Ping Pong Restaurant, dim sum
at the side of the Festival Hall,
London - Classy But quick.
Ping Pong
Festival Terrace,
Southbank Centre,
Belvedere Road,
London
SE1 8XX
Tel: 020 79604160
One of the delights
of the recent refurbishment of
the Royal Festival Hall has been
a great gaggle of newly hatched
restaurants sheltering as it were
like ducklings under its wing.
Admittedly most of them belong
to some small chain or other and
are very often of varied ethnic
origins. Highly successful in this
genre is Ping Pong, which has seven
restaurants in prime central London
locations since the first one opened
in May 2005. Clearly they must
be doing something right, so on
our way to the Festival Hall for
a concert, we stopped by for some
dim sum, which is their speciality.
At 6 p.m. it was relatively quiet;
by 7 p.m. the place was heaving,
and there was a small queue of
people waiting patiently outside.
The interior
is a triumph of cool, chic design,
with rattan themes in dark wood,
which extends to the tables and
seating consisting mainly of
stools and benches - sensibly
designed for pit stop eating
rather than lingering.
While we were choosing
from the menu, the waiter brought
large glasses, filled them with
boiling water, and a jasmine blossom
in the bottom of the glass began
quite miraculously to unfold, looking
dangerously like a sea anemone.
There is a menu of many choices,
but it is well structured into
sections, so it's quite easy to
find your way around. The heart
of the menu is the sections on
steamed and fried dumplings. The
waiter suggested that we chose
three of each to share between
the two of us.
The steamed dumplings
come to the table in traditional
Chinese bamboo steamers. The fillings
include squid, prawns, pork and
various vegetables minced up together
in different combinations and with
subtly different seasonings. I
very much like the rather comforting
texture of these steamed dumplings,
but my friend felt that some people
might be put off by the slightly
gelatinous feel that some of them
had. Particularly delicious, I
thought, was one of the chef's
specials made from scallops, prawn
and pork. The fried pieces are
mostly like rather superior spring
rolls with more interesting fillings,
but there are also ones that look
like seashells with carefully pleated
edges.
All the dumplings
come in threes, priced at £2.99
per portion; this makes sharing
interesting, and a test of your
negotiating skills. The sticky
rice is magnificent, delivered
in a large steamer, tightly wrapped
in a large lotus leaf, fragrant
and flavourful. We were both surprised
how satisfied we felt, and given
that we didn't want to fall asleep
in the concert, we decided to pass
on the desserts, though I've heard
the chocolate buns with whisky
flavouring are very popular: those
and the honey glazed ribs will
have to wait for next time.
Our bill for this
tasty and speedy pit stop came
to just over £15 per head
including service, which was friendly
and efficient. I call that good
value for money.
Ping Pong,
Festival Terrace, South Bank
Centre, Belvedere Road, London
SE1 8XX reservations only on
parties of eight or more 020
7960 4160
Open daily from 12
noon, Monday to Wednesday close
midnight, Thursday to Saturday
close 1 a.m. Sunday close 10:30
p.m.
