Chow mein is cheap packaged noodles. Vegetables are un-seasoned and bland. Do not recommend. Will not order again.

Small quantities of seafood in the dishes despite extra cost ($20.95 plus tax for small amount of pan-fried squid). The beef and broccoli was quite bland. Maybe you can request spice? They didn't offer a choice when I ordered. Otherwise it was decent. The squid was tasty. I might order there again. A lot of Chinese food in Victoria is unfortunately kinda "North American. " read more

Amazing food! Traditional Hong Kong flavor! Love their HK menu! Definitely recommended!

This restaurant has been around for as long as I can remember. They used to be in a large restaurant and now it seems like they're built for take out. When I goto pick up my orders I notice that the food in the buffet doesn't look like the food I order. The chicken chow mein is delicious, I used to share an order with my son when he was younger. It was enough for supper for 2. The food is still great. TBH I am shocked to see bad reviews. I'm thinking that its because the take out food is better quality than the already prepared food. read more

I love this place! Very nice, clean restaurant. I am a regular. The ginger beef is amazing, the lemon chicken is the best I've ever had! And the rice is just perfect. They also have very good bottles of yellow iced tea you can't find anywhere else. I love Sampan! read more

Good enough take-out, we'd come back . . . . Dropped by tonight for the 3 item take-out times two. Service helpful and friendly. Ginger beef crispy and very ginger-y. Black bean chicken, tasty, not alot of black beans and sauce, but flavourful, would have liked more. Note chicken dark meat only, thigh meat. Broccoli still fresh at the hot table and nicely done. My partner gave two thumbs up for his cod in curry sauce and squid and BBQ pork. We choose fried rice instead of the chow mein based on friend recommendation, and it was a good choice. Cost about $10 for 3-item take out, plus rice. No leftovers for us, we ate it all. Generous portions, but not enough for leftovers. You know, it's not gourmet or as good as homemade, but is good plan b, enough that we'd come back. read more

I this right around the corner from Sampan and I have to say I'm here at least 2 times a week. Hands down the best hearty & fresh Chinese food in town!! Not to mention how lovely the 2 lady's who work there are! Great place. read more

For Chinese food like this, just eat at the mall. I quite like Chinese food and I do like the food at the main Sampan restaurant. This express version doesn't compare in the least. For a restaurant that just opened, I found that they did not go out of their way to make the food extra good which is what I would expect. I found the chow mein overcooked, the food was bland, and I left full, but unsatisfied. One contributing factor could be that I ate there at 3pm, not the height of keeping it fresh, but even giving that, I don't think I would go back. I'd rather pay a dollar or two more and get the good stuff from the main Sampan restaurant. Too bad though, I drive by there quite a bit and would have liked a good Chinese food quick stop. read more

I have never put soy sauce on chow mein until now. The food was very bland. Meat was dry and overcooked. The service was terrible. The older short woman is very rude. We certainly won't be back. read more

The food at this so called "restaurant" is beyond horrible, it is quite simply the saddest excuse for chinese food I have ever experienced in my life. As the above reviewers have stated the chow mein is absolute garbage and belongs in a dumpster. It is nothing more than overcooked under seasoned noodles coagulated together with MSG. The ginger fried beef was overcooked and had no flavor of beef or anything remotely similar, its hard to decide what was worse the supposed "beef" or the disgusting vile sauce it was smothered in. Next up we have the sweet and sour pork, a basic staple of any chinese food establishment and next to impossible to screw up. But once again Sampan doesn't disappoint and has managed to somehow produce overcooked, dried out nuggets of tasteless crap. AVOID this establishment at all costs, it makes mall chinese food actually seem appealing. Its hard to believe or even understand how with that much MSG in the food it still manages to taste that bad. read more

This place is so underrated, they're very kind, have yummy food and great vegetarian options! I'm sad to see their rating isn't very high on yelp so I am writing my first ever review in order to try to change that. Check this place out!!! read more

The food is always reliably tasty. We've been ordering from them for over five years, and they never disappoint. I am a big fan of their honey-garlic chicken wings, dry garlic ribs, tasty spring-rolls, Hong Kong style chow mein with shredded chicken and bean sprouts, deep-fried wonton, and the very filling wor wanton soup, full of meats, veggies, and lots of wonton. They also make a variety of congees, my favourite is the ground pork. These people are friendly, helpful, and I think they make some of the best Chinese food in the city. We've had Chinese food all over the world -- Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Spain, and even Cuba. Their food is delicious. read more

Sampan Seafood Restaurant has just expanded and created a new fast-counter offshoot just down the road from where the original restaurant currently sits. The primary serving style of Sampan Express is a large heating tray display similar to what you'd find at a Manchu Wok with pricing by the number of items you want. There are also menus for made to order dishes, bubble tea and other flavoured drinks, and cured meats such as duck and pork-belly which are kept in a hanging display much in the same style you'd find in Chinatown. The seating is basic, just a repaint of the fixed seating from the Tim Hortons which occupied the space previously. I've been looking forward to the opening of this place for some time. I quite like their parent restaurant and the ability to get their food without any fuss appeals to me. I went in and ordered a 3 item tray. For the starch (not counted in the 3 items), there was an option of chow mein, shanghai noodles or fried rice (of which I chose the first). I picked sweet and sour pork, curried beef and potatoes, and stir-fried vegetables. The food was pretty good. I was a little disappointed with the pork as it didn't have the crispiness I'd come to expect from the parent restaurant, though that's pretty much impossible in the heating trays so I'm willing to let it slide. On the plus side, the S&S sauce is still pretty good. The vegetables were nicely done and tasted quite good. I also quite liked the beef. It was a touch salty compared to what I'm used to in Thai and Indian curry, but I'm not familiar with Chinese curry so I can't really make a judgment if that was correct of not and the dish was still very tasty (my favourite of the three). The chow mein was also quite good. I didn't find it greasy and it had a nice flavour of its own. The service is pretty good as well. The counter-service was pretty quick (discounting the person in front of me choosing four different orders at a pace that'd give a tortoise a fit) and the person who helped me was very friendly. They were also prompt and efficient at getting more food from the kitchen as the trays ran low. A big plus for Express is the value. The three-item plate came to just a little over $10 when tax was included. For the amount of food you get, it is great price. My 3 item tray held what was easily two servings worth of food, leaving me with left-overs. The smaller, less expensive, two item tray has more than enough food for one meal, for just about anybody. All in all I'm quite pleased with Sampan Express. It's not quite up to the standard of quality of its sire, but it's still pretty darn good and the value and convenience more than make up for the rest. read more

This used to be my absolute favorite and only Chinese restaurant to go to. I have been coming here since they opened the McKenzie location. Over the last year they have started cheaping out on how much food they give you and then tonight - the absolute worst experience I ever had. My boyfriend and I decided we were too tired to cook and I was so excited to use the stamp card for a free 2-item combo I filled last time we were at the restaurant. When it came time for us to pay they accused me of forging the stamp card!! The reason they gave was total crap and I have been a regular customer of this restaurant for years. I wont be coming back anytime soon. Sad, another great place to get a quick meal turned into a cheapo, stingy, shithole :( read more

Food is ok - mediocre but ok. However their customer service is terrible! We placed our order 2 hours in advance and asked for it to be ready inside a 30 minute window. When we arrived - at the end of the window time requested, they had not started cooking it yet. They made it quickly for us but when we got home we found it was missing two items. When i called them to let them know what happened they denied the error saying they double check every order and i was wrong! No refund or compensation offered. They just assured me I was mistaken. Do they think i cant see what's in front of me or that we were trying to scam them out of 2 $12 dishes? Our total order was over $100. Terrible. No resolution except for venting in this review and never going back there again - ever. We'll stick to our China Town Favourites - they are delicious. read more

Absolutely horrible. After 10 years of ordering from them they have lost several customers. Ordered delivery approximately $100 and was told 10 minutes. After 1 hour the manager calls to ask why it hasn't been picked up. It was a delivery order and clearly there was some confusion but rather than be a professional, the manager told my mom she was never to order from them again. I called back and was told my mom was a liar even though I and several others hear her specify delivery and she would never allow us to order there again...not that we would given the complete inability for this woman to do her job. Regardless of who's error this was that's not how you deal with it if you any ability to run a restaurant... read more

I went here today. I have to say the food was just ok. It wasn't anything spectacular and honestly tasted about the same as mall food with a little less grease. I had chow mein that I couldn't finish because it was so soft and over cooked. I had mandarin pork that had big chunks of bone that I was not expecting. I'm just glad I didn't bite down too hard. Lemon grass chicken was good. Also I have only had bubble tea from one place and this bubble tea was very liquidy and my mango bubble tea tasted like very cheap floral air freshener and not at all like mango. I ended up paying $14 for 2 item combo, bubble tea, and spring roll. What I did not like was one of the women working behind the counter. There was two Asian looking women working. One with long hair the other short hair. Well that short haired lady was a total cow to the other worker. Either she was having a bad day or just clearly hated her coworker but it truly showed and I was not impressed. I've worked in the service industry my entire life and this is not something you show in front of customers. She actually snorted when the other girl asked her for help making our bubble tea. We walked in together but we were paying separately. The long haired girl took my friends order and the short haired lady gathered my food but left my bubble tea and payment to the other girl which ended up making us wait quite a bit longer for our drinks. While we were eating I could hear the short haired lady's tone of voice and it was snide and very unkind. I will not come here again because of how uncomfortable this made me. I felt sorry for the other girl having to work with that woman. Next time I'll go to Hope Key for my bubble tea and chinese food! read more

The noodles and rice are pretty lame. The meat is good but the cheap out on how much they give you every single time

Worst chow mein ever. EVER! It was like eating bland flavourless plain noodles. Garbage. Was not very impressed with the rest of my food either. Lots of room for improvement read more

Sampan Restaurant? YES! Sampan Express? NO WAY! It was greasy, cold, old, and wilty. There are NO vegetable options. NONE.

Terrible, main restaurant has closed and the food is nothing like it used to be. My boyfriend and I both ate half of our buffet style take out and threw the rest out. The beef in the beef and broccoli was pink and the ginger beef doesn't resemble beef at all - I'm hoping we haven't been poisoned. We are struggling to keep it down.... read more

The food is okay, LOVE the bubble tea, but the service is awful. The manager is very rude both to customers and employees. I've heard her call a girl slow and stupid. The food takes a very long time to prepare, and is quite expensive for the lack of quality. If it wasn't for my addiction to bubble tea, I'd never go back. read more

Nothing too sensational, but it had good food- reminded me of my childhood: It's that comfort style Chinese food that really sells it. Wish they had Almond Chicken on the go, and it's sad that they don't have those chicken balls on hand, but other than that, I would go again. The real highlight is the mandarin chicken. Other than that, there is alot of room for improvement. Disappointing, to say the least. :( read more