Ping Pong Dim Sum Birthday Lunch
My birthday celebrations came to and end yesterday. I like to long them out as long as possible, this year to celebrate turning 41 I had two weeks worth of dinners and nights out. The celebrations started on Good Friday, with my best friend Neil and a visit to one of my favourite restaurants and cuisine, Ping Pong Dim Sum.
Oooohhh I love dim sum! Ping Pong comes the closest in the UK to the dim sum I first ate in Hong Kong many years ago where I first discovered this amazing cuisine.
There are 8 restaurants in London at the moment including Soho, Southbank, Wembley, Westfield and St. Katherines Dock. We visited the St. Christophers place branch nestled behind Selfridges. I of course had to pop into my favourite shop before lunch to get a few birthday goodies. This is one of the smaller branches of Ping Pong and you might end up sitting close up the table next to you. But boy, its worth it for the food!
Cocktails time
Ping Pong do amazing cocktails. And I am a cocktail girl. For this visit I tried this rose and lychee martini. It was delicate and delicious. The perfect drink to kick off a dim sum lunch.
Oh was that another cocktail to try? Next I went for the passionfruit martini that had a little shot of alcohol in the passionfruit with a flame!! Loved it
The Food!
Onto the main event of the food. The ordering style of ping pong is a bit different. You get a long list of the dim sum dishes and tick off the ones you would like, you also have a menu card that describes each dish along with ingredients (as Neil is anti-mushroom!). You are recommended to order around 3 to 4 each.
We chose our dishes, and the waiter/ess brings them out at random as and when they are ready. We went for a bit of everything. Soft shell crab had to be ordered. It came with shredded vegetables, sauce and steamed buns. It was so good, possible my favourite dish that we ordered.
We ordered pork puffs, a lovely mixture of pork in puffed pastry, a bit like a sausage roll! Potato and edamame cakes came with the most amazing sauce. We ordered beef dumplings, chicken dumpling and pork char siu buns. Plus a bowl of sea salted edamame beans of course.
Pork char siu buns are one of my favourite dim sum dishes and these did not disappoint. Light bun with lovely sweet pork inside. The chicken and cashew dumplings were ever so good dipped into a spot of salty soy sauce.
It was such amazing feast. We loved every dish and each plate or steamer that appeared on the table was a bit of excitement to see what had arrived and how it tasted.
I can highly recommend Ping Pong restaurant as a lovely spot for lunch, cocktails or dinner. It will not disappoint.
Disclaimer – This is a review post of Ping Pong and we received the meal and drinks free of charge, but does not affect my review in anyway.
