Samba is a very nice place. I admit it, even though they have a salad bar.
Normally I'd pan anyplace that had a salad bar. Typically they are disgusting and remind me of the Old Country Buffet. You can just see them crawling with bacteria as customers with unwashed hands dollop portions of mayonnaise-bound salads of increasingly dangerous temperatures onto their overloaded plates and go groaning back to their sticky, rickety tables to stuff their faces.
Urgh.
But Samba for some reason doesn't do this to me. It's weird and I can't explain it, but the salad bar is actually...appetizing. Pretty, even. It looks like a vegetarian designed it for their wedding. It's dimly lit. It's almost like candlelight. It's all dark wood and burnished silver.
There are marinated artichoke hearts and grilled asparagus there. There are selections of several types of goat cheese displayed on a mirrored tray. We're talking stuffed mushroom caps with pine nuts and elegantly sculptured little radishes.
There are piping hot slabs of fried eggplant right out of the pan. Hello!
If I were actually a vegetarian I would be totally cool going to Samba with my carnivorous friends given such an excellent selection of greens. Since I'm not actually a vegetarian, I go there and eat slabs of meat too after my little salady-appetizer.
They make their employees dress a little bit doofy, but apart from that I have no complaints of any kind. woot for Samba