Dim Sum at Ping Pong

Last night we feasted in one of my favourite London niches, the St Katharine Dock on Quayside, right behind the Thistles at Tower Bridge. Nestled in the Tower Bridge House is the superb Chinois Nouveu eatery Ping Pong where we got a room to ourselves; all 13 bankers from 5 foreign branches (3 South Africans, 2 Brits, one Americaine, 3 French, 3 Japanese and one Monegasse).

I persuaded my companions to venture into Ping Pong - the newish Dim Sum experience. It's really great there: unpretentious, not too expensive, friendly, trendy, young, healthy, international; and really buzzing with couples and groups.

We had drinks upstairs (they move you there while you wait for your table) - the Kumquat Mojitos are thoroughly recommendable and have become the mojito against which all others are measured. The Ratini cocktail was a little less enthusiastically received, although the American sharing our table seemed happy enough with her candy rats.

Then you have to go back downstairs to the tables to sober up – small squares for twos and threes down the quieter corridor and round tables for 8+ people to share in the main restaurant area. All seats are low stools although they are quite big.

Rather than a menu, you are given a little piece of paper and a pencil. Items are helpfully grouped into categories such as nibbles and soups, baked and steamed, fried, signature dishes, vegetables and side dishes etc. Each dish is priced around £3. We loved the "pick and mix" approach to choosing tasty little dishes - all of which come in three portions. Some of my companions were vegetarian and the choice was incredible. Even I loved the sweetcorn and coriander parcels, and the sticky rice in leaves is awesome. But I clearly focused on the prawn ones.

A healthy and tasty experience - and the flowering teas provided much amusement (although the fresh mint tea is the real clean palate taste phenomenon). Not the place to spend an entire evening, but in between drinks and dancing or for meeting up informally with a group of friends during the day or in the evening it is perfect! Which is exactly what we did, moving on to Trader Vic's before Big Ben struck midnight.