Not very traditional but that doesn't make it bad (Ping Pong (London))

Member Name: sakura8

Product:	Ping Pong (London)
Date:	24/02/09 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Staff speak English, easy to order, reasonable prices

Disadvantages: Menu isn't very traditional

Ping Pong markets itself as "the Twenty-First Century Tea House" and its aim is to bring the world of dim sum to the masses.

Chinese food is very popular, but I think that dim sum is a lot less well known, so here is a brief summary:
* Dim sum is the name for a Chinese cuisine which involves a wide range of dishes, such as dumplings, steamed buns, sticky rice and fried items.
* The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate and you usually get either 3 or 4 of each item as one portion.
* Chinese families usually have dim sum together on a Sunday for a family gathering and this means that lots of different dishes can be ordered for everyone to share, quite similar to Spanish Tapas.
* In proper Chinese restaurants it is usually served in the mornings until mid afternoon.
* Copious amounts of Chinese tea are consumed with dim sum and drunk from cute little cups.

Going into a proper Chinese restaurant can be a bit daunting and I say that as a Chinese person who cannot speak Chinese. Being born in England I have always considered English to be my mother tongue, but I really regret never being able to learn my parents' language. This makes it especially difficult and embarrassing for me to enter a Chinese restaurant as the staff expect me to be able to communicate with them.

So this is why I took my English friends to Ping Pong in Soho instead of venturing into traditional Chinatown. Ping Pong is a fully westernised dim sum restaurant. All of the staff look Caucasian and speak English. I think I was the only Chinese person in the whole establishment.

The menus are sheets of paper on the table with tick boxes for you to mark your choices. They serve cocktails and lots of wines, spirits and beers, which to me is deviant behaviour when it comes to eating dim sum (the majority of Chinese people don't really drink alcohol, that's why we're such lightweights!). Much more conventional is the serving of tea, however Ping Pong have taken this a step further and they have flowering teas - a tea 'ball' is served in a long glass and when hot water is added a beautiful 'flower' blossoms, which is actually very impressive.

The décor of the restaurant is slick, modern and chic. So is this place all style and no substance? Well, in short, yes.

There were 4 of us and one of us was a vegetarian, so we ordered a variety of different Set Menus, so we could try both the traditional dim sum items that I am familiar with, but also some of their own creations. The Set Menus were around £12 and you get about 8 dishes, and considering each individual dish costs between £3-4, it is quite good value.

The traditional Har Gau (prawn dumplings) and Shu mai (pork and prawn dumplings) were quite bland compared to what I am used to, but I guess I have been spoiled as my parents take me to places where the dim sum is excellent (my mum is very particular!). However, they did redeem themselves with the Spicy vegetable dumpling and the Sticky Rice.

Overall, everything was edible and we all left the restaurant pretty content with our meal. My friends thought it was brilliant, which was a great relief, although I think the cocktails they drank helped things along tremendously!

However, I wouldn't dream of taking my parents to Ping Pong, as it would be like me taking them to McDonalds. It's not that the dim sum is awful, it's just that the menu is such a watered down version of what they're used to. None of our family favourites were on the menu, such as Chicken Feet, Ha Cheung Fun (cannelloni shaped rice noodle filled with prawns) and Woo Gok (a fried egg-shaped ball made from taro with a meaty filling). These dishes probably sound hideous and that is why Ping Pong is so popular: because it has taken the least scary elements of dim sum and made it accessible.

My fiancé, who's English, comes with me when I meet up with my family for dim sum (at London Hong Kong in case anyone wants to know where to get the real deal!) and he loves it. He's never turned his nose up at anything that's been presented and he's happily tucked in. So maybe Ping Pong needs to be a bit more adventurous with its menu, however I doubt it could ever win over true traditionalists. As for me, I'll quite happily sit on the fence on this one as I'm happy to go where the food is good and I don't need to point/use hand gestures to order - oh and a blossoming flower in my tea is always a bonus.

There are currently twelve Central London and City based Ping Pong restaurants:
Appold Street
Bow Bells House
Goodge Street
Hampstead
Market Place
Marylebone
Soho
South Bank
Spitalfields
St Christopher's Place
St Katharine Dock
Westbourne Grove

Opening hours for each restaurant varies, but they are generally open Mon to Sun: 12pm - 11pm - check website for details http://www.pingpongdimsum.com

Summary: A great place for your first steps into the world of dim sum.