A Guaranteed New Burger Cup Champion This Year as Cannon's and Q Mex Step Up to Finals

We're guaranteed a new Beijing Burger Champion as all expectations have shattered by Q Mex conquering two-time champion Slow Boat, and young upstart Cannon's Burgers ousting Great Leap Brewing in Final Four action that ended at noon today.

Now, we head for the finals: Q Mex takes on Cannon's Burgers for all the bacon (or in this case, the beef).

Meanwhile, reigning champ Slow Boat will face off against Great Leap for a final third place spot.

To get to its spot in the finals, Q Mex took on and defeated VSports, Katchup, Fatboy's, and finally, Slow Boat. Relative newcomer Cannon's rose above Caravan, Jing-A, Home Plate, and lastly, Great Leap Brewing.

The Gaobeidian-based Cannon's Burgers, which debuted on last year's poll at #74, rocketed to the top on the basis of a strong showing at this year's Burger Cup, where many a burger lover tried and was won over by their tasty creations. Those pining for a taste closer to home need only wait a few more weeks when the shop will be opening a second location in central Xingfucun.

Voting for this round will close at noon on June 15, after which we will announce the winner of the Beijinger 2017 Burger Cup.

The final battle for the Best Burger in Beijing is now live! Choose your favorite burger right here

Burger vendors looking to put together new burgers: listen up for a little bit of burger clientele insight. We asked voters what cheese they preferred on their burgers, and the masses voted as follows:

1. Cheddar
2. American
3. Blue
4. Mozzarella
5. Swiss
6. Monterey Jack
7. Goat
8. Provolone
9. Feta
10. Gruyere

Blue was a surprise favorite, coming within spittin' distance of second place.

And where do Burger Cup voters consider great beef comes from? No one country garnered the allegiance of more than half of the respondents, but Australia was the clear winner and the US the runner-up, with no other country earning more than a quarter of burger lovers' hearts:

1. Australia (46 percent)
2. United States (41 percent)
3. Argentina (23 percent)
4. New Zealand (22 percent)
5. Japan (15 percent)
6. Brazil (11 percent)
7. Canada (11 percent)
8. Mexico (11 percent)
9. China (9 percent)
10. France (7 percent)
11. Uruguay (7 percent)
12. United Kingdom (6 percent)
13. Ireland (5 percent)
14. Italy (5 percent)
15. Other (2 percent)

Our voters are a Chaoyang-heavy bunch, with more than half hailing from Beijing's eastern and most populous district. This is the full breakdown:

1. Chaoyang (57 percent)
2. Dongcheng or Xicheng (13 percent)
3. Haidian (12 percent)
4. Shunyi (7 percent)
5. Daxing, Fangshan or Tongzhou (6 percent)
6. All other areas (6 percent)

We also asked you about veggie burgers, and a surprising 2 out of 3 had positive things to say. Sixty-six perfect responded with positive comments, while 34 percent had negative things to say about vegetarian burgers.

Top positive comments:

1. Healthy
2. Delicious
3. Yummy
4. Good
5. Green
6. Nice
7. Fresh
8. Tasty
9. Awesome
10. Great

Top negative comments:

1. Why
2. Nope
3. Boring
4. Fake
5. Gross
6. Yuck
7. Disgusting
8. Dry
9. Eww
10. Shit

(Charming!)

Finally, as is our custom, we also asked you to rank the venues that did not make it into the Final Four. Here they are, giving them their final rankings in the 2017 Burger Cup:


5. Home Plate BBQ
6. The Local
7. Fatboy's
8. Plan B

They join the previously ranked burgers from last round, to complete the "best of" list right through to 102 (asterisks indicate venue is currently remodeling, in the process of opening, or in the process of adding burgers served at the 2017 Burger Fest to their menus):

9. Blue Frog
10. Jing-A
11. Katchup
12. The Big Smoke
13. Lily's American Diner
14. Biteapitta
15. Let's Burger
16. North Capital
17. Stuff'd 

18. 4corners 

19. Tim's Texas Bar-B-Q 

20. Burger Break

21. Paddy O'Shea's

22. Caravan

23. Feast 

24. Grandma's Kitchen

25. Lush 

26. XL Bar

27. High Town 

28. Ramo 

29. Morton's of Chicago
30. Kenny's Burgers

31. 1F 

32. VSports Bar and Restaurant 

33. *Common Burger 

34. Luga's Villa

35. 8-Bit 

36. Andy's Craft Sausages 

37. *Panda Brew 

38. Nola

39. Dirty Duck 

40. Bistrot B 

41. Laker's 

42. Punjabi 

43. Regain Element

44. Molly Malone's 

45. Beer Mania 

46. Grinders 

47. Peter's Tex-Mex

48. Waspark

49. Blue Marlin 

50. Veggie Table 

51. Frost Coffee, Cocktails and Dining 

52. Village Cafe, Opposite House

53. Irish Volunteer

54. Drunk Craft Beer & Restaurant 

55. Burger Counter 

56. Café Flatwhite 

57. He Kitchen 

58. Eudora Station 

59. The Bookworm

60. Tiger Pancake House 

61. Uburgers 

62. NBeer Pub

63. Dongli Brewery

64. Chat Room

65. Steamrhino Brewery Restaurant 

66. The Granary Bar & Bistro 

67. Hungry Horse 

68. Park Side Bar & Grill 

69. Old Bike Café 

70. Four Ace 

71. Beersmith Gastropub 

72. The Cut, Fairmont Beijing 

73. Ahava Bistro and Cafe 

74. Buddy Bar 

75. The Kitchen Table, W Beijing Chang'an 

76. Root Pop 

77. Balmain Gourmet Meat & Grill 

78. Fella's 

79. Bunny Drop 

80. *Mr. Charcoal 

81. Nasca Café 

82. City Wall Bistro, Marriott 

83. The Garage

84. Nanluo Big Burger 

85. O'Leary's 

86. Landmark Café

87. Renaissance Beijing Wangfujing Hotel Food Studio 

88. MustGuette 

89. Paulaner Maximilian 

90. Bobo 

91. Rolling Rolling Craft Brewing 

92. Park Square

93. Yuppie Yummy

94. Galleria 

95. Fuel, Langham Place 

96. Windy City 

97. Hub Kitchen 

98. Angel Burger 

99. Craft, Crowne Plaza Lido 

100. Steak Exchange, InterContinental Hotel 

101. Loft Eatalicious

102. Pentalounge, Penta Hotel 

Now that your salivating wildly, vote for your favorite burger in the Championship Round here, and then stay up to date with all our Burger Cup-related happenings here.

More stories by this author here.

Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
Instagram: s.xuagram

Images: the Beijinger, splendidtable.org, loveaustralianbeefandlamb.com