On Monday night I went to Kro's Nest after winning the Beijinger pizza wars. I was told that I had won a free pizza party for 10 people. All we got for the "pizza party for 10" was an extra-large pizza, which meant one (albeit large) slice per person. This was not enough to fill up 10 people, and it felt like a scam to get us to spend money, since we were all already there. The waitress even tried to upsell salads and appetizers, which is usually welcome, but not when you are expecting to eat for free. I felt embarrassed for inviting my co-workers, since half of them had never been there before, and everyone was expecting a free meal that would fill them up. Free draft beer was also included, but the whole restaurant was allowed free beer, so it wasn't a special privilege. In fact, because of this, they kept running out of beer, and the waitress only served us once. From that point on we had to go up to the bar to refill our cups. Also, there was only one waitress for the 30 people (3 people won a pizza party for 10). It took 20 minutes for my drink to arrive, and then another 30 minutes for the (not free) refill, after asking three times for another glass. Even though I personally won the pizza party, I paid 45rmb for three glasses of tea. If I had stayed home, I would have spent less money eating somewhere else.
The poor management and the fact that I was supposed to have won a "pizza party" that felt more like a money-making scheme turned the expected pleasant evening into an expensive hassle. Although Kro's Nest was my favorite pizza place in town, after my "prize", I don't plan on returning.

After reading so much about this place we finally went to give it a try last week.

The restaurant is kind of cool, but for us they try a bit too hard to be cool. The menu has a long list of things which makes this place so incredible, among others that you should rather not complain about the noise of a bunch of drunkards on the other table because this is how things are going here, and that Kro's Nest is for whatever reason proud to offer smoking environment until the government stops them.

It just does not look or feel relaxed, more like a forced coolness. Probably a good venue for a birthday party of a group of 16 year old teenagers.

The pizza they serve is huge. The pizza itself is also ok, but nothing overwhelming. It comes with a dip, which tastes like cold sauce Bolognese, which was a bit weird.
The salad was really good, other side dishes a bit more hit and miss, for example very soft fries.
On the plus side, the pizza actually tasted a lot better the next day heated up at home, maybe that is why they are make them so gigantic in the fist place.

I dont like the other options of pizza slices but prefer the regular pizza
with my favourite toppings,but they have just the medium.
So everytime I have to for pizza ,I tend to shift towards annies.
I get a friend to go to kros nest ,if not i settle down to annies.

May be Kros nest guys should provide a option.

Thats the reason I feel Kros nest higher priced than Annies.

...........for a miserable experience! Your service is the lowest I ever met in a western restaurant in China.

We had a tomato soup as a starter that was unbelievable sour, just the kind that would give you stomach ache..........our first waiter said there was no manager or head chef present so "Mei you ban fang"! Then Allen came to the rescue with a small bowl of which he tasted tomato soup. Good initiative but then he explained that tomatoes are supposed to be sour.....mmmmmmm learn your western dishes before you try to outsmart a westener and you can make an impression. Then it came down to th situation that Allen refused to void our soups...........afraid to explain to the manager the next day?!!??! so we had to pay for one instead of 2.

Well I think it's to early to open a second branch Kro, especially if you leave Allen in charge on a busy night.

Good luck and at least we have a story to tell when we have pizza somewhere else :)

Having lived in the Boston/NYC area for quite some time I have a fairly high standard for quality when it comes to pizza. I was quite excited when the Xiaoyun Lu branch opened since work consistently brought me over there, so a few weeks and a few recommendations after it opened, my friends and I went to try it out. When we arrived we had a bit of a seating issue, as they wanted to seat us in a booth and then let someone share it with us if the restaurant became too full. We were four and there was only room for about 2 more at the booth so we simply said no and took the booth anyway. They were persistent, but not more so than us and eventually they just gave us the booth. I hadn't eaten a good pizza in Beijing...ever, so I was excited to try Kro's. I forgot what exactly we ordered, but I remember the first few slices were quite good, but did leave me with a somewhat "full" feeling(not in a good full way, in a bloated full way). We did have a problem obtaining drinks - the pizza had arrived and it took us 5-10 minutes to get our drinks, and subsequent refills would take the same amount of time. Nonetheless, the pizza satisfied my craving for a decent pizza so I marked it down as a place I would return (sans the bad service).

The next time I went, I brought some Chinese friends in hopes of showing them a good "American" style pizza. We ordered a basic pizza, half meat, half veggies, and the service was prompt and much better than my first experience there. However, the pizza's taste left something to be desired. The crust...very doughy, heavy, and flavorless. For me it almost tasted like the consistency of Mantou combined with the complete lack of flavor, so ya, its a "Mantou" crust. The toppings were no issue, but the cheese and the sauce also were a bit lacking. The sauce(what there was of it) seemed sparse, and again, flavorless, this coupled with the massive amount of cheese led to a weird mixture of doughy crust with cheese on top, with a thin layer of sauce in between(for color). So, this time the pizza was quite a disappointment. I wanted to get the flavor out of my mouth so we ordered a good ole Banana Split. The banana split came out melted. It was basically melted soup ice cream containing no toppings and bananas swimming in it, a complete embarrassment for a "banana split". In the end, I would not recommend this place for a "real" pizza, to me its just about equal to all the other pizza's I've had in Beijing (besides Pyro, which is actually decent). The only real positive I would give about the place is the atmosphere which is decent.

I went on October 1st for free pizza and beer, and while there was plenty of beer, there were only about 10 pizzas to feed about 100 people, and standing in line was an exercise in dealing with a-holes. The last pizza was announced, and I was at the front of the line, but the crowd mobbed the poor employee so the back of the line grabbed it up. The place was a zoo, and I don't blame Kro or his staff, I blame the fact that this place is just too popular for it's own good. I will definitely be back, but not for any events that attract a crowd of that size.

Amazing pizza, good selection, great service, and a good atmosphere totally redeemed the bad time I had with the customers.

I have been meaning to go here for some time after reading all the glowing reviews.
Last night 5 of us pitch up. The place is heaving and we were told there would be at least a 45 minute wait for a table. So far no problem - its good they are this busy, its my fault I didn't reserve a table. But what happens next really p***es me off. The bar area is totally full and we were standing at the entrance which is basically a thoroughfare so I suggest the 5 of us wander around outside maybe grab a beer somewhere and come back when a table is free. So I approach the girl at the entrance and ask her for some paper so i can give her my number so they can call or text when a table is free. I explain we will just be close somewhere outside and we were sort of getting in everybody's way loitering at the entrance. She flatly refused. Ten minutes of trying to reason with her that surely calling me from the restaurant phone ( that I am now pointing at ) is preferable to having us just stand there like store dummies.Even at this point I would normally think this is just the usual level of service you could expect in China but what makes it worse is that Olaf or Kro or whatever he is called was there and overheard 90% of it and still did nothing about it.
So Kro you may have fantastic pizza or you may not, but I know 5 people who aren't even going to bother too find out until you sort your service out.
The silver lining of the experience was we went around the corner to homeplate bbq which was great

Here we were, wandering the streets of Beijing near our hotel as we spend our last week in China before returning to our home in Mexico. We see the Kro's Nest but it looks like it is closed... no DOOR.... so we had noodles for dinner... the next day while wandering I saw a girl press a button like a door bell and lo... THE DOOR OPENED! So later that night while walking back to our hotel I told my wife... "Watch this!" and I pressed the button... and in we go!

The place was packed - Quiz night and all were merry... we immediately meet Marty, one of three working partners who seated us and then Kro, who turned out to be a very charming young man of 28 or so.... with increadable charm (I watched him "escort" a gentelman who was on the verge of becoming a major problem out of the club and made the customer happy on the way out!) Marty turns out to have a solid background in the hospitality field with strong restaurant experience. The third partner I met was a lovely young Chinese lady who's name I have sadly forgotten....

As an "expats" meeting area, the Kro's Nest is darn near perfect. While all staff I encountered spoke English, I heard German and French conversations going on....The crowd was mixed age wise and "country of origin" with lots of locals involved also... so what started out as a "quick look-see" ended up a stay until closing time. The anouncement of "closing" was as novel as the rest of the evening... Kro shouts out "Drink up folks - I want to go see my girlfriend!" and within minutes people where filing out of the club!

I can say without a doubt, that we went from STRANGERS to FRIENDS in a matter of mear minutes!!! I recogmend this club to any first time Beijingers or locals who want a fun and relaxed evening!

After reading all of the great reviews, I was excited to give The Kro's Nest a try. I was really impressed by the decoration of the facility and blown away by the size of the place. The pizza and drinks were good and really wish I could add another star to the rating but really was not impressed by the two servers we had. It really seemed like a hassle to serve us and our main waiter didn't seem to want to be there. After he presented us the bill, he paced around our table waiting for us to pay it. I'll definitely go back but hope to have a different server next time.

Great place, great atmosphere!
It was quiz night, and people ARE serious about this game!
Toilet's clean, staff is friendly.
Though we have to remind the staff 2x to bring in 2 mugs of draft beer (as we were upstairs)(or maybe chaos from the quiz night making them forgetful).
Love the pizza, it was HUGE. not a fan of big crusts though.