Review: Ping Pong in Gallery Place

 

This week my girlfriend and I went to the fusion dim sum restaurant Ping Pong down in Chinatown. It does dim sum in a “hip” way, complete with loud music, fancy cocktails, open kitchen, and a downtown address. Knowing that I’d grown up eating dim sum at hyper-authentic places like Mark’s and Fortune, she was concerned that I wouldn’t like this place.

Used with CC license from Flickr user Beautifulcatcaya

Actually, it’s pretty good. Everything we had was quite tasty. I do have some complaints but none are really about the taste of the food. Here’s what we had, keeping in mind that I wasn’t hugely hungry and my girlfriend’s a vegetarian.

• Vegetable wonton soup
• Spicy basil dumpling
• Spinach and mushroom dumpling
• Satay squid
• Steamed choy sum (Chinese broccoli)

I loved the vegetable wonton soup because the broth was spiked with something sort of acidic like citrus or tamarind. It tasted more Vietnamese or Thai (a good thing) rather than like the kind of bland broth you often get with wontons. My girlfriend wasn’t as big of fan of it, but I thought it was great.

The squid was good, stir fried with thai-style curry flavors. It was good, but not as good as the spicy basil dumpling which was outstanding. Each bite came with one of the most intense  hits of basil flavor I’d ever tasted – and I like basil. It was one of the best dumplings I’d had anywhere, ever. I thought the spinach and mushroom dumpling was nothing special, but that was my girlfriend’s favorite and the one she was talking about before and after our visit. Finally, there was the chinese broccoli, steamed with a bit of mushroom. Here’s where I’ll start on the little disappointments.

It was a tiny bit of broccoli. It was cooked well and tasted good, but the portion size was itty-bitty. It’s not like we’re talking about lobster or caviar here or some kind of fancy, complicated preparation. I could’ve steamed this at home with choy sum from the Korean grocery story. For $3.50, I’d have enough so that two people could have more than three chopsticks worth. For that price at a place like Mark’s you’d get 3x as much and while normally, I’m not one for moaning about portions being too small, but this is something quite healthy here. All that said, it did taste good. Also, the seats are these strange hard bench-like things that after a long day and a traffic-filled drive from Virginia into the District, I could’ve lived without. Finally, the place is quite loud and while I didn’t have a problem with it, I could easily see older people being bothered by the noise. Of course, when Mark’s is hopping on a weekend, it’s not exactly serene either.

All in all I like the place for the same reasons that I also like PF Chang’s. Reason no. 1, the food is good. I didn’t have anything crummy at Ping Pong and nor have I at PF Chang’s. Reason no. 2, if it introduces more people to dim sum and more authentic Chinese food, that’s a good thing.  Going to one of the area’s good dim sum places, especially on a weekend, is not a terribly accessible experience, even I understand that. A place like Ping Pong is far more approachable and if that gets more people to appreciate dim sum, then I’m a happy guy.

I’ll give it **1/2 stars.

(202) 506-3740