Tried 3 items at lunch today with Steve.

Ping's noodle platter
Chef Ping's wings
Szechwan Eggplant

despite asking for extra chilies and heat, I found all to be sweet/cloying and not complex.

Now my 5th time here, I think I've given it the old college try, no more Chef Ping just doesn't serve what I'm looking for.

Edited to add: if you are coming for a weekday lunch, get there before 11:45AM, it was PACKED by then and there was a wait.

I completely agree. The food looked great, but lacked very much in the spice department, despite begging for some real heat when ordering. Not all that much in the garlic or ginger department, either. Instead, the waitress brought out some chile oil, but the oil had notes of fruit, rather than heat. I can't understand why this place doesn't deliver on authentic taste, considering the approximately 80% Asian crowd.

Of course the one day that Penang (just down the street from Chef Ping) is closed, friend and I go to Chef Ping.

At least this time the waiter was honest and basically stated that the heat won't come even if he requests it, "I'll bring you chili sauce" finished any last hope that I'd have a fulfilling meal.

Even if clients/friends wish to go, I won't, done.

Here's an interesting video that introduces the idea of Korean-Chinese food, which Ping's specializes in:

The Four Dishes That Define Korean-Chinese Food

I've enjoyed Ping's renditions of 3 of the dishes mentioned here:
Black Bean Noodles, Jajangmyeon
Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup, Cham Pong
Sweet and Sour Pork, Tang Su Yuk (Look at the Korean side of the menu for this one)

We enjoyed lunch at Chef Ping today. The pot stickers and egg rolls to start out were both good, albeit not unusually so. The two entrees we ordered - orange chicken and spicy shrimp - were both excellent. Thankfully, unlike some of the other frequently-hyped Chinese restaurants around town, neither was sitting in an excess of oil. Portion sizes of both were extremely generous. Both are designated with the little chili pepper icon on the menu to show they are hot/spicy. We didn't specify a heat level for either when ordering. Both entrees had maybe ten dried chili peppers in them; the spicy shrimp was indeed spicy (I'd call it maybe a 7 on a scale of 1 mild to 10 incendiary), while the orange chicken was less so (3), so it does indeed vary. This was one of the best Chinese meals we've had in quite a while, although it's also worth mentioning that we've been frequently disappointed lately when trying Chinese. We'll be back, sooner rather than later, and we look forward to trying a lot more dishes on their menu.

stevez wrote:considering the approximately 80% Asian crowd.

Closer to 90% today.

At dinner tonight I took photos. The previous description still applies. Nothing was terribly spicy, although I think the General Tso's chicken was the only dish that had dried red peppers or was supposed to be at least somewhat spicy (which it wasn't).

Exterior


Interior


Pot stickers (fried)


Shrimp toast


Egg rolls


Shrimp dumplings


Mo-shu pork


Mongolian beef


Garlic chicken


General Tao's chicken