Motto by Hilton Washington DC City Center in Washington

Horrible, horrible, horrible. We were visiting DC for a work conference and had been looking into a good dim sum place for a god amount of time leading up our DC visit. Ping Pong was right across the street from our hotel. After a long day of workshops and training seminars, we decided to eat at Ping Pong. Before we got the the restaurant, we tried to make a reservation online and noticed that all the tables were free -- at that point, we figured that we would be able to get a table without a reservation, no problem. Our party of 3 arrives at Ping Pong and had to wait by the hostess's booth for about 10 minutes before we were able to ask for a table. The hostess then proceeds to tell us that they were only taking reservations and if we did not have a reservation, they would not serve us; granted, the restaurant empty and online there were several tables we could reserve. Frustrated, I actually went on my phone and made an online reservation for a party of 3 in front of the hostess. After about another 15 minutes of standing around waiting to get the hostess's attention, we told her that we have a reservation. She proceeds to seat us immediately and at a table in the back corner of an empty restaurant. It took about 30 minutes for our waiter to get to our table. Once we finally get to place our orders, he then tells us that they ran out of nearly 90% of the food items on the menu and that we can only order a few items, and even some of the drink items were unavailable. Reluctantly, we ordered what we could, waited another 30 minutes for our food and drink. Time pasted and we finally received our first food item, before our drinks. At this point my party was ready to leave but we decided to wait it out. Our food order finally came and we noticed that some of the items were incorrect, however, we could not flag down our waiter to correct the incorrect item. Luckily the wrong item was something that we enjoyed so we ate it. After a very long wait, we finally get our drinks and notice that the glasses were filthy. Hard water marks and other nasty food items were stuck to the glasses. Needless to say, our appetites were gone and so were our good moods. We asked for and received the check, which was expensive, considering the poor service and poor food. We called over the manager to complain about the dirty glasses and poor service. At first he was very apologetic but quickly began to tell us how we should have handled the situation, saying that we should have called over the waiter sooner to correct the dirty glasses and incorrect food items (but like I said, we could not find our waiter, we were being served food by other staff members). The manager did offer to take off 10% of the bill in order to compensate for the dirty glassware, but we told him that 10% would not cover the price the the drink. He tells us that he could take off 15%, then 20% and then eventually telling us that he would cover the price of the drinks. We settled for this, expecting that our drinks would now be free. When we receive the new bill, he only took off 15%, instead of taking away the drinks entirely. At this point we just wanted to leave; we paid the bill and left.

The staff was very careless and absent. The manager was rude and condescending (telling us that our complaining style was wrong -- we tired to be as polite as possible). And the food quality was completely was lackluster as well.

Never again will I go back to Ping Pong.

Was one of the worst dinning experiences I️ have ever had. We arrived to a mostly empty restaurant and were told we would need a reservation. We waited as we made one online for fifteen minutes later and then were seated. We waited 30 minutes to have anyone come to our table and then we’re told they were out of most items on the menu. Waited forever for food and even longer for drinks that came in dirty glasses. Ended up talking to the manager about the glass and he was defensive and offered us to 1) take the drink off our bill then took that back to 2) offer us 10% off which was less than the drink. Then 3) offered to take the 3 drinks off, after which he chastised the waiter (who was very nice) in front of us and told us , in a condescending way, we should always point out something wrong right away. After he left the waiter came back and told us he would be taking 20% off rather than the drinks. Overall shocked by the experience and never going back. Avoid this place if you can.

As others have commented, the food quality is good but the service is beyond abysmal. When we arrived we had to wait in line for 15 minutes to be seated since there was no one manning the front desk. Finally we were seated. But we had to wait 35 minutes to order! We had to ask questions about the menu which took time to do as well. Food came out in a reasonable time, but we were missing one item which never came. We asked for an extra menu to order more food, but that never came. Disgusted we asked for the check, put money on the table and left.

Great food and drink. Piss poor service. I went on a Tuesday night when I suppose it was expected to be quiet but in actual fact there were about 10 tables occupied including 2 large groups...but only two waiters + one server on duty!

Clearly they were understaffed the night I was here and it showed in the slow and error-prone service. The few staff on duty spent most of the night running around like headless chickens, they tried their best but really the blame must lie with management in under-staffing the joint.

In my case, the main problem was around a side of sticky white rice I had originally ordered to come with my first course of dim sum. It actually showed up at about 10 minutes after I had finished the dim sum. I was intending to order more dim sum so I asked the waiter if he could take it back and just keep it warm until my next course came, he actually offered to just give me a fresh one during the next course which was appreciated. Unfortunately the rice never came back, I got the rest of my 2nd course as ordered but the rice never materialized. In the end, I didn't even have to tell the waiter to take it off the bill, he did it virtually automatically so again I do not blame him for the overall bad service, he was clearly under a lot of pressure.

Also I heard the table next to me which was a large group of girls complaining as well so clearly I was not the only one having issues that night.

This place really needs to get their act together. Ping Pong is a widely recognized chain now and is considered fairly upscale so the service needs to match the amazing food (and cocktails!) on offer here.