan of Sam’s Place. This may partly be because I think it make an excellent film location for a sleepy-​town shootout. Which. kinda adds appeal to what is otherwise, really ugly diner décor. Decorations aside. the service is awesome. Sam & Shelly are hilarious. Sam’s wife is a gem. The antics from Sam’s children are very entertaining when I sit at the bar.
And the fact that I know all this should probably indicate this isn’t your normal restaurant. These are real people, and they look at you like you are a real person. Rather than the glazed over interaction you get from most diners… like watching slaves force smiles when all they want to do is be free of you and the place they are in. (And I’ve worked enough restaurant gigs to know how that feels)
The food is pretty good. I know it’s diner food, but I’m an organic girl, so I am disappointed with the lack of healthy options. But I come here when I’m having «one of those days», I need some bacon, french toast, and coffee to cheer me up. And laughs from the staff. :)

I come to Sam’s once in a while for a cheap & quick breakfast. $ 5.25 for 3 items, $ 1 per extra item. Great deal!
The service is quick, food is decent, the restaurant itself isn’t too bad. Overall I would rate this place 3 stars because its just good… BUT I’m giving a 1 rating because it gave me diarrhea. Not cool. And yes this place is the culprit because its the ONLY thing I ate before having the bubble guts.

No, this isn’t related to Sam’s in Tiburon. That would be like mistaking Sam Waterson for Sammy Davis Jr. Actually this place is neither like a TD Ameritrade commercial nor a Vegas act with bling. But coincidentally, it was obviously a First Interstate Bank branch since they kept their pull-​handles on the front doors. I was ready to open a Roth IRA account, but lo and behold, we were in a hurry to get to Tomales Bay.
Peckish after a long drive from San Francisco but with barbecued oysters in our immediate future, Jamie W. and were still in need of some breakfast after getting our potluck supplies at the Grocery Outlet (…I know, I’m a big spender). I saw Sam’s in the corner of my eye. It’s a wide-​open place and was obviously never designed to be a diner (see photo), but here it is. The breakfast menu is standard regulation. Jamie went for the $ 7.95 Country Breakfast since he loves him some biscuits and gravy along with some hash browns and scrambled eggs (see photo).
I ordered the eponymously named Sam’s Rumble. At $ 8.75, it was their take on a «Joe’s Special» with a lot of ground beef, a bit of spinach, some canned mushrooms, chopped onions, and mere traces of scrambled eggs. Yeah, the portions of the ingredients seemed way off (see photo). It came with hash browns and toast. The veteran, seen-​it-​all waitress was maximally taxed as the place started to fill up. She handled it like a pro — even though I heard her mutter, probably not for the first time — «Why does everybody have to come in at the same time?» Maybe we all have oysters to shuck, hon.
FOOD — 3 stars… standard diner fare, nothing bad but nothing special either
AMBIANCE — 2.5 stars… where can I open a checking account?
SERVICE — 3 stars… she did it the hard way
TOTAL — 3 stars… a pit-​stop on the way out of Novato, no more, no less