Ping Pong Dim Sum - 7th Street
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About
Offering a wide range of Asian treats, the sleek Ping Pong restaurants pay homage to the ancient traditions of Chinese tea houses. With a big choice of dumplings and steamed buns, the Ping Pong menu also offers an array of "big-small plates", all Chinese tapas style.
As well, there are plenty of familiar Chinese delicacies, with spring rolls, soup dumplings, and hearty dishes like our hoi sin duck bao sliders. For dessert, try Ping Pong’s roasted banana and chocolate spring roll or the ice cream filled rice pastry, mochi, and finish with a lively Ping Pong cocktail or soothing Oriental tea.
Ping Pong was closed and boarded up when we went to dine. Their listing needs to be updated. (Stars were given as the requirement - we did not dine there and did not know it was closed before going).
Unfortunately a couple of hours before we were due to dine at this restaurant we found out that it was permanently closed 2 weeks beforehand through social media. For some reason, Open Table was never informed of this closure and never let us know. We are lucky we didn't make the trip downtown for Chinese New Year only to discover that the restaurant was closed. Very disappointing!
Restaurant is closed and open table didn’t notify us or let us cancel. This was a work event and was a total failure.
Showed up to the closed restaurant on Valentine's Day after checking their site several times and seeing no mention of it being closed.
The restaurant was closed when we got there and had been closed for weeks!!
Overall a terrible experience because my date and I got there on time for our brunch reservation to find the restaurant closed! No warning by the restaurant. When we arrived there were also two other people waiting and wondering why the restaurant was closed.
I went with friends for the weekend brunch Dim Sum. We had a 12:45 reservation and when we were seated we were given regular dinner menus. When we asked about the all you can eat and drink brunch special (which was the reason we came to the restaurant), our server told us it was not available because they were out of many of the things on the menu. When we asked if we could still have the AYCE special even though some options were available he still said no, because they were low on food and the chefs don’t come in on Sundays so they couldn’t make any more food. At that point we left without ordering anything.
I understand that things happen sometimes, but they could have contacted people with reservations to let them know that the brunch special was not available, especially since that is one of the main draws of the place on the weekend. Furthermore, I was kind of horrified to learn that all of the food was prepared a day ahead of time. What kind of restaurant serves food that is just reheated a day after it is made?! That is called leftovers, not something that I pay a restaurant to serve me.
I will never go back to Ping Pong and strongly discourage anyone from eating there on a Sunday unless you enjoy eating leftovers at a premium price.
They did not honor our reservation made via open table. When we showed up for our meal (early) we were told we’d have 11 minutes for our party of 6 to order, eat, and leave. The host was uncaring, unwillingly to explain why they took the reservation, and inflexible.
Not going back there.
Slow service.
delicious lychee tea and nice variety of items on the sampler.
I used to love this place. I was in a year ago and had a terrible experience. It was not my choice to go back - a friend picked the restaurant so I figured I'd give it another shot. Service was absolutely awful. The restaurant was almost empty at lunch time and servers were standing around yet ours was nowhere to be found. We had to go find him to place our order, again when we tried to order more food, and to get our check. Normally the food comes out as it's done, piping hot. Our entire order arrived together (after a considerable wait) and the dumplings were cold. Nothing was as good as we remembered it being on previous visits.
Horribly slow service. One server for the entire restaurant. Ok drinks
Unfortunately this was one of the worst experiences I have had at a restaurant. It took almost 10 minutes for a server to come greet us. Several minutes passed each time between the servers coming to the table. They were not helpful with questions. I would not recommend.
Very disappointing, they would not honor a living social voucher.
Clearly understaffed. Took 4 tries to give us water instead of sprite. Food was good.
TERRIBLE!!!!!! Our service was awful! We ordered a bottle of wine and the server brought it to our table with a glass taken out of it and said "It was the only pinot noir in the house (shouldn't you offer something you have a full bottle of!!!) Then when our bill came she had only taken $3 dollars off for the missing glass. We also had a gift card, but apparently they had decided on Monday they were no longer honoring gift cards from that specific website YET they are still on the website so people can buy them. DONT GO HERE .... Its a waste of money and you will be disappointed.
Wish I could say I'd enjoyed my experience, but after being turned down from a empty restaurant that had ran out of food reluctantly we made a reservation and tried again only to be told the deal we'd purchased wouldnt be honored and that as a apology for this, or maybe for the previous time when we were sent packing by Al that he'd comp one item or drink. Thanks for nothing Al!
Great restaurant and service. Food was excellent.
Absolutely terrible service. Only one server and one bartender on duty. The manager was rude and reeked of alcohol. We had a Groupon and the manager tried not to let us honor it. We were there for over 2 hours. Took 45 mins before I even got my drink.
Horribly slow service, out of half the items on the menu.
This is upscale dim sum, and everything is so tasty. I've always liked traditional dim sum, but it's hard to find an authentic place that also has a cool vibe and atmosphere. Beautiful presentation and a unique dining experience. Lots of great, fresh tea too!
THey ran out of sui buns. The only reason why we went
Service is real bad food is average and they took so long for our dessert that we left , with so manny restaurants in Chinatown DC area , please don’t go here all the other ones got to be much better
Went here upon recommendation on Sunday in January around 1pm and was very disappointed. We had a reservation and restaurant was half empty and yet we had to wait 25 minutes for a table. It was understaffed and we didn't get menus or water til 25 minutes after being seated. The restaurant was not clean, tables remained unbussed the 1.5 hours we were there, waters leaks on the floor everywhere, and service was poor. Half of the dishes on the brunch menu were sold out. The manager who seated us never came to check on us and we had to flag a waiter down. The food came out quick but that's the only positive I can say.
My mother and I were visiting from NY to see my Aunt , who lives in DC. I googled the best place in DC for dim sum and found Ping Pong. We would not be disappointed. We chose the $25 tasting menu, which included different type of dumplings, such as lobster and shrimp ,crispy prawn rolls , pork buns ,delicately sweet, yet, not too spicy. I ordered a peach earl grey julep which paired delightfully with the entrées. My only complaint was with our dessert, sweet pineapple filled spring rolls, that were served with cinnamon ice cream, which was great. I just wish we were each given a scoop of ice cream, instead of having to share a big scoop. All in All, I gladly recommend Ping Pong to anyone looking for great Dim Sum in DC.
Food was below mediocre - some of the dishes didn’t come out and we were informed that we’re out - - it was lackluster at best. Service was off... yuk.
Bought the groupon that came with a set of preselected dishes. It was okay some of the items were more enjoyable than others. The groupon was still worth the value of what we got.
I had come here for happy hour a couple of times before within the last two years with some other friends. The drinks and food had been good. I also came here about two months ago for a friend's birthday and the happy hour drinks and food were good. Unfortunately, this time around I was disappointed. The drinks were like fruit juices, A couple of guests in my crowd asked whether their drinks could be redone. It was a terrible experience for me since I recommended the place.
Food was good. We got assorted dim sum, which is a menu item so dont say it unless you want to order it. We ordered three different types of dim sum and two different spring rolls. The atmosphere was very trendy. We eat an early dinner/late lunch, so only a few other groups there. Their teas are hand crafted, but im not a tea connoisseur so its just tea to me and its too expensive.
All in all great place to eat. Their dim sum is wonderful.
I took the chance of having dinner here with two vegetarians before a Wizards game. Overall I would agree with the reviews that complain about the potion sizes and the unavailability of certain menu items. The vegetarian set menu is paltry. The black pepper shrimp lackluster and arrived on wilted-looking greens and jalapeños. The variety of steamed dumplings were decent, but we're also presented in a somewhat unappetizing way. Dinner for one adult and two children with no alcohol came to $90, which would have been fine for larger portions and a notch or two higher in quality/presentation. As it is, it's overpriced street food.
This used to be one of my favorite restaurants. I have been at least 20 times. However, my last experience was awful. It felt like the restaurant was on its last legs. The dumplings had raw tasting dough inside and were grainy. They were out of the char sui buns on a Friday at 6pm. The restaurant was nearly empty and they got rid of the dim sum style menu and instead had a regular menu (no piece of paper with boxes to check). The drinks were watered down and of the 15 dishes we ordered, not one person in my group of 3 thought any were actually good. I used to always recommend this as a fun place but it felt like they had just given up.
Truly disappointed. I started coming to Ping Pong Dim Sum the year they opened and brought several people with me over the years. However, I had not been back in a good 4 years. The quality of the food has really gone down along with the service. Management did nothing to support their team, though they were visible to me and could see that I had a table full of empty dishes. I really would be surprised if they are still open in the next few years, if they continue this way.
I have been going to this Ping Pong location for years, but had not been in about 8 months. I have to say that, while the food was still fantastic, I was less thrilled by the service this time. Not the quality I've been used to. It might be that it was a week night... so I might go back on a weekend at some point to see whether it would be different. But that was a huge disappointment to me, after getting stellar service all these years.
Very little food for the money and they were out of half of their menu items! It was also empty a lunch time, which was weird.
Excellent lunch specials. Service was a little slow
It was unfortunate but when we arrived the man at the reception area made a scene when a waiter came and offered to show us our table. This incident impacted our mood and though the food was satisfactory and our waitress was exceptional, we really didn’t enjoy ourselves. My first meal at Ping Pong was indeed a treat and this time perhaps was an exception.
Overpriced for overcooked dumplings. Very pretty ambiance but not great food
Overall the food was tasty, however not traditional dim sum if that is what you are looking for. No carts and only about 3 dumplings for $7 which is a bit steep for a normal dim sum restaurant. Basically was in DC and wanted dim sum, we learned about Oriental East in Silver spring closing this year due to renovation, and that had been my go-to place, so did some searching and this popped up. The menu looked decent, so figured we would try it. Went around brunch time, which if you want to bottomless brunch then it's a good value, we did not so we ended up coming back at dinner time. The char-sui buns were pretty good, the har-gau was ok, a little gummy. The dumpling sampler is interesting.. different flavors, good if you want to try something more fusion/modern. The lotus leaf rice was pretty good. The soup dumpling was a little disappointing, not very much soup, we are used to the kind where you have to use a spoon to hold it because there is so much soup. The crispy green beans were yummy. Overall the service was very polite and friendly, we sat at a bar table and the bartender was our server, I think his name was Juan.. he was very nice. Overall the food is good, just not super traditional, it looks like the restaurant caters to guests who might not be familiar with traditional dim sum menus. This would be a good choice for a group of people who are looking for a more elevated experience than a traditional dim sum restaurant.
The fixed price lunches were an interesting assortment of contemporary dim sum. We ordered 2 different versions, both of which started with the same grouping of 5 steamed offerings: they were ok, but nothing really distinctive, and the wrappers were pretty glutinous. It took a couple of tries to get our server to bring us soy sauce, which helped both the flavor and the stickiness.
For the second part of the lunch, of the Dumpling Lunch "Baked and Fried" items, the mixed vegetable roll was quite good. There was a mix-up in what we ordered for the Signature Dish in the Ping Pong Lunch: we were initially served the Crispy Chicken with Orange Chili Glaze - wouldn't bother with it again - although we had ordered the Hoi Sin Duck Bao Sliders. When they finally came, they were the best part of the meal.
Ultimately I wouldn't bother with the Fixed Price lunches, but perhaps ask for recommendations from the a la carte menu.
Too many items on the menu unavailable. The chicken dish (in the set lunch menu) was too dry. Otherwise, dim sum items were good.
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Ping Pong Dim Sum - 7th Street is rated 3.8 stars by 1796 OpenTable diners.