Ping Pong (St Christopher's Place)

Ping pong food is great. it is not frozen food it is just made at a central kitchen in london and then transported to the branches
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suzy
5 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Monday, July 26, 2010

We were there as a party of 8 for a cousin’s 15th birthday. We were lead to a sparsely-lit basement table that was not yet laid, in a half-empty room. The manager was so aggressive he actually scared the children. The waitress had a problem with every order, or question, we made (borrowing a pen to write a birthday card for the child was problematic: I asked for a pen, the waitress told me to use a pencil, I told her it was for a birthday card, she begrudingly gave me her pen, the manager actually knocked me out of the way with his shoulder as I wrote: this point is in itself symbolic of the wider lack of nous and human understanding operating at this poor establishment). When the waitress clocked off for the evening the next waiter was very nice.

The English find it so hard to complain, but when we did so we were very polite and careful about what we said and how we said it. The ladies toilet was flooded, and one of my female guests told the manager she didn’t appreciate the male waiter , or any male, coming in to a ladies toliet. The manager’s reaction added to what was rapidly turning into an athropological study, but one perhaps set in the future, when certain tribes have done away with civilisation but retained some of the newspeak language of the age of Health and Safety: ‘We take your comment on board’. I never thought people could speak like that. I should have kept notes.

When we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ there were no candles: the staff were standing as far away from us as possible. What was quite hilarious, but still very shocking, was that the manager openly admitted that the food they serve is not fresh. I didn't ask where it comes from (off the back of a wagon, fresh from a factory in Birmingham?) One reviewer on this site wondered if the food was frozen and heated up: you’re bang on! The idea of a restaurant that re-heats and serves pre-made, pre-packaged food, is antithetical to the very idea of dining. If the food was made elsewhere there is no way of knowing where the ingredients are sourced from, the quality of the meat and the quality of the husbandry, if the vegetables were ever fresh, and so on. But I did wonder if they make everything in a factory, before freezing it and sending it into town. My dim-sum was rubbery, tasteless. One of us asked for more sauce (to add some flavour): ‘there’s chilli sauce’ the waiter said, pointing to our table. The first bottle of sake we drank was hot, the second was lukewarm. This goldilocks didn’t want to try a third. When we asked about non-wheat items on the menu he told my guest she must have the same problem everywhere: the fact that she never does, and that most restaurants cater for dietary requirements, would have been lost on him, a man who was trying to insult my guest for having a dietary requirement. But none of us were in the mood for boxing.

Physical violence was in the air when the subject of the Mango Pudding came up. Yes, the idea of fighting over something so harmless as pudding will never leave me. Some of us had ordered the Dim-Sum Set, a set menu that had Mango Pudding as the dessert. Some of us asked if we could have ice-cream instead. The waiter thought this was very odd, and the manager would have to be called over. As I tried not to laugh, the manager went into Stock Broker mode: ‘right, let’s get to the bottom of this once and for all, because someone must take charge round here’, and then went about systematically asking everyone at the table exactly what they wanted for dessert, trying to put us into groups, those having ice-cream, those having nothing, those having Mango Pudding. I think two out of 8 of us wanted something not on the set menu. Is this so hard (or insulting?) to ask for? I was laughing inside, but the children at the table were genuinely scared. I don’t think they have ever seen aggression at the dinner table.

When we paid, we asked for the 12.5% tip to be taken off our bill. The grand total for the night had come to nearly £300, so the tip would have been over £30. I have never asked for a service charge to be taken off. Indeed, I never thought it was possible, or justifiable, to get the waiter’s tip back. On this night, it seemed the only way for seeking compensation.

Please: think of your children, and your loved ones, and never subject them to the misery of eating at Ping Pong on St. Christopher’s Place. They take the pleasure out of harmless, decent, eternal things like the romantic dinner, family meeting, or teenage birthday. Life is too short, and London has some excellent restaurants.
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1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Monday, March 08, 2010

TOP TIP: Go round the corner to Busaba eat thai or wagamama.

The service at Ping Pong is.............well not really service. Not at all attentive, no teamwork and generally not very positive.

Food I`m afraid is not brilliant; all tastes like it was frozen.
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5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Thursday, November 19, 2009