Elevated Filipino fusion cuisine at Sampa, located in the Arts District. Must try: Kare Kare Tamales and Pritong Rockfish. Dishes are well curated and beautifully made. What we ordered: Isaw Papaya Salad Bluefin Kinilaw Kare Kare Tamales Crab Fat Fried Rice Crispy Duck Pancit Canton Pritong Rockfish

Decided to try this restaurant for my friends birthday. The service was great, food was good. They are currently only serving mocktails but we tried them and they were so tasty. Can't wait to try it as an actual cocktail. Some of my favorite dishes were the crab fried rice and the scallops.

Birthday dinner with my chosen family. This has been on my to go to list for quite some time now and knew the right time would come. That right time was my birthday dinner this year. My friend asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year and my response was to be left alone. With that being said, since my birthday fell on a Saturday she decided to have my birthday dinner the night before. I gave her a top 5 to choose from. She chose this place because she also hadn't been. Our party of 5 rolling in one car found parking literally across the street. Talk about a win! One a Friday night no less. Only four of us eat meat so one specific person only had a salad the whole night. The two white people turned to the two Filipinos and said take the wheel. My friend sure did take the damn wheel cos we got all the foods. I felt like LL Cool J licking my lips all damn night. Yooooooooo that food slapped. Let me whet your appetite: That kinilaw presentation was so pretty. I almost didn't wanna to eat it. It was delicious. The tamales made me question which is better - the Mexican version or this. Entirely different kinds, but wow. I could eat four orders of those and not share a damn bite. I loved how the lemongrass taste lingered in the scallop dish. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. As soon as the ravioli arrived, homegirl said "ooooh that's a look." My response was that it would probably be the best tasting cos of how weird it looked. Guess what, I was right. It was the universally loved dish. It was also the only plate that got cleared the quickest. I loved the consistency of the ube under the scallops. It turned out to be comparable to mashed potatoes The stars of the night for me were the crab fat fried rice and the whole ass fried fish. I don't think I've had rock fish before. The accoutrement it came with just added even more flavor to all the goodness. It reminded me of kamayans in the motherland. We kilt that fish. Sure did have the eyeballs and everything in between. Our friends watched us go to town on the whole thing. They don't even know what they're missing. More for us! That fried rice is exactly how I want every fried rice that I have in the future to taste. My gawd. Thank goodness they packed up the leftovers for me. I got home and hit a bowl and went to town on that sucka. We were all so full by the end. I damn near unbuttoned my pants yo. When Matt came back out to ask which dessert we wanted, I was in utter disbelief when my friend responded to him with "ALL OF EM." Bish what. So we got all of them. The chef even came out with a cookie & ice-cream situation topped with a candle. Que cute right I had to have a coffee because wow. All that sugar hit. The pavlova was my fave. I'm not going to take a star away because they do deserve all the kudos but I will mention that they're charging way too high for their drinks. They currently only have NA cocktails. The cost of their drink is the same for what I would spend elsewhere l, but with alcohol. are charging the same amount for non-alcoholic drinks that you would get elsewhere with alcohol. Don't get me wrong, the cocktails were delicious. I was only able to try Tita's favorite which was perfectly refreshing, but it woulda slapped if it had rum. Ya know? The service was fantastic. Matt took great care of us. He picked up everything I put down. Had the best responses to all my comments. He had an answer to all the random questions my friend had about every dish like how many pieces of scallops came with the order and suchas. The woman with tattoos helping him was also the best. I believe het name was Alex. Her vibe was just right. Salamat

Ambiance - fine dining setting, very clean and organized. The owner took us on a tour and the kitchen was immaculately clean. Classy. Service - excellent. The servers were friendly and constantly filled our water glasses. Amazing service. Food - we ordered the ube horchata (ube flavor is prominent), coconut sour (delicious), melon pandan mocktail, kare-kare tamales ( we loved it so much, we immediately ordered another after the first bite on the first order), duck pancit (duck was perfectly cooked, pancit had a tangy citrus taste), crab fried rice (I think I might have gotten almost all of the crab because my husband told me he hardly got any), fried rock fish (love the crispiness and the tangy salsa and dip that accompanied it), a bunch of desserts - of which the ube white chocolate soufflé and lavender ice cream with crumbled polvoron were our favorites.

Only street parking, so be sure to come early or be prepared to park a bit father and walk over. I thought every dish ordered was delicious. Giving Sampa 4 stars since the food was more on the pricy side and the fusion flavors weren't as pronounced. There could've been more sauce on the kare kare tamales. Ambiance was perfect for a fancy dinner with friends or a date. Our servers were attentive and informative. However, we did feel a bit rushed after paying since we were taking our time catching up and multiple times we were asked if everything was ok.

On a mission to try every restaurant in the Arts District. Samoa popped up with an open res - and a few of decided to check it out. Across the street from Resident and right next door to Urth Cafe, easily found street parking. Absolutely loved the black and gold decor and the bar was stunning, but a bit bare. We were told when we sat down, they are still waiting to get their liquor license so only had mocktails at the moment, (which is why I only gave it 4 stars). The mocktails were really delicious though. I love kalamansi and had the coconut and calamansi mocktail. Since we had a party of 4 we were able to try a significant portion of their menu. Starters - Salted egg caprese salad - didn't really taste the salted egg. It was fine - Kare Kare tamales - better than I had anticipated as tamales just aren't my thing, but pretty good - Escargot - this was delicious with the coconut butter - Hamachi crudo - it was your standard crudo. I liked the rice cracker Mains - they were much better than the starters - Crab Fat Fried Rice - a MUST order, added a squeeze of calamansi which gave it a nice bite - Crispy Duck Pancit - also yummy, duck cooked well - Ribeye Salpicao - this was a showstopper, you could smell the delicious aroma throughout the dining area with the rosemary Dessert - ALL AMAZING - Calamansi Key Lime Pie - YUMMY - Ube white chocolate soufflé - also wow, really delish - Scoop of Kopiko ice cream - so creamy. Made me want to go home and figure out how to recreate at home All in all, great service, good ambience, mocktails were good - so is a good sign when they obtain their license that hopefully their cocktails will be just as good. This place went from a pop up to a stand alone - hope this place does well! Will definitively be back.

The decor was very classic and minimalist. Street parking is available but could be difficult. There's a lot across the restaurant, it's about $15 for a day parking. Our hostess was very friendly and gave us updates since they are running behind their reservation schedule. My fave dish is the Kare-Kare Tamales, it was very tasty and unique. Sadly, they ran out of Pasta Palabok, I really looking forward to it. We had Crab Fat Friend Rice and Crispy Duck Pancit, both were tasty but nothing special. The Hamachi Kilawin was very fresh. I ordered Melon Pandan Cooler and was really excited to it. I thought I ordered calamansi because it was just sour, I didn't even taste any melon or pandan in it. I love the ube cheesecke than the halo-halo cake. We wanted the Calamansi Key Lime pie but they ran out as well. We got a free Ube White Chocolate Souffle for free because the Crispy Duck Pancit took a long time to be served. Our server was great; however I noticed most of the servers were just overwhlmed and tired in general. I probably think they didn't expect much crowd for the Dine LA. Overall, this is a great introduction for anyone who's interested in learning about Filipino food but if you are looking for an authentic Filipino food, this is not going to be it. This place is more Filipino fusion cuisines.

DineLA Jan/Feb 2025 Last (published) night of DineLA. I say published as several restaurants have extended their promotion beyond last night. Anyway, I stopped in, without a reservation, hoping that I would even be able to be seated at the bar. I was. Good things happen when you arrive early. Or in my case, before it was open. Basically, Ran time. Found street parking about two football fields away. The parking lot across the street was empty. But I knew I was going to eat so I could use the post meal walk. And, street parking is free. If you don't know me - I like free. Like I mentioned before, I walked in, no reservation. But was greeted and seated at the bar. Totally excellent service. The duo behind the bar made me almost every drink on the menu. Mocktails btw. No liquor license. Didn't bother me because I enjoyed the drinks and how they didn't clash with the dishes I ordered. See pics and the list of dishes i ordered below: Off the regular menu: Tamarind Salad & Kuhol (Escargot) Off the DineLA menu: Hamachi Kilawin Pasta Palabok Crispy Duck Pancit Calamansi Key Lime Pie Drinks: Tuba Sour, Melon Pandan Cooler, Tita's Favorite and a Calamansi Mojito As for the food, I enjoyed every single dish. The explosion of flavors and how once flavor or ingredient wasn't overpowering in each or subsequent bites. This will be surprising to hear from me (dessert is never optional), but if I had to choose one dish I wouldn't order again - it would be the Key Lime Pie. If you don't like the citrusy tartness that usually is associated with Key Lime Pie, this will be for you. That tartness that almost makes you wince when you take a bite was missing and I not just expect, but enjoy. Texture was good but was just muted for me. Sadly, I didn't lick the plate clean. Service was excellent. There was a minor mix up which delayed my order, but it seemed to bother the staff more than me. I was busy enjoying the drinks and it wasn't so delayed that my stomach was gnawing on my backbone - it happens and once everything was on track, from viewpoint, everything was great. I left fat and happy and without a thought of a minor delay, which happens. I had been here before. Years ago when it was Simone. Then it was Kaviar. Now, Sampa. Guess I don't need to say it - but here goes - Yeah, I'll be back. Hope it's not something new. I really want to try other items off the menu that looked awesome when I saw it served at nearby tables.

Been wanting to try this place since I have been following them on ig before they relocated. Love the concept of filipino fine dinning and fusion with other cultures. This place is super unique! Located in the arts district next to urth cafe. Plenty of street parking and paid $10 parking. Busy for a weekday. Was able to take walk-in and seated right away with option of bar seating or regular seating. Tried dine LA $65 per person. Everything was expected to be bite sized for the 4 course meal for 2 ppl. We wanted to try a little bit of everything so we shared or at least we tried to share.ahah So since this is filipino owned...where is the CARBS? Only 1 (crab)fried rice? Most of the dishes had a lot of sauce and i wish we had bread to soak it up and eat with. Or i should have packed my own rice! Bahaha...so much for fine dining..SUGGESTION: make ur own version of pandesal/ dinner roll/ roti? 1st course: - Hamachi Kilawin with shrimp chips. Delicious. Great appetizer to cleanse the palate. Idk about shareable bc not much to share lol. Can be scarfed down in 3 bites! -Kare-Kare Tamales: the bomb! My favorite hands down! The sauce is perfection! I need to know the recipe! An elevated version of kare-kare. ***this contained peanuts for those with peanut allergies sucks for u! More for me! Lol. Jk but just fyi! 2nd course -Pasta Palabok: instead of finger licking good more like plate licking good! The sauce is fire! Love the chicharon sprinkled on top. SUGGESTION: should have the whole shrimp cut in half like how they have it in actual pancit. -filipino bucatini: it was sweet but not too sweet with the longanisa. SUGGESTION-- i think tamis anghang sauce would also work! 3rd course: -Crispy duck Pancit: the duck was not Crispy, but still savory. The noodles were on point it even had calamansi to add to the flavor. -Ribeye Salpicao: an additional $24 for an 8oz prime ribeye served on a hot skillet...we got medium rare. To be honest it was ok. SUGGESTION: I think a different take on sisig would have been a better fit. You have all these dishes with soo much flavor and idk it just fell flat for me because its any normal dish. 4th course: - Ube cheese cake: i love ube! aka purple yam and not taro! I love that polvoron was used! Sooo delicious. - ube halo halo tres leche: we got to try since they ran out of the calamansi key lime pie. They serve this during brunch. Its no halo halo but its jus as good! SUGGESTION: Would have loved some ice cream to go with it! When i think of halo-halo i look forward to the ice cream part thats why. Beverages: calamansi mojito mocktail...tasted like fresh squeezed calamansi. I wish there was less ice. Lol Overall: i would come back. For the kare-kare tamale, palabok, and the desserts as well as try all the other beverages!

A+ all around from the food to the ambiance, the service to the presentation, it altogether was a spectacular dining experience. I brought my friend here for a birthday dinner, not expecting much. We were blown away by the dishes we ordered - the hamachi, escargot, uni gnocchi, crispy red snapper, Wagyu. The standout was the uni gnocchi and second was the crispy red snapper. We ALMOST didn't order the uni gnocchi, but luckily our server talked us into it. It's such a creative concept and actually has a lot more gnocchi than you expect when you first look at it! Good but not overpowering flavor, sauce had a nice creamy consistency, and the gnocchi was perfectly al dente. Highly highly recommend this dish. Our server mentioned this was a seasonal dish that was so popular that it made the main menu. Lucky us! Crispy red snapper was cooked perfectly and the plating was beautiful. I personally wasn't the biggest fan of the beet sauce under the snapper, but it was wonderful to look at! The other sauces on the plate also paired very well with the red snapper. Some things to note - - you could get lucky and snag free parking in the spots right as you enter the street - they don't serve alcohol yet so it's all mocktails for now! Luckily there are many bars nearby if you want a drink - they switch out the dishes so a plate you see on yelp may not be on the menu by the time you dine - choose the dining room for seating! The bar and bar tables felt very small. We were very glad we didn't choose those during our reservation