Ping Pong (Soho)

Ping pong was a huge disappointment!! The food is flavourless and overpriced! Wish I went to McDonald's
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Jessica mason
2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Terrible terrible terrible. Save yourself the disappointment and have dim sum in China Town. Ping Pong is a classic example of style over substance. Food is poor. I've never tasted dim sum so bad. Maybe being oriental myself makes me more critical but the food is truly atrocious. Will never ever return here again.
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2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Eeewwww. Just NO.

Although the restaurant looks flash the food is terrible. Heavy pastry with bland filling. I couldn't really tell the difference between different dishes. Ok, as an Asian I can be picky about Asian food, but this is definitely NOT me being fussy. Just awful.

On the other hand fantastic cocktails and atmosphere and I had a wonderful time.

Perfect for meeting friends, but don't ever try to eat a full meal there.
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Gizmogwai - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Ping Pong cannot be associated with the term "dim sum" as I know it. I found a lot of the dishes very samey and bland. I don't mind someone trying to come up with new flavours and ideas, but this was just disappointing and flavourless.

Service is hardly encouraging either.

Go to Chinatown and get yourself some authentic dim sum rather than this dreary, overcooked rubbish.
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Pippa
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, November 09, 2011

My friends and I took part in a dress up offer where you could eat for free but their staff was unbelievably rude. A waiter came to our table pointing out that I was wearing 'jeans' and the offer would not be valid. After I replied that they were linen trousers he insisted in a somewhat rude way that I better get changed into "real pyjamas" and walked away. The staff serving us was very nice but when we asked for our bill another waitress asked us to have our picture taken. Everyone agreed except for me, and she replied in a rude manner that I had no choice. She started arguing with me and embarrassed me not only in front of my friends, but also in front of the other guests. In the end I had to sit down and hide my face. As if I hadn't been humiliated enough, when taking our payment she suggested that while this was a good deal for us, this promotion is 'very bad' for the restaurant . We did not engage in further conversation but when she overheard us joking that we'd take part in the promotion again next week she said she ought to point out that we better book next time. Apparently we were a too large group of people and they will have to 'be prepared' for us. Of course, we had rung the branch in the afternoon wanting to do exactly that, at which point we were told no booking was necessary..
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2 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, May 22, 2011

Overpriced, stodgy dim sum which fell apart when attempt to pick up with a pair of chopsticks. You cannot pass this food off as dim sum. The only thing that made the meal bearable was the lychee cocktail I had, which was reasonably priced (within London!).

Never going back. Ever.
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4 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Brilliant! Can't wait to go back.

I recently visited Ping Pong for the first time to celebrate my mother's 85th Birthday. I chose the restaurant due to its location. I was a little anxious as I had seen a couple of negative reviews online. However, having printed the menus off from their website, we were keen to give it a try. What a lovely experience! We were greeted in a very friendly fashion and made to feel welcome straight away. Nothing was too much trouble and the staff were helpful and well informed. We decided to treat ourselves by having the Extravaganza set meal as we were not familiar with lots of the dishes. What a wonderful experience - the food was beautifully presented and absolutely delicious. There was so much, we could not quite manage everything. To top it all, two of the waitresses sang my mother Happy Birthday, put a candle in her dessert, and offered her a complementary cocktail. I was also very pleasantly surprised when I paid the bill as it was very reasonably priced for such excellent quality. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this restaurant to my family/friends and work colleagues.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Thursday, February 24, 2011

Very disappointing !

Expectations were high after watching PING PONG growing fast around London with opening so many restaurants. However, as mentioned in other reviews, the quality dropped big time. All they think about is profit :(

Food tasted ok but portions wouldn't sort out even ants ! Cocktails were expensive but watery and full of ice, very bad. I had to eat a bowl of cereal when I got home which tells you the story :(

I would never go back to any PING PONG, the worst DIM SUM experience.
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Marco
5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, November 10, 2010

This is the very original Ping Pong and I can remember the buzz and excitment it aroused when it opened about 7 or 8 years ago. People would queue out the door for a table and it I was always taking friends there to show them this quite funky dim sum restaurant. Well several years on and there are Ping Pong's all over London. I'm pretty sure this is still the busiest. I hadn't actually been to this one for a while as my during my last visit a couple of years ago it was all looking quite tired inside. I also felt the food was getting a bit tired despite the presence of the open steamer at the entrance to the restaurant.

Anyway after a very nice lunch at their market Place branch I thought I would pop back and give this a go. I had a supplier in on Friday so I took him over for a quick bite. We wanted somewhere quick and reasonable so this seemed a good choice. We were shown to a pretty small table for two and I explained to my guest the idea behind the menu. He is from Leicester so had no idea of Ping Pong or Dim Sum in general. I ordered the usual selection of fried and steam rolls and they came pretty quickly. The dishes do look nice and the presentation is good.

Yet again I was dissapointed with the fried rolls which lacked flavour and tasted very dry. I imagine a lot of these are cooked from frozen yet they are very short on taste. The steamed dumplings were better as was the lotus leaf rice which my guest really enjoyed. Maybe my taste buds have become used to the Dim Sum at the ever excellent "Royal China" but this visit left me dissapointed. Even the Cha Sui buns lacked a bit of omph! However it was reasonable with our lunch plus a beer each coming in at £44. Service was friendly and quick so really it did do what we wanted. I just wish they could raise their game a bit with the food. The restaurant is still busy though so it is obviously getting it right.
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david ginsberg - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Monday, November 08, 2010

I had heard good things about Ping-Pong and so when a friend suggested going for their birthday, I was all for it. The excitement began to diminish from the moment we stepped through the door early on a Saturday evening. We told the reservation clerk the name of the party (about 12 in total) we were joining and without even looking up he muttered "they're downstairs". No attempt to welcome us let alone show us to our table. That pretty much set the tone for the evening. Selected low-points include (1) having to get up from the table to go and find a waitress to take our order after waiting for about 10-15mins; (2) ordering the same drinks 3 sometimes 4 times; (3) getting served only some of the food we ordered; (4) then getting told we had been served all the food we ordered; (5) subsequently getting served food we hadn't ordered; (7) being told we had ordered it; (6) being asked to re-order food we had asked for in the first place. I could go on. Eventually the manager just gave up and, without apology, put half a dozen random dishes on the table and told us we could have them for free since he didn't actually know what we had been served versus what we had received. Once we had paid and went to leave a queue had formed which stretched out the door. I honestly felt like telling them not to bother. I know I will not be returning - neither the floor staff nor the management seem to know the first thing about customer service or the basic running of a restaurant, or if they do then they certainly don't care. Save your money.
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John
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, October 06, 2010