Courtney E. Smith is an editor for Eater’s Texas region. She lives in Dallas, where she’s written about James Beard-recognized and Michelin-recognized restaurants and she loves nachos.
Samad Café, which is near Love Field in West Dallas, doesn’t have a website. It is tucked away inside what looks from the street like a car repair shop — CBS News reports that the cafe owner used to run it, too. The cafe is the kind of place diners find only if they know it’s there. On April 4, 2025, one viral video on TikTok changed that.
Under the name Sam’s POV, a content creator made a video featuring Samad’s Café that shows owner Samad Afghanipour serving him marinated lamb shank in a bowl of broth, alongside Persian rice, white rice, and lavash flatbread. Afghanipour’s hospitality, as he runs the cafe alone, is what many viewers commented on most — the POV shot shows him returning to the table to offer the diner more food multiple times. “Anything you want, I bring it,” he says. Sam’s POV appears to be the only diner in the restaurant. The video has amassed 13 million views, 2 million likes, and over 9,000 comments…