Shanghai’s Best Restaurant – according to whom?
Posted by | Posted in Shanghai's Food Scene | Posted on 02-06-2009
I have been living in Shanghai for quite some time now. I’ve seen many restaurants open, and even more close. I have read countless reviews on Shanghai Expat, Smartshanghai and of course in City Weekend. While I can see the benefits of a ‘Reader-Powered Magazine’, I often wonder over the editor choices. It seems to me like they follow the ‘tattler magazine system’ ( i.e. you buy ads for your establishment and you are granted a best restaurant award in the mag). But this year’s City Weekend Awards was just,…well, was just very strange – to be polite.
Granted, with the many different expats in the city chances are that there will always be a difference in opinion about places with best value, best wi-fi or whatever. And rightfully so. I mean after all, it is a reader powered magazine. And while most of us Chef’s not always agree with the reviews we get on the web or magazine by users – it is their right to voice their opinions.
What really got me going though was some of the editor choices. There where 4 people named as writers on this article so I guess it came down to a vote. But honestly, the picks for Best Indian? Best French? And most notably Newcomer of the Year????.
I am usually not one for writing bad about fellow chefs or restaurants. Our industry is already difficult enough without us gunning for each other. 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? As I mentioned, I won’t go on bashing fellow industry co-workers or dare to offer my choice of what should have won.
It is not really about whether I disagree with it or not. I just find that after having followed City Weekend over the past few years that the food columns have turned more and more into advertising columns than anything else. I mean even good old Aubrey Buckingham at the Shanghai Daily finally seemed to have woken up and grown some balls. For the longest times his reviews where just pathetically boring without any bite. And now even he seemed to have waken up. So I guess what I am trying to say is that :
- Either leave the voting to the readers and skip the Editors Choice
- If you keep the Editors choice please let us know the criteria involved
- Stop trying to please all the restaurants you go to
Shanghai has plenty of good restaurants and plenty of bad ones. So I’d say, stop constantly reviewing the obvious choices that seem to go from magazine to magazine. Venture out there and look at different things – Shanghai has so much to offer and most readers never even get a glimpse of it since there are always the same restaurants and bars featured. And please, start to get a bit more critical. Just because a Chef has a restaurant does not mean he is always right. It would be really refreshing to read a restaurant review which is a bit more critical and does not always feel like the Editor has fallen absolutely in love with the chef.
Alfred B. (a wisely chosen pseudonym) is an executive sous chef that has been residing in Shanghai for the past several years. He is our up-to-date person on current events taking place in the food scene. For legal purposes, we cannot reveal his true identity but you can be sure there will be no candy-coated articles from him
Hi “Alfred”,
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
Dear Joanne,
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.
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No doubt won over by their highly professional advertising campagin…
http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/MDForum-viewtopic-t-84769.phtml
and here
http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/MDForum-viewtopic-t-90617.phtml
And here is where I, Justin Fischer of that’s Shanghai magazine, chime in for a bit of shameless self-promotion….
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:
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