I had just gone to Sampan for a regular meal, but after finding out about their happy hour, I decided to go check that out as well. There are a number of small plates for $2 and drink specials too. What’s to lose with $2 appetizers?
One of the cocktail specials… fruity… tasty… We got some seats at the kitchen bar, so you could watch all the action.
Up top we have the scallop with haricot vert, mustard, and almond. Delicious, and well cooked. Bottom is the chicken and shrimp spring roll. They serve it with mustard, but I really wish they just gave me duck sauce. I’m terrible that way. The roll it self was really good though.
The chicken dumplings with soy, sesame, scallions, and radish. Meh.
The chicken satay. This was bland. It was beyond bland. The peanut sauce was fine, but the chicken tasted like nothing. And the chicken had crunchy bits in it. I did not enjoy that. What was it, knuckle or something? Please skip this.
The korean bbq rib, which I got before, and liked before. I still like it! It’s still great!
The lamb chop! I’m not even into lamb, but this was my favorite dish of the night. For real! It’s got a little panko breadcrumb action going on with ginger and yakitori sauce.
The kobe beef hot dog! So yeah, I paid $2 for a hot dog. But the hot dog was made with kobe beef! But it still tasted just like a regular beef hot dog. It was a good dog though, don’t get me wrong. They serve it with mustard but I wish they would have just given me some ketchup. I know ketchup on a hot dog is for weenies, but that’s what I prefer! They broil these little dogs so the outside of them bursts when you bite into em and the rolls also have a bit of crunch. I would get this again! As far as happy hour deals go, this is a pretty darn good one! Get it while it lasts!

I’d been to Redstone a few years back, but had never gone to a happy hour there. D set up one of his big happy hours, so I headed out. They have an outdoor patio area, which is covered, so it’s actually a really nice spot for a summer happy hour. I can see why it was so packed! And seriously, when I say packed, I mean packed. The poor server was entirely way too flustered! I felt bad for the little guy! I got a strawberry and balsamic martini. I forget what booze is in it, but it has pureed strawberry and a hint of balsamic. Ooh la la, this thing was tasty! And extremely strong. Like punch you in the face strong. I was not about to have two of these!
Here is the calamari dish that somebody ordered. They served it up with some spicy peppers and garlic and a chipotle aioli. Not bad!
Here are some cute little pulled pork sliders that somebody ordered. I didn’t try them, but they look quite nice. There’s some slaw in there, and some thinly french fried onion rings. The other popular drink of the night was this mango martini. Apparently, it wasn’t very strong and it cost more than my strawberry one! Suckas!
I was super hungry, and quickly needed a good amount of food to counteract that extremely strong drink. So I got the meatball sliders. I was talking to the server for some recommendations and he asked me how hungry I was. I told him very, and so he suggested these little cuties. Basically, they took a meatball sandwich and just wrapped each meatball around a cute little bun. Again, not bad, not bad at all.
But my favorite thing I tried was the cornbread! They call it the lodge cornbread and make it from scratch and bake it in this cast iron skillet. This is a big ass serving of cornbread, obviously. I absolutely loved this! I’m a big fan of cornbread, so when I find good cornbread, it totally makes me happy. It was dense, moist, and full of actual corn pieces. It was sweet and also spicy, with some jalapenos in it. This is the winner of the night!

J wanted mexican food, so Brent from the hotel sent us over to Zocalo. Man, does this place have a nice vibe. It’s a beautiful and large space with dark wood. It just feels warm and inviting. The lighting is low-key and moody, but in a positive way. It just felt cool. I loved it right away. It is a tequila bar, and they have a crazy amount of tequilas. The bar is one long bar, and the entire wall behind it is tequilas. It’s impressive. I got a blood orange margarita, which was terrific. We were off to a great start.

I wanted a little starter so I got the tortilla soup. Oh this was so good. It had a nice spicy bite, with tons of tortilla strips, avocado, cream, and cheese. It was just what I wanted.

J wanted some chips and salsa, so voila! The three at the top are the normal salsas that come out with the whole round tortillas. Instead of making chips for you, they let you crack the tortilla into your own chips. Those standard three salsas were very good, and the one in the middle was shockingly spicy. But all had great flavor. Then we got into a hot sauce discussion with Hector, so he brought out two additional ones for us, which one of the chefs had made for fun. They were both firey hot, with completely different flavors from each other, as well as the spicy one from the standard three. It’s pretty amazing how different salsas can taste, and how they are all good in varying ways. The point is, they were all good.

It was tuesday night, and Zocalo offers taco tuesdays, which is $12 for all you can eat tacos. You have to get your first set of tacos with all four varieties of tacos, but after that, you can get whatever you want. It comes out with a pork, beef, chicken, and a lamb/pork combo. Ok, so seriously, these were all amazing. The pork and chicken ones were particularly excellent. I couldn’t eat more than one plate, but J got another plate with more pork and chicken tacos. They were seriously good. They’re pretty small, but are quite filling. This is a place that I wish existed in Philadelphia because I would be there all the time. It just made me happy and want to come back. You can’t beat that!