Make your voices heard! Vote now for your favorite dishes, restaurants, bars and nightclubs in the annual that’s Shanghai Food & Drink Awards! Find us online at:

http://www.urbanatomy.com/vote

http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/MDForum-viewtopic-t-84769.phtml

and here

http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/MDForum-viewtopic-t-90617.phtml

first of all let me thank you for dropping by on our Website. And I also greatly appreciate you taking the time and commenting on my most recent Blog.

Having that said I would like to maybe clarify a few points I tried to make.

To me, Food Critics are a very important part of any Restaurant Scene. Chef’s relay on Critics for Criticism and for “motivation” to improve. I have been reading City Weekend for several years now and have obviously followed the Food Section very closely. And I stand by my point that most reviews are still sugar coated Advertisements telling us how fantastic everything is. I really would wish for you guys to become a bit more critical of what we Chef’s put on our Plates.

You are right, Osteria is a very controversial Award Winner – I happen to like the Place although I do disagree with some of the Menu Items and their Canadian & Italian Food twist. To me it is either or

In a way I am glad you Folks chose it. There seems to be a healthy discussion going on in several Online Forums whether it is a deserved award or not. And after all, I think that is what is lacking in Shanghai. People just seem to take for granted what is printed in a Magazine and go there for Dinner. And to see a discussion evolve about what good service is, good value and good food is just refreshing. So yeah, I might disagree with your choice – but I am happy you made it.

As to your last comment on which Restaurants to check out. Well, like I wrote in previous Blogs. There are so many of them – I just would be nice to see that occasionally you would feature some user reviews about not so obvious places. And I look forward to read a bit more about some of the great local restaurants.

Cheers

Alfred B.

This is Joanne, City Weekend’s dining editor. As much as I respect the opinions of others in this industry, especially the chefs behind the food, I have to politely and personally disagree with your statements. Hopefully my response can provide some insight into our decision process and correct your misconceptions about our 2009 awards.

In response to:
“But honestly, those editor choices really make me wonder if these Editors have any clue about what they write or if they even bothered to visit the places they chose more than one time; or was is just the one lunch they got invited to by the owners in order to review the place?”

and

“Stop trying to please all the restaurants you go to”

I believe that no one in F&B media is so insensible as to believe that the quality of food served during a meal with the owner is the same as another regular diner would get.

That’s why all our reviewers make a concerted effort to go, as regular diners, to all the restaurants we write about. City Weekend DOES NOT base our awards decision on advertising clients, or as you say, the people who have treated us to a nice lunch. If you take a look at our magazine, you can see that Masala Art (EP best Indian) or Hamilton House (EP best French) have never purchased ads. Osteria, our choice for Newcomer of the Year, is a restaurant my columnist and I both frequent and admire for having good food at affordable prices. We definitely understand that not every person may agree with this choice, but this award is one that Osteria earned by having consistently good food and appealing atmosphere—it is not a sales-driven selection. Everyone, the editorial staff at CW included, obviously had different opinions on who was the best fit, but Osteria was one of those rare restaurants where every one of us had had a great dinner.

In response to:
“If you keep the Editors choice please let us know the criteria involved”

A restaurant can be chosen as editor’s choice for several reasons—sometimes they’re venues that are just out of the race by a few votes but are still super popular with readers, or they’re newer restaurants that are good but haven’t developed much of a following yet, sometimes we’ve just had a train of good experiences at certain restaurants, on the job and off, and feel secure in recommending these venues to others, etc. There is a panoply of reasons really. What all the EPs have in common is that I’ve always consulted two or three and sometimes four other diners about the choice to get a bigger sample of dining experiences before I make my decision.

Lastly, I agree that Shanghai has a huge range of restaurants, many undiscovered—and I’d welcome any of your suggestions for restaurants you think we should check out. Share the wealth! As a Shanghai born girl, I also think Western restaurants are really just the tip of the iceberg and am working to include more local features in the Dining section.

Thanks for making the effort to constructively critique the awards and the magazine. I don’t agree with all of the expressed opinions, but I do appreciate that you took the time to tell me what you’d like to see in this section so we can make it that much better.

Cheers,
Joanne

You’re definitely more than welcome to join us for our Chef’s Talk. It’s open to any of the expat chefs in town and is held on the last Tuesday of every month. Updates on this month’s venue will be posted later on in the week.

Look forward to meeting you in Shanghai!

Editor

Congrats on your web blog! Very revealing.

Chance of coming to Shanghai in May for a 3-week teaching gig at Shanghai Normal U.

Any chance of a Maui Chef joining your crew for an after hours beverage to see what it takes for a Chef to work in Shanghai?

If I go to a local place I won’t complain that the chef doesn’t know what he’s doing because it doesn’t suit my tastes. Western palettes are different than Asian. It’s a shame that most locals don’t realize this.

There doesn’t seem to be a screening process or tests on food and wine knowledge and so called experts pass absolute judgment on restaurants with little or no regulation.

Shanghai is certainly no exception. Many critics here have little qualifications aside from a journalism degree and the ability to speak English.