Restaurant: Ping Pong Dim Sum (http://www.pingpongdimsum.us/)
Location: Gallery Place/Chinatown
Total Rating: 3.95
Food: 4, Price: 3, Service: 4, Ambience: 5, Accessibility: 5
Summary: Serving "little steamed parcels of deliciousness", Ping Pong Dim Sum in Gallery Place, DC is the first American location of this chain originating from the UK. Like tapas or a trendy grazing menu, you order as many or as few dim sum as you wish - lots if you're very hungry, just a few if you’re snacking with tea or cocktails. Beautiful flowering teas and delicious cocktails are on the menu, too, offering a great happy hour spot for the younger crowd. Traditional Chinese ingredients mixed with a modern twist and instantly the Ping Pong flavors are bursting. Closest Metro is Gallery Place-Chinatown.
There have been mixed reviews about the food at this new trendy restaurant, despite the accolades for creative cocktails and exotic teas. This restaurant is great for groups or first dates as, similar to a tapas or sushi restaurant, you can order several small plates to sample and share between the table. Each comes with 2 or 3 pieces. Choose from steamed, grilled, baked, or fried "dumplings" or even soup or salad. The food comes out as it is ready and surprisingly fast. Keith and I shared 7 plates and it seemed to be just the right amount. We also ordered the extra $2 sauce sampler, but it may not have been needed as 3 sauces are already provided gratis and some plates even come with their own sauce. For drinks, I tried the Ping Pong, a $10 mix of Martini Bianco, white wine, Yokaichi Shochu and lychee juice and Keith had the Tennessee Tea Tingle, a $10 mix of Jack Daniel’s, Cointreau, fresh lime juice topped with Coca Cola. Some dishes could have had a little more filling to dough ratio, but all in all, the ingredients and flavors were good and the overall dining experience was fun.
What I ate:
Vegetable Puff
Sautéed vegetables in a honey sauce baked in handmade puff pastry
Pork Shu Mai
Pork and king prawns steamed in an open pastry topped with a Chinese wolfberry
Spicy chicken dumpling
Chicken and vegetables in chilli sauce steamed in translucent white pastry
Scallop and shitake dumpling
Scallops and king prawns with shitake mushrooms steamed in wheat flour pastry
Vietnamese spring roll
Prawns, noodles and vegetables wrapped in rice paper, fried and served with chilli fish sauce
Seafood Sticky Rice Parcel
Rice with king prawns, scallops, carrots and bamboo shoots, wrapped in a Lotus leaf
Lemon chicken
Tender chicken breast fillet with chilli, honey and lemon, served on lettuce
Sauce platter
A selection of three Ping Pong sauces:
Spicy mango, Basil, ginger and black sesame seed, Ginger and garlic
