With the #beastfromtheEast being relentless and giving us more reason to want Summer even more ❄️ ⬇️….☀️ ⬆️
The only saving grace of being hit with this cold wave is all the warming and comforting food you can think of and eat ? because food is life!
My team and I had a fun day not just celebrating Chinese New Year with Ping Pong but I also got to check out their Bread Street branch in St Paul’s, in the shadows of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Those of you who aren’t familiar with Ping Pong- in a nutshell it’s your first introduction into Dim Sum. I won’t say it’s the most authentic place to get your Dim Sum fix like China Town or the likes of A.Wong or Duddell’s or even Yauatcha for that matter.
However! It’s a decent and consistent chain that will open your eyes to the idea of Dim Sum, if your not that familiar with this part of Asian cuisine.
In my experience of eating at Ping Pong over the years, they have always strived to get better. Walking past a Ping Pong I would always come across some kind of marketing initiative underway, with the idea that they’re at least trying to innovate and keep their food relevant ?
Yes, you won’t walk out thinking “Gosh, that was the best meal I’ve had” but you also won’t be saying “that was absolutely not worth the money”. Again, food is something you can’t be too snobby about. The taste and experience is always subjective.?
We ordered enough food to never eat for a week! The crispy prawns were perfectly crispy. To be honest we could’ve done without the buns and just ate the prawns on their own.
We ordered both versions of the Puffs (Vegetarian and Pork) we’ll balanced and flavoured with a flaky and crispy pastry on the outside.
The dim sums are priced well and they all come in a portion size of three. We ordered quite a few to try what they had on offer/ the stand out ones were: Spicy Vegetable Dumpling, Har Gau, Pork and Prawn Shu Mai and Golden Dumplings.
As someone who tends to stay away from chain restaurants, this is one chain I’d happily eat at- as long as you know what to order! ?
Our correspondent Ucman was at their Chinese New Year bash and I was a tad bit jealous just because it’s not every day you get to see the Lion Dance. His account in his own words:
So Camilla Thurlow from Love Island hosted the Chinese New Year this year at Ping Pong. I have never watched Love Island or any other reality TV shows for that matter but the promise of dim sum, cocktails and the whole blogging community being there was too much to give up. Besides who doesn’t like celebrities and dancing lions?
We arrived a bit late but luckily the party had just started. We were given some cocktails by the barman while our coats were being taken away; I already felt like a celebrity myself.
The atmosphere was jubilant and every one seemed ready to welcome the year of dog into their lives.
Ping Pong is quite a surprising value and I was a bit worried about the space because bar area isn’t too big but the sitting area behind with more room on the top and basement, the place is quite spacious.
We chilled out with some more cocktails (the barman was a serious gentleman and kept bringing those amazing cocktails one after other), the music was getting groovier and then the dim sum arrived in huge platters with their combo sauces.
The dim sum was AMAZING!!! We tried a few from vegetarian to lamb and also some buns with prawn tempura and spicy mayonnaise. The food was finger licking good and I loved how the dim sum tradition matched with the newer flavours.
After a while, one of the hosts invited us to pop downstairs for a chance to make our own dim sum and I jumped like it was the sole purpose of my existence; man those cocktails were good!
The chef showed us how to make different shapes and textures, fun stuff but we couldn’t eat any without steaming it so my beautiful creations were whisked away *hysterical crying*
We didn’t stay till the end but the Dragon and the dancer definitely added to the environment. I didn’t get to know Camilla sadly but I’m sure she’s lovely and Camilla if you are reading this, a big hug for you and a massive thank you for a great evening.
