He Said, They Said

Monthly Feature
Two opinions are better than one. Mike takes on the Houston Press and here's how it works:

• Mike takes a random restaurant already reviewed by one of the Houston Press writers.
• He only reads the headline to get the name of the place...nothing more...scout's honor.
• Mike writes his review of the restaurant.
• We'll post Mike's review, plus a link to the Houston Press review and see the similarities and/or differences.

As an added bonus this time around, we'll also include a link to a review written by Htownchowdown. BTW, great food blog.

Sam’s Deli Diner 11637 Katy Freeway

First Impressions
Sam’s sits in a nondescript retail center, nothing fancy. Ample parking is a plus.

The Menu
Sam’s is your typical diner fare. They offer an impressive 15 types of burgers as well as standards like chicken fingers, club sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, fries, rings, milkshakes, etc. Pretty run of the mill.

What I Ordered
Bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and a buttercrunch (butterfinger) milkshake. Burgers come standard with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion.

Okay, how did it taste?
First thing we did when we sat down was talk to some ladies sitting next to us. One of them mentioned she used to ride her bike to Sam’s when she was a kid. And she’s still coming back – guess she likes it.

The burger was pretty plain looking, but that’s not a bad thing. It resembled something you might make at home. There was little to no ooze coming from my burger, not very greasy at all. The patty was dense and heavy for a 1/3 lb. burger. The vegetables were crisp and fresh (I got mine with no lettuce; there’s no place for it on a burger, in my opinion). Overall, it tasted above average, but not anything that overwhelmed me.

The onion rings were above average as well. They had a good, beer battered taste. I wish they had been a bit more crisp, and I lost some of the onion when I bit into them. Good, but not as good as my standard bearer for rings (Christian’s Tailgate).

The shake was outstanding. Sam’s uses Blue Bell and that makes all the difference to me. Beats soft serve anytime…

Value
Everything I ordered above, plus a coke was $11.60. I thought the value was excellent, considering the quality of the food. I would have paid upwards of $15 at a place like Fuddrucker’s and I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as I did Sam’s.

Overall
I give Sam’s Deli Diner a score of 4.5 stars out of 5. The only things to improve on are the quality of the rings and the burger could have been marginally better. Definitely a good place for a burger and a great value.

Houston Press take:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2010/08/i_admit_to_having_an.php

Htownchowdown take:
http://htownchowdown.blogspot.com/2010/08/sams-deli-diner-how-mighty-have-fallen.html