Sam’s Seafood

I’ve been to Sam’s express in Dartmouth crossing before and it was decent so while deciding on a place to eat one evening my family decided on Sam’s to get some seafood… Biggest mistake we’ve made in 2014.
First off it was a beautiful day in July around 5pm but they didn’t have their outside area setup. We asked to sit outside and the waitress seemed extremely annoyed by the request and even tried talking us out of it saying it gets very windy out there, I slowly turned my head and looked outside and said I think we’ll be OK, as it was one of the most beautiful days of the year thus far. She turned around with a huff to get breath and grabbed few menus, «come on then» I was shocked to say the least. As we walked through the restaurant I noticed very very few patrons and the booths and seating area looked like it was put together on a serious budget, like a tree house you make for your kids when you know they will be done playing with it in 1 day, yikes.
We got outside and had to drag a few chairs from another area but we understood seeing how it was a «special request» to sit outside. Let’s start with drinks. I got water, as did my wife. My children got orange pop as a treat and my brother got orange pop as well. When the drinks arrived 10 min later within seconds my brother says what the hell… He started laughing and said «this isn’t orange pop». I laughed thinking he was kidding around and he motioned for me to try it… Remember my children also had this drink. I took a swig and gagged. It was soda water??? When the waitress made her way back out to get our food orders we told her and she was like ohhh what about the kids drinks. I wouldn’t let them try it. Fool me once, come on lady. She just stood there and I asked if we could please have real soda and the club soda was replaced with another soda.
On to the main course. My brother and I got the fish and fries. My wife got the club and my mother got the pan fried haddock. The kids just got chicken nuggets. Well my fish was OK. Alitle on the gressy side and the fries were soggy. I had to ask for vinegar and in my opinion any place whose main claim to fame is fish should have vinegar at every table but she brought me 2 little packets of vinigar like you’d see at a food truck. My mother is a BIG fan of pan fried haddock, not this time. She said it was mushy and tasted old and fishy, the vegetables they give you are laughable. Boiled potatoes and turnip with no seasoning and cold (WOW). My wife was one quarter into get club when she found a Large piece of the butt end of the lettuce. I mean the rock hard, white root piece… Nasty.
The waitress came back after 20 min and she had to know something was up as the plates were still converted in food including my kids as they hated their meals too. We showed her the lettuce root and she said I don’t know what those guys are doing tonight. No apology. We asked to have the meal removed from the bill and advised we were ready to leave. I personally felt it was the staffs way of getting back at us for making a special request to eat outside which is just ludicrous. I’ll never be going back to that dump.

Baker drive sams has had «broken «change tables for over a YEAR now. Their excuse is that they fell off the wall and haven’t been fixed yet. A year? Really? My family and I came in for lunch and my son needed to be changed. After we were told there were no change tables, she continued to seat us. We were seated in the very back booth. Once we walked there, I asked if there was a change table in the mens room to use. Nope. She said they get people to come down to this back booth to change people. Wait. What? You are seating me in the same booth that you get people to change their babies dirty diapers? I was so disgusted. I didn’t want to make a scene because I was with a lot of family. I was FUMING inside though. Not only is it disgusting that we were seated in the same spot that dirty bums are changed… the table top was completely dirty and crusty/​sticky. I will DEFINITELY not be back. If the front area is this filthy… I don’t want to even think about how dirty the back cooking/​prep area is!!!
Wish I could add the pictures I have of the FILTH!

The girlfriend and I hit up Sam’s Seafood for lunch today. We were feeling somewhat dubious when we got inside — the layout of the place is bizarre, the booths look like they were made of plywood and then gnawed on by gophers for a few weeks (seriously, we were on guard for splinters, it was gnarly), the ceiling is a mess of exposed rafters, not much staff seemed to be working, etc etc etc.
Here’s the thing though — the food and the service were both fantastic.
I had the scallops and chips. The scallops were hot, flavourful, and tasted fresh, and the fries were hand-​cut and also quite tasty, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t really care for fries usually. The girlfriend got fish and chips, and the fish pieces were enormous and also quite fresh-​tasting. The only downside to the food was my diet coke, which tasted overly watered down.
The staff deserves a special mention here too. Our server was a lovely lady named Lisa, who somehow managed to seemingly work the entire dining room while keeping a sunny and playful demeanor AND delivering the food, drinks, and eventually the bill quite quickly.
First glances were absolutely a turn-​off, but I’m glad we stayed and ate. We’ll be back.