This past summer, I spent two months in Beijing, China learning Chinese. While the Chinese food was delicious, a girl misses her pizza. Pizza has been my phone background for over a year, if that demonstrates my commitment. As someone who used to eat pizza four times a week in her freshman year, I missed pizza terribly. I needed the best pizza in Beijing.
And so I embarked upon a quest: finding my favorite pizza in Beijing. Here is my tale. I will rate each pizza based on toppings, cheese, and crust, with a total score as well.
#SpoonTip for all the vegetarians out there: As I learned this summer, being vegetarian in China is difficult but still totally possible. Expect fewer options, though – even with pizza.
Laker's (湖人餐吧)
During my time in China, I was staying in a Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学) dorm. BNU had many restaurants nearby, including Laker's, a favorite for all those missing American food. Serving pizza, pasta, burgers, and salads, Laker's was often frequented on the weekends by tired international students, and on the weekdays by locals. Laker's actually has 10 locations as of now in Beijing.
Flavor: Since I'm vegetarian, I ordered their one veggie option.
Ratings:
Taste: 7/10
Cheese: 6/10
Crust: 8/10
Toppings: 7/10
Conclusion: Honestly, it was pretty good. After a long hiatus of eating pizza, it felt great. The corn was an interesting choice, but was surprisingly tasty.
HuTong Pizza (Houhai)
Now this pizza I was hyped for! Before going, my friend and I had found photos of this flatbread-like rectangular pizza on multiple blogs, and many touted it as the best pizza in Beijing. Located in a famous bar district called Houhai, this restaurant was something I had been looking forward to for a while.
The restaurant had beautiful decor, including Buddha statues and fountains. On top of that, the menu had tons of options, including multiple vegetarian ones.
Flavor: half "Mediterranean" (roasted zucchini, eggplant, feta, and pesto), and half regular veggie (similar to Laker's veggie pizza)
Ratings:
Taste: 9/10
Cheese: 9/10
Crust: 8/10
Toppings: 10/10
Conclusion: I loved this pizza. I never realized how much I missed pesto until I tasted its delectable goodness here. To me, the pesto one tied with Tube Station's "Greek Champion" as the best pizza in Beijing.
Tube Station
Given their motto of "Taste is All," I shouldn't have been surprised at the delicious pizza I found here. Tube Station is a quirky, fun pizza chain. Decorated like literal tube stations, the restaurant serves many types of pizzas with free take-home trays, cups, and more. If that isn't strange enough, the glass take-home cups were decorated with Donald Trump.
Creativity aside, the pizzas here were fantastic and come in three different sizes. Beware the large; it is actually huge, a rarity for the pizzas I found in Beijing.
Flavor: "Greek Champion," topped with caramelized onions, feta cheese, and mozzarella
Ratings:
Taste: 9/10
Cheese: 10/10
Crust: 8/10
Toppings: 10/10
Conclusion: Although simple, this pizza was widely agreed upon (by my friends) to be the best. With a sweet and salty component, this pizza was so good that I went to Tube Station four times in the two months I was there. Gotta admit, this became my WeChat (Chinese social network) profile photo and still is. So yes, this was also the best pizza I found in Beijing, along with the pesto pizza above.
Pizza Marzano
Like many others, Pizza Marzano is a chain restaurant – an international brand, in fact. I found one in a trendy mall in Sanlitun, and the menu was too enticing not to enter.
Flavors: There were multiple vegetarian options, but we stuck with the humble five cheese.
Ratings:Taste: 7/10
Cheese: 10/10
Crust: 4/10
Toppings: 7/10
Conclusion: We were not expecting the fantastic cheese in store for us, including blue cheese. Unfortunately, the crust was too thin, so it became hard to hold. Other than the crust, the pizza was pretty good. Also, for meat lovers, we also ordered pepperoni, and even I have to admit, it looks pretty stunning.
Ramo
Ramo is a trendy American restaurant hidden in an alley, with breakfast, pizza, and burgers – we went here to celebrate the 4th of July. As usual, I ordered pizza, and I was not disappointed.
Flavors: One had fresh arugula and tomatoes, and the other was full of cheese and tomato sauce.
Ratings:
Taste: 7/10
Cheese: 6/10
Crust: 7/10
Toppings: 8/10
Conclusion: Ramo's pizzas were fresh and full of vegetables. They certainly had good cheese, but the toppings were the star of the show here. However, as a cheese lover, I had to dock them for not being cheesy enough for me.
Pizza is truly what I live for. And in China, I was able to keep this love strong by trying out the delicious pizzas Beijing had to offer. Did I find the best pizza in Beijing? If you have a chance to go, try these out and let me know. Oh, and please enjoy the Chinese food while you're there, too.
Still want more pizza? Check out:
- Why You Need to Ditch Delivery for Fresh Pizza from a Pizza Farm