With a delicious offering of freshly prepared dim sum, Ping Pong provides a mouth watering dining experience at an affordable price.
The brand has nine sites in London – including Soho, St Christopher’s Place and Southbank – and a number of international sites in Brazil, the Middle East and the USA.
All of the food on the Ping Pong menu is freshly prepared and in keeping with traditional methods of cooking the dim sum is served in a steam basket. The brand launched in 2005 to great success and most recently opened two new sites in Brazil and Washington.
Ping Pong Marketing Manager, Artem Sagiryan, said:
“When we first launched the Ping Pong brand in London no one outside of China Town was serving dim sum and even those that were had chosen to cater more towards the Chinese customer. At Ping Pong we wanted to change this way of thinking by creating an all-day dim sum restaurant where we could serve good healthy food at an affordable price and within a great environment.
“We took the traditional Chinese concept and developed it into a modern and contemporary design. Our restaurants appeal to the 25 – 35 year old urbanite and we launched in London as it allowed us to develop our brand in one location before we decided to branch out further afield.”
The two most recent sites to open in the Ping Pong portfolio are Ping Pong Brazil 2 and Ping Pong Washington 2.
Ping Pong Brazil 2 opened in 2011 and is situated in a shopping mall. The 100-cover restaurant includes a number of stunning features which mix a traditional Chinese flavour with a very Brazilian spirit.
Artem said:
“We had not set up a Ping Pong restaurant in a shopping mall before so Ping Pong Brazil 2 provided us with a very interesting new experience.
“We played around with the space that we had available – to make it seem as if it was an outdoor restaurant rather than an indoor site – and it worked perfectly.”
Following the launch of the new site in Brazil a second restaurant opened in 2011 in Washington.
Ping Pong Washington 2 is a 250-cover restaurant situated across a single floor of a six-storey building. The site was launched following the success of Ping Pong Washington 1 in 2010 – the first Ping Pong restaurant in North America – and is proving as equally popular as its neighbouring restaurant.
Features of Ping Pong Washington 2 include oak tables, a soft amber lighting scheme and outside seating.
Leading interior design practice MACH was the interior design architect on Ping Pong Washington 2.
Discussing the company’s involvement with the site MACH Company Founder David Marquardt, said:
“Ping Pong Washington 2 proved to be a little challenging as the site was located within a triangular building. However instead of worrying about the space that we had we decided to work with the existing shape to create a very unique and interesting design layout. We placed the kitchen at the back, where the triangular shape is at its largest, and then we created a round bar towards the front of the building to present a very striking feature.
“We look at the core of the brand when we are creating our design. The core of Ping Pong’s theme is old bay dining and a key factor is the dumplings, the idea of steamed food and of course traditional Chinese heritage.
“Traditionally dim sum is served on round tables so it was also important for us to incorporate this idea into the restaurant. A lot of design ideas we sourced were from watching how customers interact with each other within Ping Pong restaurants. There is a very social element to this brand, where diners share their food amongst each other, which makes eating out at Ping Pong an event.
“We don’t design a restaurant for someone who goes once; we create designs for frequent diners. Ping Pong is an affordable way to dine so we want diners to be surprised that they are getting more out of their restaurant than they pay for.
“The market has already been developed for this brand and now Ping Pong has room to grow.”
MACH
MACH is an international architectural practice based in Zurich. The company was founded in 2000 by David Marquardt and Jan Fischer and has worked with a range of clients including TOTO, The Blackstone Group, IWC and Ping Pong.
MACH believes in three simple principles: that form should add lasting value to a project; that practical elements should ensure efficiency; and that designs should create timeless spaces. The practice also works closely with leading craftspeople – from carpenters to lighting engineers – to create buildings that incorporate traditional design aesthetics with modern concepts.
MACH was involved with the original design concept for the very first Ping Pong site in 2005 – Ping Pong Soho – where the practice devised a design which incorporated a clean, open layout that allowed 60% of the restaurant to be used as a dining area. The practice then installed traditional hand-carved furniture, large Swiss oak tables and onyx glass centrepieces all of which helped to create a hugely successful restaurant.
Following the success of Ping Pong Soho, MACH worked on a number of sites, including Dubai, Brazil 1 and 2 and Washington 1 and 2.
For more information on MACH, please visit: www.macharch.ch.
