A friend of mine is in town and staying at the Ritz Carlton on Camelback. In meeting up, we ventured across the street and found Sam's Café. The menu was big and many things looked good. I was busy looking at the spacious dining area and the food options when the waitress arrived. My friend went with the raspberry margarita while I had 1/2 coke, 1/2 diet coke.
The waitress was very attentive and dropped by many times to make sure we were fine. The chips and salsa were amazing! I saw some Yelp reviews on my phone that talked about the chips. I thought really? They are chips! Can they really be that exciting? Damn skippy! In fact, most of the time I didn't even put them in salsa- they were so good just by themselves.
My friend ordered the Red Rock Meatloaf served with peppers, bacon and onions, mashed potatoes and she swapped spinach in place of the corn on the cob. I went with the Applewood Smoked Pecan Salmon. Damn! It was salmon with pecans, there was a side spinach and the salmon was served on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes and a red papaya and serrano chile sauce. I detected something else that seemed like slightly spicy apple sauce, but I don't know what it was.
An excellent meal, nice atmosphere, descent area and above average service. Each entrée was about $17 and the margarita was $6.50. No room for dessert - with the exception of the white chocolate tamale brought out with the bill, but the tray showed several items. Maybe next time?