Ping Pong

Strange timing on my review…
I went there today to meet friends for dinner in person for the first time, and this location is NOW CLOSED.

I feel this is one of the better ping pongs. Have seen Jamie Oliver on occasion at lunch, if that’s any recommendation. Good value lunches on Sunday — good to take hungry kids.

I admit I have been to a previous Ping Pong and left thinking I could pass the restaurant without a problem.
I will tell you I was pleasantly surprised to say I arrived at lunch time to plenty of seating available (I am uneasy saying this in case word gets out and I can no longer get a table) and happy staff.
The food arrived very quickly (great for a working lunch), was tasty and the bill came right when it was needed.

I am a big fan of Ping Pong and love their food and cocktails. On this occasion I went on a Thursday night with 4 other friends and we split lots of cocktails and dim sum.
My complaint, however, is that the waitress we had was incredibly rude, abrupt, and spoke terrible English. We ordered lots of dim sum to split, and wanted 2 of everything to come at once, as each dim sum order consists of 3, and there were 5 of us. She couldn’t understand us due to her poor English, however, and we ended up getting the food served in 2 batches, exactly the same thing twice in a row. So we still couldn’t all have the same dim sum at once — we only got 3 of anything at a time.
There was also a table of people next to us being EXTREMELY loud and taking pictures of themselves and shrieking with laughter, who were so noisy that we frequently had to pause our conversation because we couldn’t be heard over them, yet they were never told to quiet down.
I’ll be back — but perhaps to another location.

j’étais un peu réticente à manger dans une chaine de resto chinois mais c’est juste délicieux !!! Beaucoup de choix de vapeurs et ravioli et de thé (sous forme de bille, de fleur c’est magnifique). Une super adresse!

I’d been to the one in Soho, which to be honest, seems to have better tasting food. However, what I do like about this place and this chain in general, is the vegan/​vegetarian options. There’s a wide array of ‘green’ dishes, ranging from golden crispy steamed dumplings, asparagus, broccoli, mushrooms and black fungus, vegetarian buns, vegetarian sticky rice, that it makes it really easy if you’re going out with a vegan/​vegetarian party.
Another plus are the cocktails, I had the lychee and rose gin martini — lovely. The kumkwat mojito is lovely too… and they are all decently priced… (mind you, I’m used to London’s speak easy prices… which all average 10£ a drink…). You can get a cocktail here for around 5−6£. Not sure how loaded they are though …
Food is a-​ok… nothing to write home about… but cool atmosphere, good drinks, fast service, and a veggie effort yield 3 stars for this dim sum joint…

Bland. It’s the only word to describe the food and the place. It’s such a shame as the location is great, the décor is stylish (but how annyoingly uncomfortable are those seats?) and the downstairs restaurant (which you are not allowed to see unless you go to the smelly toilets) is quite something.
The food is uninspiring and lacks flavour. The tea selection is nice, I had jasmine tea which has a lovely aroma but too much caffeine so don’t have it in the evening like I did as I didn’t sleep much from the caffeine overload. The service is fast but one staff member had to keep checking every single question about the menu with the manager (they have now decided not to have the printed menu, just that slim sheet of paper you cross off for your order).
Thank goodness for my loyalty card which had a £10 credit, the default for new customers, so I didn’t pay the full price. I doubt I will be going back.

Overall — just ok. Part of a chain. Service ok but not worth the charge. Quite expensive for very small portions which would be alright provided the dinning experience was better than Wagamamas.

I won a £60 meal for two a while back on the Pretty Stylish London blog and I’ve been drooling over their menu for months. Mini meals are my idea of heaven.
I finally made it into London with my friend for a day of retail therapy and shopping. We plumped for the Marlybone location as it was the closest one. Located a five minute walk from Baker Street Station, it sits on the corner of a quiet road. Entering the restaurant, we were greeted warmly and sat upstairs by the window.
The concept is a simple one, where you’re given a list of food to choose from, along with a more extensive menu detailing what’s in each dish. The cocktail menu is equally detailed, and my friend tried both the Appletini (nice) and the Ping Pong Bubble cocktail (with tiny tapioca beads, yum!)
We ordered around ten dishes between us, and they were all delicious. The only one that was slightly disappointing was the pork crackling, which was over-​seasoned and slightly cold. Otherwise, all the dishes were well worth the money.
Service was quick and friendly. We both used the toilets downstairs so we got to check outside the seating area below. Whilst I understand that others may feel it was quite dark, I thought it would be lovely for a romantic dinner or a birthday gathering of your best friends.
Our bill came to just over £60, so it’s not cheap, but I’d recommend it.

I had heard so much about Ping Pong that I just had to try it sometime. After shopping for wedding gowns with my friend who just recently became engaged, we popped into this location of the chain.
What a mistake. The best way to describe the dim sum: If you asked a 2^nd grade student what she wanted in dim sum, I think she would create what ping pong offers. The contents of each steamed dumpling made no sense, and not in a good way. They sounded like they would be good, but every variety (we tried 8 kinds) tasted like garbage.
You can’t just throw all your favorite flavours into one dumpling and always expect it to come out yummy! Even the waiter said people complained almost every day about certain menu items.

Really Good Food, worth the price.

alors là pour les connaisseurs de vapeurs il né faut absolument pas rater cette adress !!!
J’y suis allé le week end derneir grace à une amie qui connaissait et je né regrette pas !!!
j’ai gouté à une quinzaine de vapeurs différentes mais toutes aussi bonnes les unes que les autres !!!
Le service est marrant il suffit de remplir la feuille des plats déposée sur la table avec le petit crayon à papier que vous pouvez emporter comme souvenir De plus le restaurant propose des coktails faits par de vrais barman qui agitent les shakers, goutez au dim sum a base de martini vin blanc et sirop de litchee c’est un regal !
Par contre comme ce restaurant fait un carton je vous conseille d’aller à cette adresse-​ci car en génénral ils sont plein.
Quant à l’addition cela reste correct pour la prestation et évidemment Londres.

I like Ping Pong and have eaten at this branch a couple of times, the restaurant is not very large although I think there may be tables downstairs. They have a seating area outside (quite small).
I love the prawn dim sum, duck spring rolls and the pork puff pastry the most and they do a lovely non-​alcoholic fruit cocktail (Strawberry and lime, I think), which I adore. I always want to order more and can never fit any more in.

Dim Sum! Dim Sum! Dim Sum!
This combination of two chinese words meant nothing special to me before I shared a lunch at this Ping Pong with my girlfriend, on a nice summer day, benefiting from the small yet well arranged terrasse and realized how good could be dim sum!
These little parcels of happiness (I think that’s their motto, if i remember well) are really good. I would advise you to get the Crystal one. And the rice (cooked in a vine leaf) is excellent as well. Especially the one with mushrooms.
On the other hand, the drinks were disappointing, the iced tea was too sweet and flowery and the wine had nothing special despite being quite expensive. Therefore you should cut on the drinks and get even more dim sum!

Ping Pong restaurant is specialized in dim sum. This branch is located near to Oxford Street and most of the seats are in the basement floor. The variety of dim sum in the menu is enough and there are some fixed menus that allow you to choose easily (although the quantity is small for the price). The price of the food is not very expensive but as every dish is quite small you have to spend some money to be full.
The flowering teas are really good and tasty. The restaurant is really busy sometimes and the tables are very near one to the others who is a bit annoying.

They advertise their tea, and dim sum really is about drinking vast quantities of tea while you eat your yummy little morsels. However, we ordered oolong tea and were served green tea. One large glass of tea per person. Meh. It all cools down and becomes drinkable at the same time, who wants that? And who wants only one glass?
I was really surprised to see that Ping Pong sells itself as dim sum for beginners, like someone who has never heard of yum cha, dim sum, or chinese snacks served out of a bunch of trolleys. Though there were no trolleys, which always makes me a bit sad. Mind you, there were clear explanations in English of all the food, which isn’t usual for dim sum. And kudos to them for automatically providing chili sauce at the table.
Overall the flavour of the food came across as Chinese food made for English tastes. It wasn’t brilliant, but then this is a chain. I wouldn’t go back unless I was in a rush, as the food did arrive quickly and the restaurant wasn’t packed. I just figure that if we’re in a city as diverse as London, I might as well spend my time eating more authentic dim sum.
I do recommend visiting the ladies loos in this particular establishment, they’re very dungeony feeling, but very clean.