Kro's Nest 乌巢
35 Xiaoyun Lu,
Sanyuanqiao
霄云路35号
国航万丽酒店对面
8391-3131
Price Y100-Y199 per couple
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- City Weekend says
Delivering gargantuan pizzas and an exhaustive list of other American favorites like funnel cakes, onion rings and curly fries, this restaurant has gone through quite a few incarnations and retains a very loyal following. The huge space is filled with everything from free arcade games to an entire wall of home-grown spices.
- Contributor Description
The Kro's Nest has been re-hatched @ 35 Xiao Yun Lu.
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Most Recent Reviews
Great decoration, amazing atmosphere, but pizza ???!!!! NOOh , it's all about garlic , I went with friends ,tried 3 kinds of pizza, seafood, mushroom and vegetables. also the ceasar salad is stingy . Everything is garlic , I had a stomach ache .enjoyed the place so much but the food noooooo .
Though this is definitely the best pizza I've had in Beijing, I'm still going to have to give it three stars. The positives: great tasting pizza, LOVE the garlic butter, chill environment, light dressing on the caesar salad (not soaked in dressing). The negatives: service is still a bit slow, takes some time to get the attention of the staff, on the pricey side, not enough meat on the pizzas. All in all, it's a great place to go with friends, and the more friends you go with, the less you pay!
Big big pizza for a big big appetite. It's a really good place to go with friends and chat with. Portions are ... waouh! Taste is nice, there are a lot of different pizzas, good choice of drinks and it's unexpensive. Try at least once in your life!
I can't get enough caesar salad!!!! YUM!!!!!!
@sevenjonesy : I'm sorry to hear that you didn't like the pizza and the fries. You could try our pizza roll which is perfect for one person having lunch. Service hasn't been perfect lately which i blindly admit but its due to the fact that we just opened our new sanlitun branch thus forcing us to rotate some of our experienced servers to the new branch. A lot of new servers have been brought in and they are not that good YET. I guaranty that next time you come then you wont be disappointed.
Finally got the chance to try Kro's at its new location today. A really nicely done restaurant. However we were disappointed with the food. There was no lunch menu, so we ordered pizza (steak and cheese) plus curly fries to share between two. It's difficult to order when you are by yourself and wants pizza.
The pizza was rubbery and has no taste. The curly fries didn't taste like potatoes.. we ended up not eating most of them. We also noticed the table next to us ordered the same pizza and ended not eating most of them too. My friend ordered ice tea and had to ask multiple times for it. 4 different waiters came and gone with the order until it finally arrived.
On the plus side, the garlic butter dip was tasty and I like that they serve Root Beer. I don't think I'll go back for the food, but I'll give it another go for the quiz night.
I've always felt Kro's Nest serves the best pizza in China, and now they've got the location to back it up. Brilliant setup that blows the old Worker's Stadium location out of the water. Superbly done. I'll take the Kro's Special any day of the week and twice on Sundays. But I know I can order any of the pizzas off the menu and be impressed. Mad props to Kro's Nest.
LOVE the pizza, and the 100RMB bucket of beer on trivia night is awesome. For Americans, this trivia event is one of the best in town.
Kro's is okay, but at the end of the day, I think I just don't like normal, American-style pizza very much. We had the Hawaiian pizza, which was get value at RMB115 for a medium. The crust was excellent, but there was so much in the way of toppings and sauce and everything that the cheese didn't quite melt together right. The chicken wings are very good, but our server didn't ask what kind of sauce we wanted with them, so we ended up with a kind of watery ranch instead of the blue cheese, which I would have preferred. Service was pretty good, but our waiter seemed really confused about what language to speak to me and my Chinese American dining companions, and refused to speak to me in Chinese or acknowledge me when I ordered in Chinese (instead only speaking Chinese to the Asian Americans at the table). This is hardly rare in Beijing, but it is annoying.
The new Kro's Nest is definitely an improvement on the other one. The pizzas are quite creative and tasty, I like the kick in the onion rings and the bucket of import beers during happy hour is a great deal (5 for 100 RMB). Decor too is very impressive. Solid place to kick back with some friends and have a few rounds and some pizza. Haven't had any of the deserts but I'll definitely be trying them soon. If you want some classic (yet creative) American pizza in Beijing, this is where it's at.
4.5 / 5 stars --- i was not around in the BJ city for the kros nest of old which ive heard was alright as well so no sentimental feelings from this one either, i simply really freakin like this place. one of the staff members told me the story about old kro's vs new kro's but i think its not important anyway. first thing i did was sit and play streetfighter vs capcom for abut 20 minutes! the vibe was just cool, never seen a pizza place like this. i went alone and was very hungry, and left stuffed with pleanty of left-overs (maybe a small pizza option would be better?). ordered a medium cheeseburger pizza coz i thought it sounded interesting, and was it! also got the fried artichoke hearts which were ok, but came a bit cold (which is why they lost .5). --beers were not cheap (50 for guinness) but sized large as well as everything else. i think kro (tattoo'd white guy) actually made my pizza himself because i saw him back there tossing dough, which is pretty cool. overall, a great dinner and lunch (the left overs) and ill beback!
Tried all the stuff on the menu that one might not intuitively try at Kro's: pizza salad, curly fries, vanilla coke, Chicago deep dish pizza and the desserts--rice krispie treat pie and the funnel cake. This stuff was all pretty average. The deep dish pizza just doesn't work, especially for RMB160 price tag. It loses the magic almost immediately. the salad was the one thing that was actually really good--get it with the house-made ranch dressing. It's a steal for around RMB30. the flavored cokes were ho-hum. The rice krispie dessert gets points for creativity, but at nearly RMB50 for a medium-sized portion I wouldn;t order again. Likewise the funnel cake does channel midwestern carnivals effectively, but midwestern carnival food isn't gourmet and the heap of strawberry jelly on top seemed like a poor choice. A handful of real fruit would have produced a better effect. But that all that with a grain of salt. Kro's thin crust pizza is still the best in Beijing and his pizzeria is the most sophisticated pizzaria China has even seen.
@ julie510 - did you order the Chicago style deep dish? thats our thick-crust option. Sorry you didn't like it. We have gotten mixed reviews on that Deep Dish pizza so far, some love it, some hate it. We appreciate your support and hopefully you will try us again!
Two large pies were more than enough for our table of 12. We got one thick crust (Artery Clogger) and one thin crust. The thick crust was TOO thick and I'm a thick crust fan. We joked that it was thick like man tou but with pizza toppings. I wouldn't order the thick crust again.
I was very pleased to see the smoking section is clearly separated from the non-smoking section.
Kro's Nest is a destination and it's a great space. It's not as convenient as the old location where you can make a night of it without having to jump into a cab for after-dinner drinks.
@ Shagg : thanks for the support! The Kro's flyin' already!
@ Tkktony : glad you enjoyed your visit
@ Leemack : preciate it
@ lttlelena : Kro's takes care of its own! keep coming back for the real sh*t in beijing
@ stonebanks : kind words, and next time we'll have Guinness, I promise.
@ baozza : glad you liked the menu, and thanks for the suggestion, we will continue to work on more English training for our staff!
The new Nest is very well done. Great to see great things happen for Kro as this quickly becomes THE spot for Pizza in Beijing. Pizzas are better than before and the varied Menu will bring folks back for more and more. Friendly staff have it all covered and the restaurant design is exceptional.. One observation I had over 3 recent visits was that I think expats would actually order more food and ring higher bill totals if the waitstaff were more versed in English and offered/suggested more options like appetizers or deserts. As it stands though it's a great place, great food, great vibe.
I ordered a half veggie, half meat lovers (called the "artery clogger"), which was off the hook. Soft, pillowy dough, quality cheese and toppings. Get the thin-slice onion rings with the ranch dressing, which is full of garlic and dill. With the wall of herbs, use of tree-branch "nests" and enormous sky light, the space is simply gorgeous. Service was polite and very accommodating, giving us a tour of both floors of the restaurant when we asked. After being open for just two weeks, the place was packed and the staff were already able to handle the crowd. People are going to have a lot of fun here.
Like many others, I decided to stop going to the old Kro's nest (now tube stations blahblah) out of prinicpal. But I REALLY missed the pizza :( Now I'm SO happy that the kro's nest that I know and love has been rehatched and even cooler than it was before.
The new Kro's offers a really cool dining experience-- the restaurant is beautiful and it's as if you were really IN THE NEST! There's even a tree inside (bigger than the Tree's Tree!).
Last but certainly the most important-- the pizzas are delicious :) I love the cheesburger in paradise!!
Kro's definitely back. No flaws as far as I could see. Pizza quality is high (had the chicken alfredo and veggie). Prices are about 10-20 percent higher than before. The space is a real draw. Simply massive. Feels like four pizza restaurants connected together but doesn't feel forced in any way. Nor does it ever feel too big or empty due to the brilliant interior layout. It's a success, just like the Gongti Kro's was a success. If they keep the pizza quality up, this place will be a smash it. Can't wait for Street Fighter tournaments to start.
This new Kro's Nest. I have to say it's better than the previous one. First time at the new Kro's Nest, I thought they were closed because the door was closed, but there was this little switch on the right of the door to open it up, yet the switch was like a lamp switch, it's hard to figure for older people to interact with it since they're very used to open doors. Though I'm not sure about the variety of choices that are available on the menus in comparison with the old one, but there's one thing for sure. This packs a better kick than the last one. With new things on the menu, like Pizza Kones (Not exactly the name) and Kurly fries. There's this special kick in the Kurly fries that made you want to eat more, but I ordered a medium pizza so, I need to have some space for that too. We ordered a Pepperoni Explosion, this is like a classic in the old menu, the best thing with the pizza is that you can have a dip for your pizza and there's also cheese powder to add onto your pizza. There's a lot of different kinds of dip you can choose from from garlic onion to alfredo cheese dip, and today we chose the alfredo dip. The dip came in hot with the pizza, it was great. You can eat it like an original with just forks and knifes with your pizza, or you can try the dip with the cheese powder. I've noticed that there is also dessert! I don't think there was dessert in the old one, though I could be wrong since I don't usually eat dessert in a restaurant. Closing comments: This is BETTER than the old Kro's Nest. Oh and also read the rules in the menu before saying anything.
Dinning in the Nest was great but now the The freshly re-hatched Kro is amazing bird. The large Pies are back and improved and the additional Kro-Bar will definitely take off. The spot is filled with jubilation and attitude. Me LikeY
The Kro Flies Again
thanks timkovacs for the review! - its helpful to know were doing some things right.- still soft opening but taking more customers everyday. come back and see us again! - WB @ Kro's
While there are a growing number of pizza options in the Chaoyang district I'm very happy to say that the new Kro's Nest is soon opening (next to the Dairy Queen on Xiaoyun Lu). The same larger than life pizzas as well as equally large salads and numerous other fried delicacies, my favorite being the parmesan herb encrusted onion rings, are on the menu. For lunch during this soft opening we enjoyed two large split pizzas (2 topping options per pie), and large they were (more than enough for 7 people)! We also ordered two salads and onion rings. Everything tasted very good. The pizzas were just the right amount of doughy - now I know the amount of dough used in a pizza is hotly contested, be you from Chicago, New York or Los Angeles, but if you were a fan of the old Kro’s Nest you will be even happier with the pies at the new one. I understand that delivery will have to wait until they work out packaging.
[HTML_REMOVED]All Krown Up[HTML_REMOVED]
[HTML_REMOVED] After a bout of intense, exhaustively documented controversy, the proprietor of what was once Beijing’s most popular pizza places has opened a new, identically named pizzeria that is both much more—and just a little less—than the old place.
[HTML_REMOVED] The new restaurant screams ambition. Its scale dwarfs most other restaurants in Beijing. Home-grown spices cover an entire wall of the main dining area. Arcade machines stocked with classic games stand at the entrance. The new menu adds a fleet of new dishes.
[HTML_REMOVED] With all this addition, it’s gratifying that Kro’s workhorse pizza, a New York-style behemoth, hasn’t suffered. If anything, it’s better. The crust is fluffier, and the cheese doesn’t bog down towards the middle of the pie like at the old Kro’s. A medium “artery clogger” (topped with most of the meats mankind puts on pizza, ¥135) was enough delicious pizza to put us into an evening-long food coma.
[HTML_REMOVED] But the newcomers aren’t all so successful. On a second visit we tried another “artery clogger,” this time Chicago-style (¥160). It came to the table lukewarm and topping-deficient. We could taste the milk in a strawberry milkshake (¥34), but less so the strawberry. Flavored Coke (we tried vanilla, ¥25) was similarly under-flavored. The Rice Krispie pie (¥45) is more intriguing in concept than in practice. But light and crispy onion rings (¥25) were a welcome exception, hands-down the best we’ve had in Beijing.
[HTML_REMOVED] Like at the old Kro’s, service is uneven. Some fuwuyuan are friendly, attentive and English-proficient. Others appear to have just flown in from Mars—not unusual in Beijing, but frustrating nonetheless. Kro & Co. are swinging for the fences with this one. That they’ve only hit a triple is still more than enough to earn them a hearty welcome back.
[HTML_REMOVED] [HTML_REMOVED]Matt Schrader[HTML_REMOVED]