Do you ever really, really want a place to be really good? I wanted Pings to be that place for me. Sadly, it was not. Not even close.
We don’t get to the Big Apple very often. We go there for the culture, the food and the whole NYC vibe. When I am in a metro with a Chinatown, I seek it out for some great middle kingdom cooking. Northern, Kejya, Shichaun, Shanghai…you name the type and I love it! So I alloted a morning and lunch to tackle the NYC Chinatown scene. I had done my homework. Based on reviews from both Tripadvisor and Urbanspoon, I selected Ping’s Seafood 22 Mott street, NY,NY.
The location is right. A little difficult to find, situated amoungst some great little Chinese shops on a side street off the main drag. I played my cards right, on entry the waitrees greeted us, and I flashed some of my Chinese skills (I am near fluent). Her response back in English was “you speak Chinese” then pointing at a half bused table, “sit here.”. That was it. That was the high point of the entire service.
We were a little late getting to the resturaunt so we elected to forgo the dim sum as it is typically “well done” if you get there late. Our starter of pot-stickers were soggy. For the main course, I had the green been beef dish. It included generous portions of beens and no beef. Disappointing.
Did I catch them on a bad day? I sure hope so.
We are Mike and Luci.