However, in 2003, the restaurant received some less favorable media attention when it and surrounding Chinese businesses in San Gabriel were at the center of the SARS panic. The restaurant was highly popular for its dim sum. In 1992, presidential candidate Bill Clinton held a fundraiser at a now-defunct Sam Woo Seafood Restaurant in San Gabriel, California.
Sam Woo Restaurants are generally popular even though long waits to be seated are common.
The popular Sam Woo BBQ Restaurant as well as the anchor tenant 99 Ranch Market has contributed to the development of the spectacular Chinatown, Las Vegas. Several, but not all, Sam Woo Restaurants in Southern California are located in shopping centers anchored by 99 Ranch Market stores. The restaurant chain operates in suburban areas in Southern California, mostly in communities where there are many immigrants from China and Taiwan, such as San Gabriel, Rowland Heights, and Irvine. The first is aptly named Sam Woo BBQ Restaurant (香港三和燒臘麵家 Pinyin: Xiānggǎng Sānhé Shāolà Miànjiā, Cantonese: hoeng1 gong2 saam1 wo4 siu1 laap6 min6 gaa1). There are two types of Sam Woo restaurants. In 2004 a Sam Woo also opened in the suburb of Covina, California, but it failed the following year and was replaced by a similar family-style restaurant.
One restaurant opened in Montebello, which was renamed to "A-1" (now closed) when an employee purchased it from the Sam Woo owners (though the menu remains the same). Two other locations in the San Gabriel Valley opened only to later change hands or close. The first Sam Woo has since relocated to a newer building within Chinatown to include a restaurant and delicatessen. The first delicatessen was opened in 1979 by an elderly immigrant from Hong Kong in the Los Angeles Chinatown and later spread to other locations in California, including Monterey Park and Alhambra.