Pizza Pandemonium: Brace Yourself for an Epic Elite 8 Showdown
With another vicious halving, just eight establishments remain in our quest to find Beijing’s best pizza! This last round of tasty attrition saw all the top seeds, except for Pizza+, progress onwards into our aptly named elite category. Of note, Bottega outlasted Luga's in the showdown of Neapolitan fare, The Tree failed to derail a momentous Tube Station, and two-time defending champions Gung Ho! overcame Shunyi favorites Pie Squared to keep the quest for a three-peat alive!
SCAN/EXTRACT THE QR CODE TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE IN THE ELITE 8
The competition is cut-throat, the pies are sublime, and like always, our readership gets to bask in the spoils of our cheese-laden conflict! If you haven’t already tasted the pizzas in our Elite 8, do so, as no matter what your choice, you'll be savoring one of Beijing’s finest. Furthermore, our Pies For The People promotion is still ongoing, so you still have time to take full advantage of cheap and cheesy bargains!
In the meantime, to whet your appetite, have a gander at our bracket so far:
Click on the bracket above to enlarge
Here's a Recap of the Sweet 16:
Bracket A
Gung Ho! (1) boxed out Pie Squared (4)
La Pizza (3) subtracted Pizza+ (2)
Bracket B
Annie's (1) sent Q Mex (4) south of the border
Tube Station (2) uprooted The Tree (3)
Bracket C
Great Leap #45 (1) bounded by Tavola (5)
Bottega (2) bested Luga's Villa (3)
Bracket D
Kro's Nest (1) flew by The Local (4)
Eatalia (6) edged out Pizza View by Opera Bombana (7)
Recall that you'll need to return for each round to escort your favorites to the finals. Here's the remaining vote schedule:
Monday, Oct 31: Elite 8 voting closes at 2pm; Final 4 announced at 4pm
Thursday, Nov 3: Final 4 voting closes at 2pm; Championship match announced at 4pm
Monday, Nov 7: Announcement of 2016 Pizza Cup Champion
We also asked you last round what sort of beer goes best with a pizza, and these were the Top 10 answers:
Tsingtao
Jing A
Corona
Yanjing
Budweiser
Great Leap
Carlsberg
Hoegaarden
Beijing Beer
Erdinger
Furthermore, we asked you how familiar you were with some of our favorite local craft breweries, and used your responses to construct the following Brew Power Index:
Lastly, we also asked you to tell us which of your favorites did not make the Top 16. Here's what you said, and this will serve as their final rankings in the 2016 Pizza Cup:
17. Hutong Pizza
18. Pyro Pizza
19. Mao Mao Chong
20. Pizza Express
21. Yummy Box
22. Ramo
23. Tiago
24. Yellow Cab
25. Bocca Della Verita
26. Sureno, The Opposite House
27. The Rug
28. Flypizza & Hoodadak Chicken
29. Passby Bar
30. Tim's Texas BBQ
31. Grandma's Kitchen
32. Mio, Four Seasons Hotel
33. Pizza by LMPlus
34. Vineyard Café
35. New York Style Pizza
36. Papa John's Pizza
37. Domino's
38. Mr Pizza
39. Pizza Buona
40. The Irish Volunteer
41. Stuff'd
42. Pizza Hut
43. Nasca Cafe
44. Lakers
45. Lily's American Diner
46. Xian Bar
47. Alio Olio
48. Jazz-Ya
49. Scott's Family Ristorante Italiano
50. iFresh Pizza
51. VSports
52. Paddy O'Shea's
53. Fratelli Fresh, Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel
54. Mrs Shanen's / Green Cow Cafe
55. Park 17
56. Ahava Bistro + Café
57. Elisa's
58. Via Roma, Kempinski Hotel
59. Nine Road Pizzeria
60. Loft Eatalicious
61. The Veggie Table
62. Red House
63. 1st Floor
64. Pizza Factory
65. PBD Pizza Bar
66. Peter Pan
67. Casalingo
68. Pizza Maru
69. Michael’s Place
70. FA Cafe
71. Isola
72. Nanjie
73. Peter's Tex-Mex
74. Mixs Italian Grill, Crowne Plaza Beijing Zhongguancun
75. Whale's Pizza
76. Assaggi
77. Pizza Now
78. Frost
79. Prego, Westin Financial Street
80. Pomona
81. Charlie's
82. Ricci Café
83. Kitchen Igosso
84. Eudora Station Bar and Restaurant
85. Byone
86. Agrilandia
87. Bene, Sheraton Grand Dongcheng Hotel
88. Ku Pizza