Food for thought

Awards pay tribute to world-class standards of UAE's restaurants

As night fell, hundreds from the hospitality industry gathered for the first restaurant awards of its kind in the UAE.

The What's On Restaurant Awards were hosted on Monday at Dubai Internet City lawns, at a gala dinner. More than 32,000 diners participated in the awards, as the winners were based on selections by visitors to the various outlets.

Their votes were collected during a three-month period by independent arbitrators Jacobson Direct. Only those paying the bill were allowed to vote for the restaurant in which they were eating.

There were 10 main categories, including Favourite Arabian, Favourite Italian, Favourite Pub Grub, Favourite European, Favourite American, Favourite International, Favourite Far Eastern, Favourite Indian, Favourite Japanese and Favourite Seafood, along with a Chef's Choice and General Manager's Recommendation.

In case of Chef's Choice and General Manager's Recommendation, chefs and general managers nominated their favourite restaurants outside their hotel chains.

Ian Fairservice, managing partner, Motivate Publishing, which owns the magazine What's On, added that the awards pay tribute to the world-class culinary standards of the UAE's restaurant industry. He said: "We pay tribute to the hoteliers, restaurateurs and chefs, in other words the professionals who have made this possible.

"There are seven categories common to both Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Given the greater number of restaurants for Dubai compared to Abu Dhabi there are also three categories, which are separate for Dubai but are included in the speciality groupings for Abu Dhabi.

"These are the 10 categories which we like to call the 'people's choice'. Rather than simply appointing committees or asking our readers to choose their favourite restaurants we decided that if people want to vote they should vote with their feet and more importantly, with their wallets.

"Which is why we stipulated that to vote for a particular restaurant in its category you had to be dining in that restaurant."

He said the whole process began with the What's On team selecting the 250 shortlisted restaurants from the annual What's On 'Eating Out in the Emirates' Guide.

Twenty-eight per cent of the total voters were British, representing the single largest block. Along with all other European nationals brings the total European participation to 44 per cent. While four per cent gave their nationality as UAE nationals, the figure climbs to 15 per cent when other GCC and Arab nationalities were included.