After the closures of both Gung Ho and Tube Station's Lido outlets last year, it was left to Annie’s to provide pizza to the northwestern Beijing masses. However, Nasca Café has pounced on the gap in the market, and decided to open their fifth location inside April Gourmet's Lido shop last month.

Liu Guanliang, owner of Nasca Café, studied marketing in New Zealand and also worked at popular local pizza restaurant chain Hell Pizza (with 64 stores in NZ), before bringing a similar concept to China with his first Nasca Café venue in 2008.

The establishment's name relates to an obsession of Liu's: Nazca Lines, the large ancient geoglyphs in southern Peru. He confided in us that he’s quite proud of the dishes, interior design, and even the logo, which he created himself from scratch.  

The menu is not the kind to wow you, but instead is a compilation of humble and abundant (two dozen in total) gourmet pizza options (RMB 56-68, eight-inch; RMB 106-125, 12-inch), and a dozen burgers, salads, snacks, barbecue ribs (RMB 62 for 200g, RMB 138 for 500g). It actually somewhat reminds of Element Fresh if they were to have an entire menu dedicated to gourmet pizza.

The vegetarian pizza (RMB 55) is topped with a mixture of vegetables: mushroom, spinach, onion, as well as feta cheese to add creaminess, garlic and pine nuts to add depth, and sun-dried tomatoes to give sweet and acidic notes to the relatively thick wholemeal dough base. Let's just say that if all the vegetarian dishes were this delicious and hearty, we might consider converting.

The B-healthier burger (RMB 68, pictured above) comes stuffed with two beef patties, lettuce, arugula, cheese, tomato, avocado, and crispy bacon. The special, in-house made buns are crisp and provide a sturdy enough vessel so as not to collapse under pressure of the juicy burger. The burger comes with a side salad and french fries, making for a combo that is more than enough to fill one starving person, and at good value to boot.

If you are looking for something lighter, try the sizable shrimp avocado salad (RMB 78). We were happy to find that compared to some conceited restaurants that serve measly portions in the name of healthy living, the bowl was brimming with avocado, feta cheese, sun-dried tomato, lettuce, onion, and arugula, as well as a decent amount of shrimp, freshly imported from South America.

Aside from burgers, pizzas, pasta, and salads, they also offer a number of seasonal dishes, representing different countries, such as green curry chicken (RMB 58), paella (RMB 58), laksa (RMB 58), and Korean beef rice (RMB 88).

For the on-the-go and hungry working bees nearby (or children, for that matter), they also offer a hot dog and ice cream combo for RMB 39, which can be bought from a outward-facing fast food counter at the restaurant. You can also order food directly via their WeChat (ID: nascacafe_china), website, and the other popular online delivery platforms. And if you're looking for a post-work drink, the daily happy hour is 4-8pm, whereby all the draft beer is buy one, get one free.

Nasca Café
Mon-Thu 10am-9.15pm. Fri-Sun 10am-9.30pm Inside April Gourmet, 1-102, Bldg 7, 9 Fangyuan Nanli, Chaoyang District (6438 3002)
纳斯卡咖啡:朝阳区芳园南里9号院7号楼1层102室绿叶子超市内

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Photos: Tracy Wang