Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Best Kept Restaurant Secrets Awards Winners

And the winners are:

1. Best Italian Restaurant - L'Opera
2. Best French Restaurant - Je Suis Gourmand
3. Best Spanish Restaurant - Terry's Selection
4. Best Continental Cuisine - Lolo Dad's
5. Best Steakhouse - Elbert's Steak Room
6. Best Japanese Restaurant - Sugi
7. Best Filipino Restaurant - Abe
8. Best Thai Restaurant - People's Palace
9. Best Chinese Restaurant - Zong (fort)
10. Best Central European Restaurant - Old Swiss Inn
11. Best Specialty Restaurant - Hossein's Persian Kebab (Makati)
12. Best Bistro - Sala Bistro
13. Best Enoteca - Barcino Gourmet
14. Best Fusion Cuisine - M Cafe
15. Best Newcomer - Aubergine
16. Best Restaurant/Bar - NU-VO
17. Best Wine List - CAV
18. Best Hotel Restaurant: International Buffet - Spirals (Sofitel)
19. Best Hotel Restaurant: Fine Dining - Tivoli (Mandarin Oriental) and Prince Albert (Intercontinental)
20. Best Hotel Restaurant: Specialty - Benjarong (Dusit)
21. Best Chef - Chef Ariel Manuel (Lolo Dad's)
22. Lifetime Achievement Award - Larry Cruz

My comments:

Antonios (top 10 restaurants in Asia) is not even here??
Zong best Chinese?? What the....???

I wonder what criteria they used to judge his. And who were the judges??

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, buddy. Absolutely ridiculous that Zong won. Somehow, though, I'm not surprised that Sugi won best Japanese.

N

Unknown said...

I know right??? Zong? WTF talaga! Noel and I already left comments on Anton Diaz's blog about how ridiculous some of the results were.

And the fact that Antonio's was not recognized... What was that all about? Chef Ariel is also very talented, but in fairness to Chef Tonyboy, his food is in a totally different level.

Unknown said...

Noel- It is kinda questionable that Sugi was even nominated, since it is apparently owned by organizer's dad. Not cool...

Anonymous said...

Hi Miguel, the couple behind MBKRS published the names of the panel of judges. I noticed your name wasn't there. Does that mean your vote wasn't counted?

http://bestkeptsecrets.multiply.com/journal

Miguel said...

Hi,

No I was invited to be a judge. The nominees were just sent to me by a friend and I decided to put my personal picks on this blog.

Thanks for the link.

Miguel said...

Sorry - I meant I wasnt invited.

Ines Cabarrus said...

Hi Muguel,

Thank you for posting about our little awards. I realize that some of the results may seem off or biased,but we did base this on votes of 80 people we asked to be judges (we actually invited more than 100). The list is posted on www.bestkeptsecrets.multiply.com.

I, myself, did not vote at all. We never claimed to be experts, we really just wanted to create something that would honor the best in Manila dining- first time around may not be perfect, but we want to work hard to make things better for next year. This means of course involving more people for their insights and their votes. Would love to involve chinkee, you and noel next year, I only discovered your wonderful blogs just recently, and have only the deepest respect for what you are doing. We need more blogs like this. Manila is truly a great place for food, and people need to know it.

Thanks :) and all the best,
Ines

Miguel said...

HI Ines,

Thanks for leaving a comment. The awards and winners were much talked about - anyway as you say it was the first time and next year will be better.

I saw the list of your judges in your multiply account...some of them are my friends also.

Good to know that you take the critizisms positively. I dont think I'm yet that qualified to be a judge but if you ask my I can recommend some people who would be greatr for this.

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Anonymous said...

you really believe anton diaz? really?