Our Burger Cup brackets just got that much sweeter. 

Your second-round votes have cut the top 32 patties to a mere 16 contenders, trimming the field in half as we roll toward the gut-busting battle for Beijing’s Best Burger. 

In the spirit of healthy competition, you burger fanatics favored one underdog this round: Fifth-seeded Caravan defeated Let’s Burger to pull off one the Burger Cup’s bigger upsets thus far. It was our closest contest yet, and the win for the Moroccan restaurant, sports bar, and music venue gives them a chance to rematch with Cannon’s Burgers in the Elite Eight round, should both advance this week. That'll make for a suitable exciting rematch given that Cannon’s ousted Caravan ahead of the Sweet 16 in last year's tournament.

Scan with WeChat to push your favorite buns
into the Elite Eight!

All four of the cup’s top seeds in each bracket this year prevailed, with newcomer Side Street stacking up against 2017 Burger Cup king Q Mex, Great Leap, and Slow Boat Brewery as the Final Four slide closer to the ultimate grilling showdown. 

Newbies are all the rage this year, with Side Street joining four others in the Sweet 16 round: Hulu; 3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages; Common Burger @ ARCADE by Hatchery; and The Great Outdoors.

In another closely heated race, 3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages barely edged out Plan B, one of last year’s top dozen burgers; other 2017 favorites who bit the dust this week were Fatboy’s (last year’s #7) and Katchup (#11). And here’s something to chew on this round: 3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages must prove its piggy power when it battles reigning burger champ Q Mex in Bracket B. 

Turns out our gut had it right: Showing up at the Burger Festival appears to have given vendors quite the advantage, with 11 of our Sweet 16 contenders flipping burgers in-person for the estimated crowd of 14,000. This past weekend, one-third of you told us that a restaurant’s physical presence at the Burger Festival inspired you to cast a ballot.

As part of our annual battle of the condiments, we were not shocked to hear your preference for ketchup prevails, even if the red stuff barely beat out mustard this year, with mayonnaise bringing up the rear.

Last round, we also discovered that nearly 80 percent of respondents chow down on a burger at least once a week, and over the course of a typical month consume almost 10 burgers. How does that rank up there with your habits?

On that note, it's time to up your (already worryingly high!) averages, and don't fail us now as the competition gallops towards a tense finish. You have from now until midday this Thursday, Jun 28, to ensure your burger faves makes it through to the Elite Eight round!
 

Sweet 16 Matches

Bracket A
*Slow Boat (1) vs *Hulu (4)
*Home Plate BBQ (2) vs Cannon’s Burgers (3)

Bracket B
*Q Mex (1) vs *3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages (4)
Blue Frog (2) vs The Local (3)

Bracket C
*Great Leap (1) vs *Caravan (5)
Jing-A (2) vs *Common Burger @ ARCADE by Hatchery (3)

Bracket D
*Side Street (1) vs Arrow Factory (4)
*Fatburger (2) vs *The Great Outdoors (3)

Full results of the Round of 32

Bracket A
*Slow Boat (1) cruised past Biteapitta (8)
*Home Plate BBQ (2) thumped *Joe’s Bar and Kitchen (7)
Cannon’s Burgers (3) blasted *The Butchers Club (6)
*Hulu (4) squashed Katchup (5) 

Bracket B
*Q Mex (1) qrushed *QS (8)
Blue Frog (2) sliced The Cheesecake Factory (7)
The Local (3) rolled Fatboy’s (6)
*3 Little Pigs by Andy’s Craft Sausages (4) oinked Plan B (5) 

Bracket C
*Great Leap (1) bounded by Ramo (8)
Jing-A (2) clovered Paddy O'Shea's (7)
*Common Burger @ ARCADE by Hatchery (3) smacked *Bodensee Kitchen (6)
*Caravan (5) topples Let's Burger (4) 

Bracket D
*Side Street (1) rang *The Bell (8)
*Fatburger (2) stuffed Stuff’d (7)
*The Great Outdoors (3) boxed 4corners (6)
Arrow Factory (4) hit a bullseye against Lily’s American Diner (5)

The voting schedule as it remains

• Burger Cup Elite Eight: Jun 28-Jul 3
• Burger Cup Final Four: Jul 3-6
• Burger Cup Championship Round: Jul 6-9

Finally, as we do every year, we asked you to rank the remaining venues that did not make the Top 32. Your responses represent the venues’ final standings in the 2018 Burger Cup:

33. XL Bar 
34. Laker's 
35. East Hotel 
36. Migas Mercado 
37. Beersmith Gastropub 
38. Punjabi 
39. Waspark 
40. de Refter 
41. Lush 
42. Grandma's Kitchen 
43. Tim's Texas Bar-B-Q 
44. Bistrot B 
45. Veggie Table 
46. Legend Beer 
47. 1F 
48. VSports Bar and Restaurant 
49. Panda Brew 
50. RootPop 
51. Irish Volunteer 
52. NBeer Pub 
53. Morton's of Chicago 
54. Eudora Station 
55. Café Flatwhite
56. Fella's 
57. The Rug Café 
58. Beer Mania 
59. Picture My Cup at Kimo Kids Cafe 
60. Steamrhino Brewery Restaurant 
61. Grinders 
62. Burger Counter 
63. Tiger Pancake House 
64. Peiping Machine 
65. The Roots 
66. Windy City 
67. iB Craft Beer 
68. Yummy Box Pizza 
69. Village Cafe, Opposite House 
70. Luga's Villa 
71. The Bookworm 
72. Blue Marlin 
73. Park Side Bar & Grill 
74. Three Guys Burger House 
75. Wolfgang’s Steakhouse 
76. Cafe Flo 
77. Pop Up Kitchen 
78. Angel Burger 
79. The Cut, Fairmont Beijing 
80. Peking Garden 
81. Frost Coffee, Cocktails and Dining 
82. CHAR Bar & Grill 
83. C'est la Vie 
84. Aurora 
85. Park Square 
86. Four Ace 
87. Burger Break 
88. Molly Malone's 
89. He Kitchen 
90. O’Leary’s 
91. The Kitchen Table, W Beijing Chang'an 
92. Balmain Gourmet 
93. Meat by Ernest 
94. Steak Exchange, InterContinental Hotel 
95. Flora Steak and Bar 
96. Dongli Brewery 
97. Rolling Rolling Craft Brewing 
98. BLT American Restaurant Salad & Grill 
99. Wiggly Jiggly’s 
100. MustGuette

For every bite of burger-related content, remember to follow along with our 2018 Burger Cup tab, here.

Images: the Beijinger