First Glance: Kro’s Nest Pizza, Shunyi

The first Kro’s Nest pizzeria was opened up in 2005, in a quiet corner outside the west gate of Peking University, selling American style pizzas. A further seven pizza restaurants were subsequently opened across Beijing, making The Kro’s Nest one of the big players on Beijing’s pizza scene. They were winners of the Beijinger’s Pizza Cup, in 2011.

The Shunyi crowd will be pleased to hear, that their latest restaurant has opened up in the new shopping center Shine City. Even better news is that they do take-out and delivery. The delivery menu features some interesting pizza flavors and toppings, different from your usual margarita and ham and mushroom. The main thing I’d heard about The Kro’s Nest is that their pizzas are gigantic, thankfully they serve up a range of sizes.

I ordered a small Honolulu Hurricane (RMB 58), with tomato sauce, Canadian bacon, pineapple chunks, diced onion, red peppers, and finished with Kro’s herb mix. The bacon was plentiful and crisp, the pineapple a good firm texture. I especially liked the tanginess of the tomato sauce. The medium Chicken Alfredo (RMB 130) was heavy on the garlic, but a good ratio of base to cheese and sauce. For a medium it was huge, so I can only imagine how vast the large must be.

The pizza bases at Kro’s are thick and doughy. My kids love this kind of American pizza, whilst I prefer a thinner and crisper pizza base. The toppings were tasty and everything seasoned well, but there could have been more toppings, especially more chicken on the Alfredo.

The unique selling point of their pizzas is their size, which makes them ideal if you have several people round to share, or a very hungry family to feed. The small are priced at RMB 54-85, but not all flavors come in the small size. For a large you’ll pay RMB 138 up to RMB 218 for the Kitchen Sink pizza, which has a sprinkling of everything.

Read the rest of this post over at our sister site, beijing-kids.com.

Photos courtesy of Kro's Nest, Sally Wilson