Gluten Free UAE
Hoping to be of help to all those living gluten free in the United Arab Emirates – نأمل أن نكون عوناً لكل من يعيش حياته خالية من الجلوتين في دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة
Ping Pong
Edamame with celery salt
Jumbo shrimps and citrus salad
Crispy aubergine with spicy mango sauce
Fried crispy asparagus with sprinkled sichuan pepper
Ding dong ding dong……Ping Pong is in the gluten-free house! Located in Dubai Mall, Lower Ground, next to Bloomingdales, this Chinese restaurant will welcome you with open arms.
The staff is very friendly and very accomodating, the place is simple yet stylish, suitable for lunching/dinning with family, friends, it works for any occasion.
The gluten-free dishes are marked on the menu and they are quite varied. We have tried: edamame with celery salt, sweet pickled carrot and mooli, jumbo shrimps and citrus salad, crispy aubergine with spicy mango sauce, fried crispy asparagus with sprinkled sichuan pepper, steamed broccoli with celery salt, steamed shanghai pak choi. I know what you must be thinking: you ate all that?? 🙂 Welllll, yes we did, the very welcoming assistant manager Nawa wanted us to try as many dishes as posibble. Plus, they are all very light and incredibly tasty. Our favourite were: the crispy aubergin and the asparagus followed closely by the carrot and mooli pickles.
They have their food delivered ready-made in big boxes from their main warehouse. They do have items that contain gluten but those are very few and they are prepared, transported and stored separately.
They will be looking at replacing their usual soy sauce with a gluten-free one in order to multiply the gluten-free options and they have promised to focus more on the gluten-free menu in the months to come. We did make a couple of suggestions: to double check the potato starch they use for certain items and ensure their supplier doesn’t use wheat on the same lines. Althought the risk of cross-contamination is quite minimal as the items containing gluten are very few and they come in separate boxes from their warehouse, we did suggest to look into dedicating a corner in the kitchen purely for handling gluten-free food.
Ping Pong is ready to listen, to adjust, to accomodate. We all know it can get challenging to dine gluten-free in Dubai, we have quite limited options. We need more restaurants like this, to encourage them that serving gluten-free is not difficult, it’s not rocket science, it can easily be done with a little training and good will.
Ping Pong has those qualities, they have the flexibility and the willingness to make their customers happy. If you decide to try it out, we would advise to speak to Nawa, the assistant manager about your menu and options, he will be more than willing to help out.
Oh and their cocktails rock! We have tried a couple, they are to die for!
Ramona&Yasmeen
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Gluten Free UAE 
I adore PingPong!! The staff are so lovely too 🙂