Ping Pong

Gallery Pl – Chinatown
900 7th St NW (b/t N I St & N Massachusetts Ave) Washington, DC 20001
www.pingpongdimsum.us/

This is no ordinary dim sum house. If you want to experience dim sum for dinner this is the place to go. The place is huge, elegant and bold, with notes of dark wood and smashingling contemporary.It is definitively an attractive establishment that does an excellent job of luring “innocent” urbinites into its premises. Needless to say the place is sexy, but loud as loud can get. The acoustics in this place are desperately aggravating. You can barely hear the person next to you or across from you. I felt like I needed a microphone in this place in order to converse with anyone. This is definitively not the place for a first date or a romantic date at all, as you won’t get any conversation done.
Another downfall is the lack of valet parking. It is one of the most obvious things I expect when you are in a location that is so overtrafficked and supposedly to an above than avarage stablishment. So, I highly recommend taking a cab in.
Reservations are merely a suggestion as we were seated approximately 1 hour or more after our reservation. So, if you are a timely person, expect to chill at the bar for a good while. (who knows if this is a sale scheme.)
I must say that even thoug the food is delicious, it cannot remotely compare to the authentic flavors of a dim sum house where the dim sum is brought to you in carts. Technically the idea behind Ping Pong is turning dim sum into tapas and overcharge for it. Additionally the portions are so small that I can guarantee you that by the end of the night you will be starving again.
Regarding the impressevely stocked bar. I must insist that we are not in NYC and that paying comparable NYC prices in Washington Dc is absurd, unless you are in one of the best restaurants in town, or you just don’t care to be robben blindly.
Now if you are into overspending, flashiness and loud places where you just want to look good and not really care about the conversation….this is the place for you.