Pyro Burns Downtown Competitors in Pizza Cup's Bracket D Taste-Off

Michael Wester | Dec 12, 2021 5:47 pm | Add a comment | 193 reads

Pyro Pizza, the Haidian pizza pub with locations in Wudaokou and Weigongcun, was the surprise victor in Saturday’s Pizza Cup Bracket D Taste-Off, over downtown brethren Great Leap, Jing-A and The Pizza Show.

With their victory Pyro moves on to the championship, where they will go head-to-head with the winners of our three previous rounds: Q MEX, Forno, Tube Station and Pie Squared (this year's Final Four will actually be a Final Five, as Tube Station and Pie Squared tied in their taste-off). The winner of this final round will be crowned Beijing's Best Pizza for 2021.

The final will take place next weekend – and tickets will go on sale shortly. You’ll find them on sale by scanning the QR Code below when they are ready:

Pyro wowed the crowd Saturday with their Nacho Beef Pizza. Featuring seasoned beef, onions, jalapeños and olives, it was finished live at each table with tortilla chips, fresh tomatoes and a drizzle of sour cream.

They faced stiff competition from amazing pies served by Great Leap (the Little Nunzio, featuring house-made sausage, pickled peppers, chili flakes and basil); Jing-A (which served a Yunnan Wild Mushroom pie); and The Pizza Show (which served their Meat-Lovers pizza featuring meatballs, beef sausage, salami, ham and basil pesto).

In the end, 42 of our 104-strong tasting panel chose Pyro as their favorite, while Jing-A garnered 26.5 votes, Great Leap 26, and The Pizza Show 9.5. The half votes occurred when one voter could not make up his mind and cast a half a ballot each for Jing-A and Pizza Show

Pyro’s victory assures them a place in the Top Five, which is already a new high for the veteran pizza slingers, one of the few places that have competed in every one of our Pizza Cups stretching back to 2011. They made it as high as 7th place in 2014 (when they were competing as Sugar Shack, a short-lived rebranding that was reversed in 2016), and placed in the Top 10 as recently as 2017.

This year’s taste-off methodology likely aided the Haidian restaurant, as it was no longer at a geographic disadvantage. All four pizzas in Bracket D (as was the case with previous rounds) were served at a 100-seat taste off that took place at Dongzhimen’s Georgia’s Feast.

Meanwhile, competition was fierce in our Pizza Pentathlon, with Golds for Fiji in the Bing Dwen Dwen Toss, Australia in Lace the Skate, and Mongolia in Trivia. However, the day was won by the team representing Laos, which took home golds in both Table Curling and Air Hockey, as well as the Gold in the Pentathlon, given to the team with the most collective points from all disciplines.

The Full Results:

BING DWEN DWEN TOSS
GOLD Fiji
SILVER France
BRONZE Mexico

TRIVIA
GOLD Mongolia
SILVER Argentina
BRONZE Kazakhstan
BRONZE Israel

LACE THE SKATE
GOLD Australia
SILVER Fiji
BRONZE Denmark
BRONZE Syria

AIR HOCKEY
GOLD Laos
SILVER Italy
BRONZE South Africa
BRONZE Australia

TABLE CURLING
GOLD Laos
SILVER Jamaica
BRONZE Greece
BRONZE Hungary

PENTATHLON
Gold - Laos – 21 points
Silver - Australia - 20 points
Silver - Fiji - 20 points
Bronze - Greece - 17 points
4th - Italy - 14 points
4th - Denmark - 14 points
4th - Canada - 14 points
5th - Brazil - 13 points
6th - United States - 12 points
7th - Argentina - 11 points
8th - France - 10 points
8th - Mongolia - 10 points
9th - Hungary - 9 points
10th - Jamaica - 8 points
10th - South Africa - 8 points
10th - Syria - 8 points
10th - Kazakhstan - 8 points
10th - Israel - 8 points
10th - Mexico - 8 points