I’ve always heard how great the spots were behind Hamilton Hotel, but just never got around to visiting. Well a buddy and I took a walk back there this Saturday and found ourselves in Sam Ryan’s, an American style sports pub. While Sam Ryan’s may boast an early 90s styled website, their decor was modern (not exactly sexy) and comfortable. Though we went on a Saturday afternoon and couldn’t see it packed full of people, the incredibly drunk party in the corner helped us imagine how this pub might buzz on a busy night.
The Food
After staring at the well endowed menu for a good 10 minutes (not for size mind you, but for quality of menu items), we eventually chose the Spicy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and Nachos to accompany our standard beer. Their only Korean beer on tap was OB, IMO a definite step down from my favorite Cass. The food was standard pub grub. Good, but not incredible. The chicken was tender on the inside, crispy on the out. The fries – fresh with the similar tender/crispy ratio to the chicken. The nachos were also very good with a large load of fresh pico de gallo, minced jalapeños, shredded cheese, and parmesan cheese. Standard salsa and sour cream were served on the side, which is my preferred setup as it doesn’t turn the nachos to mush.
Finally some quality nachos to help abate the trauma from my birthday last month. At Lemon Terrace in Gangnam we were served nachos with cheese and chocolate and were denied a request to replace it because it had “popular demand”. My ass. Did I complain about that before? Well it deserves at lease two public shamings.
Spicy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich w/ Fries 10,500
Nachos 12,500
It isn’t hard to imagine Sam Ryan’s packed full on a Friday/Saturday night. It’s got all the right ingredients to host drunk itaewonites out on the night: decently priced drinks, friendly staff, 3 authentic dart boards, plenty of floor space, sports playing on a half dozen big screen tvs, and unique to this establishment… a drinking game wheel.
Drinking Game Wheel
The wheel is a great idea and loads of entertainment. The drunk group that was there that day spun it a good dozen times and myself and Mike each took our turns. For every purchased drink you can take a spin, though I doubt they enforce that rule. The goal isn’t necessarily to give away drinks, but rather to promote a good time and keep the lubricant flowing. Mike won the “Buy a drink and chug it and get a free beer.” When we requested to not follow through the girl pointed out the sign below which reads “Play at Your Own Risk – If you spin and refuse to honor the result, we must charge you 5,000 won!!”. This sucks for me as there’s a section that says “SEXY dance for a drink”. Try as I would, my bumbles would probably get me charged more than 5,000.
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The Rundown
A comfortable spot to have some beer and catch a game. 3 authentic dart boards, plenty of seats, reasonably priced drinks, and even a homemade drinking board wheel offer plenty of entertainment.
English Name: Sam Ryan’s Itaewon
English Address: Seoul Yongsan-gu Itaewon-dong 116-15 2F
Korean Address: 서울시 용산구 이태원1동 116-15 2F
Phone Number: 02-749-7933
Website: http://www.samryans.com
Hours: Weekends 11am-LATE Weekdays 4pm-LATE
Directions:
From Itaewon Station (이태원역) Exit 1 walk straight and make a right after 1 minute at the first alley. Go to the next first alley up the hill and Sam Ryan’s is on the second floor on that corner.
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