Date: Feb 27th 2014 11:12a.m.

Contributed by:
siennapc

After firmly establishing itself as a leader in Beijing’s rather sad pizza scene, Pizza+ is now losing no time taking over the city. The chain opened two new branches over the last several months, and the plan is to expand to eight locations within the next two years. The stores are small and simple, with seating for fewer than 10, but these guys know that delivery is where the real money is.

The owner originally worked in the import business, and this means that Pizza+ can use entirely Italian ingredients but still stay affordable. The mozzarella is Italian, the tomatoes are Italian, and even the water used to make the dough comes from the Italian Alps. You can smell the authenticity when you open your pizza box, or step into the cozy little store. The only real competitor for Italian flavor is La Pizza.

It’s hard to review branches of Pizza+ individually, since the taste is totally consistent among the different stores. Everywhere pulls off the same perfectly crisp-bottomed crust and excellent tomato sauce. However, not all slices (RMB7-22) will taste the same at any given time—the store displays all their pizzas behind a glass counter, and on our visit to the Chaoyang Park branch, we found the Capricciosa (black olive, artichoke, ham; RMB15/slice) to be fresher than the spicy salami (RMB15). Still, we prefer this to Pizza by LMPlus’ tendency to run out of slices altogether.

Tiramisu (RMB28) served in little plastic cups is a nice sweet addition to Pizza+’s offerings, though we also love the doughy Nutella pizza (RMB20) sprinkled in powdered sugar.

Delivery is free within 3.5km when you spend RMB50. There’s no online ordering system, but there is designated staff at each branch that speak decent English and know …