Ping's Seafood

06/26/2008 Posted by maddawg995

I was checking out the Best Chinese Food section and was shocked by the list and felt compelled to write a review for Pings. On average since it has opened, I go to Pings about once a month for both dinners and dim sum and have rarely been disappointed. For the price and quality there's really no better place for seafood. My favorite dish for dinner is the "cold crab". It's a fresh king crab that's cooked then soaked in some type of soup and served chilled, sans soup. The flavor is amazing and really brings out the sweetness of the crab. It is served with a sweet and sour sauce which I've never even bother to use. Some of my other favorites include their house special fried rice (it translates to gold and silver fried rice in Chinese). I noticed many Chinese restaurants serve this now but as far as I'm concerned, Pings did it first and still does it best in NYC. Their winter melon seafood soup is also phenominal but I believe it's seasonal and must be ordered in advance. As for dim sum, the most important thing for me is freshness. There's a lot of restaurants that serve dim sum that you know is not fresh when they try to mask it with tons of MSG and/or sauce. Everything I've tried at Pings has tasted crisp and fresh, especially the dishes with seafood. My favorite is their "hai gow". They also have different variations of it with other seafood which are also very good. I noticed the previous reviewer said he was "ripped off". I can't say whether that's true or not but from my dozens of visits, I have never encountered it. In fact, there has been many instances where I was comped for soda or rice. Service wise, there's room for improvement but their wait staff is better than most if not all of the Chinatown restaurants. The midtown ones are definitely better though. Bottom line, if you're looking for dim sum or good Chinese seafood, Pings is a no brainer.

Pros: Dim sum, seafood, house special fried rice, various noodle dishes

Cons: Impossible to find parking during weekends

02/27/2007 Posted by tiffany1012

I went to Ping's for Dim Sum February 2007. They have big round tables which you share with other parties. There were two separate parties at the table with me. One party was too far away for me to see their bill. However, the other party was next to me and they knew the restaurant owners. Each time we ordered THE SAME ITEM my party was charged for a LARGE, meaning more money, while the party that knew the restaurant owners was charged a MEDIUM, meaning less money. I thought they were giving the other party a discount since they knew them. This party then left the table and another party was seated in their place. This party started ordering some of the same items that my party ordered earlier; again they were being charged a MEDIUM. Now I know we were being ripped off. Everything we ordered was a LARGE except for 1 item. Since we now knew what was going on we decided to leave a little tip since they made their tip by overcharging us. When we got up to leave one of the waiters had the nerve to ask how we could leave such a small tip. We told him about how we were being charge a LARGE when the other parties were being charged a MEDIUM for the SAME ITEM and he said "Ok Ok" and ran away. It acknowledged that this is a COMMON ACT at their restaurant. If they had any ethics they would have wanted to rectify the error. The takeaway message is: ITS COMMON PRACTICE AT PING'S TO OVERCHARGE CUSTOMERS. It’s very upsetting to be ripped off. Don't take the risk; if you want to have a nice day and enjoy good foods go somewhere else.

Pros: NONE; ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

Cons: Common Practice to overcharge you! Why risk the aggravation?