The Lowdown on Luga's Thin and Crispy Pizzas

Ahead of this year's Pizza Cup and Festival, we are serving up bite-sized details about this year's participants in a series we call Pizza Mania. Today we take a look at Luga's.

Luga's might be better known for their Tex-Mex food, but they have also been slinging pizzas to hungry (and often thirsty) Sanlitun revellers via their "Luga's Little Italy" brand for just under 10 years.

Located in Luga's Villa, affectionately known as "Big Luga's" by most, one thing we admire about Luga's is that, despite serving both Mexican and Italian cuisine out of the same location, they have kept the menus consistently separate - no "Italimex" hybrids here (although that being said, we do love that nacho pizza at Q Mex...). Speaking to the Beijinger's Kyle Mullin last year, location manager Jay Liu described Luga's pizzas as Neopolitan style: "Neapolitan pizzas are handmade, thin in the center and thicker around the outer parts. Also, the ingredients need to be fresh and spread as fast as possible on each pizza as they are being cooked. After that, it's important that we rotate the pizzas a few times to makes sure that it is perfectly cooked on every side." They top their thin and crispy pizza bases with homemade fresh tomato sauce and imported mozzarella.

Dianping reviewers, 1035 of whom have left reviews of Luga's Villa to date, rave about the bistecca pizza, topped with imported beef steak. This also happens to be one of the pizzas recommended by Jay Liu.

Monday is the best time to sample Luga's thin and crispy pies, when all the pizzas on their menu are half price from 5pm until closing (good for both early birds and night owls). That puts a standard 14-inch cheese and tomato pizza under RMB 30, and even the fancier parma ham and arugula pizza clocks in at just RMB 36*.

Alternatively, if you pay a visit to Luga's during the day, you can get RMB 10 off per RMB 100 spent if you pay through Dianping on your mobile. You'll need to search for "卢卡斯墨西哥意大利餐吧". This deal is applicable every day, 10am-6pm.

*Note: Prices taken from the menu on Luga's website (lugasbeijing.com).

Did that whet your appetite? Then click here to continue nibbling all of our tasty Pizza Mania coverage.

Tickets are now on sale for our October 15-16 Pizza Fest at the Zaha Hadid-designed Wangjing SOHO. Tickets are limited so buy ahead to make sure you don't miss out! Click here to purchase.