We're Down To Four: Its Brewmasters vs Smokehouses in Finals

It's come down to this folks: After four rounds of grueling burger battles, we're down to the Final Four, which pits two of Beijing's craft brewpubs against two of the city's best barbecue joints.

In quarterfinal action, Home Plate slid past Union Bar and Grille while Great Leap bested The Local, setting up a Home Plate vs Great Leap semifinal.

Meanwhile, The Big Smoke outlasted Blue Frog, and Slow Boat defeated Plan B, sending the two to match up against one another in the other semifinal.

As usual, if you've already made up your mind, go ahead and pick your winners here; otherwise you've got this weekend (hell, there's at least six meals before Monday) to go out and try the royalty of Beijing's burger circuit.

Continue below for our quick handicapping of the Final Four:

Home Plate, the reigning champion, has its two locations going for it, plus relatively low prices and an atmosphere that works for the drinking crowd as well as those looking for a calmer night (or afternoon) out. The Home Plate Cheeseburger is reminiscent of the backyard barbecues of yore, conjuring up images of American dads dressed in "Kiss the Cook" aprons surrounded by the young'uns dancing crazy around the sprinklers, and the homemade bun was nice and buttery like Texas toast.

The Big Smoke's signature burger is Blue Cheese Portobello Burger, and our reviewer had this to say about it during a visit in 2013: "The cheese-coated mushroom, breaded and fried, could be eaten separately. I went for a few combo bites for the taste, then decided to divide and conquer. Along with the mushroom, the burger is served with lettuce, tomato and chipotle mayonnaise, more of which is served on the side. It all comes on a sesame seed bun, with a choice of sides."

Great Leap has one of the best burger-and-beer combos in town, and is playing off the strengths of its well-regarded craft brews. A late July visit found their Great Leap Cheeseburger to be noteworthy, featuring a double patty and four slices of cheddar cheese.

Slow Boat has a solid reputation for not only its burgers but also its microbrews. Our correspondent found Slow Boat's signature Fryburger to be a real winner, featuring righteously crispy fries, a thick and juicy patty, and a slathering of aioli sauce for some kick.

Meanwhile: On the toppings front, we asked you what you like smothering your buns with, and there was no question that cheese is an absolute must, with three out of four surveyed saying that nai lao just has to be part of the burger equation.

Bacon was a surprise no. 2 topping, with slightly more than half of our respondents wanting a little pork action on their beef burger. Burger barons take heed: avocado (and its saucy derivative guacamole), a relative rarity in Beijing, beat out even mayonnaise as a topping, with a quarter of our respondents indicating it's one of their faves.

And because we're complete stats geeks, here's a look at where you think the best beef comes from: Nearly half say the US of A is the favored home country for your cows (which is sad for us Beijingers, given that US beef has been banned from importation into China since 2003). Australia is second, capturing 21 percent of your hearts. Argentina and Canada followed, while Uruguay and New Zealand, the second and third top exporters of beef to China with 24 percent and 12 percent of the imported beef market, respectively, failed to chart.

Finally, we also asked you to rank the eight spots that were eliminated in the previous round, which is used for our final rankings of Beijing's best burgers of 2014. Here's how you ranked #9-16:

9. Frost Coffee, Cocktails and Dining
10. Let's Burger
11. 4corners
12. Lily's American Diner
13. Temple Bar
14. Stuff'd
15. Lush
16. Biteapitta

Photos: Courtesy of the competitors