Gung Ho : Pizza :: Blue Frog : Burger....basically its not good and expensive

Reviewed by hoyasnaxa on Mon, 10/08/2012 - 14:43
hoyasnaxa's picture hoyasnaxa
hoyasnaxa
Joined: Jun 24, 2010
Posts: 39
Review of Gung Ho! Pizza
2

This was the winner of the outstanding pizza award last year. LOL. Almost all the reviews talk about the great service, which I will agree on. The delivery system is really well done, except for their website which is super slow and not very intuitive. I have ordered food from many places here, and as long as it isn't really slow, I don't see why the attitude of the delivery employee who I will deal with for less than 30 seconds total would be the first and sometimes only thing I mention in a review. All I care about is the food, and frankly, Gung Ho is not that good. For the price, Gung Ho is quite bad.

Pizzas start at around 60 for a large. I am not a big person but I could probably eat two larges, because the crust is so thin and there really isn't much on the cheapest pizzas. There is basically no sauce on the pizza and the cheese is usually insanely greasy. We are talking soaked through the box with grease. The salads are pretty good and reasonably priced. I have never had the pasta and never will. In terms of TASTE, I actually think I prefer Annie's, which nobody would argue is Beijing's most outstanding pizza. With price factored in, Annie's must be considered not only Beijing's most outstanding, but the world's most outstanding.

The thing that Gung Ho does the best is market themselves. By some miracle they have won best pizza from the most read expat mag in Beijing, when anyone with tastebuds and without unlimited money would never consider it to be great. So for that, I must commend Gung Ho. Nobody talks about the food, but the delivery boy seemed very happy...

Comments

The Beijing Deva's picture The Beijing Deva Submitted by Guest on Tue, 10/09/2012 - 08:35

These guys are going down hill rapidly

I ordered from here for the first time in about a year a bit back and the pizza was practically inedible.

Tough base with zero sauce and the little cheese that had been applied appeared to have been blow torched on it.

There is a little hole in the wall place round the corner on Jiangtai Xi Lu that does much better pizza than this, and they dont even appear to have an oven! Costs a third of the price too (name escapes me).

RichAkers's picture RichAkers Submitted by Guest on Tue, 10/09/2012 - 09:58

Hi guys!

Sorry to hear you weren't into our pizza! That's tough to hear but we're always trying to get better. The sauce thing has come up a couple of times before and I've passed it onto our product guy John.

I'm not sure what I can do about our cheese though. We use Anchor mozzarella imported from New Zealand, one of the highest selling mozza brands in pizza shops all over the world. We just can't get quality like that here (though we're always looking!).

Finally, though we're always in a process of evolution (we completely re-did our dough recipe last year) I definitely understand our thin crust is not for everyone. If you grab some GHP and don't like it, you can return it for a full refund (provided most of it is still there!).

Thanks again for your feedback,

Rich Akers

meimofa's picture meimofa Submitted by Guest on Tue, 10/09/2012 - 11:40

hoyasnaxa: You can eat 2 large Gung Ho pizzas? Do you realize that's something like 2000 calories of food in one sitting... 2000 calories of quality ingredients? If your goal eating is to be stuffed full for the cheapest amount, eat rice.

And if 60 RMB puts you out, Beijing may not be the city for you. Or... eat rice.

I meet so many westerners who complain about pizza that doesn't resemble their favorite fast food pizza chain back home. "The crust isn't thick enough!" Homie, the crust is the cheapest and least nutritious part of the pizza. Pizza companies have been increasing crust content and decreasing toppings so they can rip you off while you are under the illusion you've been fed. Gung Ho doesn't do that, and discerning eaters appreciate that.

Don't change a thing Gung Ho!

riceagain's picture riceagain Submitted by Guest on Tue, 10/09/2012 - 14:24

Have to agree with meimofa here. Those complaining about Gungho's thin crust pizzas would probably be right at home in a Chinese pizzahut. That said, I am feeling the quality fade a bit (shuangjing) and the returns policy isn't a great option when you're hungry and have ordered in.

I do love their generous toppings or top notch ingredients though, kalamata olives FTW.

hoyasnaxa's picture hoyasnaxa Submitted by Guest on Tue, 10/09/2012 - 17:05

I dont care about pizza back home. I compare the pizza to other chains here, with Annie's being the barometer for middle of the road somewhat edible pizza, and Gung Ho does not taste much better, and its like 25% more expensive. 63 RMB for a cheese pizza with no other toppings is expensive, and considering how thin the crust is, its simply not that many calories of food. I also do not think that the ingredients are of much higher quality than other places that have pizza. Additionally, if the other places use worse ingredients but the pizza TASTES better, than Gung Ho really needs to do something different.

The Sanli chain isn't even the most outstanding pizza in their building (Giussepe and Annie's are better especially with price included). In Lido, the Irish volunteer is across the street and tastes better.

RichAkers's picture RichAkers Submitted by Guest on Wed, 10/10/2012 - 09:48

Loving the lively discussion!

I know everyone says this, but we monitor these forums daily and all these little nuggets of information go up (or down) the chain.

Riceagain: I'll look into the Shuangjing situation for you.

Hoyasnaxa:, I would say that playing the inflation game in Beijing is not easy (as I'm sure your friends in the f&b biz can attest to) but I understand where you're coming from.

We do have the afternoon 2pm-5pm free upsize, and we're overhauling our combo meals Very Soon™ to include pasta and some other stuff.

Thanks for all the support! Don't forget, you also have a direct line to Gung Ho! Lao Bans John and Jade at... johnandjade@gunghopizza.com so keep it coming with the feedback.

Cheers!

Rich

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