kelley + ping {nyc}

I told you this was going to be catch up week. And I realized I never posted about Kelly & Ping, where we ate twice while in NYC this past Christmas.

We had an amazing duplex, penthouse loft in Soho for a week. A home swap with our villa in Umbria, which we manage to do about every two years. Somehow, we always are able to stay in  great apartments. We love being downtown and even if everyone moans and groans about Soho becoming too commercial, it’s a fun place to be if you’re a tourist. And we are, at this point, Italian tourists.

While there are lots of stores where typical Italian tourists can stock up on basics (Gap, Nike and Banana) the restaurant thing is more difficult. Which is why I’m so happy that Kelly & Ping exists.

Kelly & Ping has been around for about 20 years, I think. It’s not an ‘authentic’ dim sum house, nor is it some cutting edge version of Asian food. It used to be more of a grocery (and still sells some dry goods) but has morphed over the years into an easy, friendly restaurant with reliably good Asian food.

At lunch there is a buffet, which makes it an even easier (and affordable) choice. You can pick and choose, or just order items (like a basket full of perfect dumplings or a bowl of noodles or pho) off the menu.

At night things spruce up a bit. The buffet disappears, table clothes and candles come out, and the menu expands a bit.

The food is always good, never expensive and you certainly can’t get anything like it back in Rome.

Which is why we went twice. That, and the impossibly adorable way that they’ve decorated it. Walls of fans, masks and armies of Chinese dolls dance across the walls. A side of tasteful kitsch with my dumplings, just the way I like them.












Kelley & Ping
127 Greene Street
NYC 212.228.1212