Food & Drink Awards: Winners

FOOD & DRINK

Food & Drink Awards
Monday, 31 August 2009 04:08
Written by Urbanatomy

Voted by the readers of that’s Shanghai and users of Urbanatomy.com

The Glamour! The Glitter! The Gossip! The Glitz! And the Guacamole!

That’s Shanghai celebrated its 7th annual Food & Drink Awards ceremony last month. Here you can see all the winners, read all the gossip, and even whistle disbelievingly to yourself as once again your favorite restaurant failed to make the grade. Oh, but what winners! All the action is here...

Minute-by-minute
The Awards as they happened

8.55pm
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to this, the 7th Food & Drinks Awards. The carpet is laid, the drinks are poured and the paparazzi are crowding the entrance of M1NT nightclub with feverish anticipation. Shanghai’s great and good are slowly arriving. The front-runners, the outside bets, the no-hopers, the liggers, the sharpshooters, the dignitaries and the riff-raff like ourselves are all expecting a party to remember. And by God you shall have it!

9.15pm
Wow! The venue is already packed to the rafters with a crowd that seems intent on causing outright pandemonium at the free bar. This is going to be some night…

9.22pm
Around 650 people have arrived so far, and already the air is thick with unprintable gossip, witty banter and romantic intrigue. Several million yuan worth of fashion is parading up and down the aisles. It seems this year the awards are more open, with several categories too close to call. In fact it’s the most exciting the Food & Drink Awards have been since, ooh, last year...

9.27pm
For the record, Janine from Australia is “excited” to be here, while Francis from Canada is “awed” at the red leather sofas. And Doreen from America? She’s going to “breastfeed myself champagne all evening,” apparently. Nice.

9.44pm
And we’re off! that’s Shanghai’s marketing guru Phil Boyle takes to the stage as Master of Ceremonies and runs through the rules and regulations. Now let the culinary razzle dazzle begin!

9.47pm
that’s Shanghai’s Apple Mandy, shimmering in a lagoon-blue dress, presents the first award, Best American, to Element Fresh. The crowd whoop with unbridled delight.

9.50pm
Two very, very emotional women scream like banshees as Boonna Cafe scoops the Best Cafe award.

9.52pm
My word, the crowd is up for the lash tonight. Good stuff! But those poor people at the back must need binoculars or periscopes to see House of Flour pick up the Best Dessert award.

9.55pm
Sasha’s wins the richly deserved – and widely predicted – award for Best Happy Hour. Seriously, no one thought is was going to be GoodFellas did they?

10.01pm
Massive queues at the toilets. But then it wouldn’t be the Food & Drink awards without those, ahem, cubicle breaks.

10.05pm
You want Best Late Night Bites? You got ‘em. Yannie and Gloria (both looking luvverly) from Velvet graciously accept the award to ecstatic applause.

10.07pm
We’d like to know who will get the award for Best Pushing At The Free Bar. At present, it seem there are around 784 nominees...

10.10pm
As is traditional at such soirees, Paulaner Brauhaus wins the Best Beer award... Now, if only they were here to accept it.

10.14pm
For sheer bizarreness, a full-throated chant of “olé!” ripples around the venue as El Willy captures the Best Spanish award.

10.19pm
The big heavyweight battle arrives in the form of the Best Pub award. Many predict the Blarney Stone to snatch the honors, but in the first of many shocks it’s Malone’s who win the day.

10.24pm
It’s alleged that someone in the VIP area is a dead ringer for President Ahmadinejad, but it turns out to be some bloke with a pantomime villain moustache.

10.31pm
There are loud string-swellings of emotion as Da Marco win for Best Italian. Only a churl would argue with that.

10.35pm
David Laris, looking the business, collects the award for Best Theme Night for his martini gatherings at The Vault. One suspects Mr. Laris will be back for more awards later.

10.37pm
And whoosh! Here comes the crew from Haiku to accept the Best Japanese award.

10.38pm
Can’t get President Ahmadinejad out of our head... all this free wine is turning our brain into blancmange.

10.40pm
You want spicy? Then give it up for South Beauty who pick-up the award for Best Sichuan/Hunan.

10.41pm
Cystal Jade walk away with Best Cantonese. The crowd show their appreciation with joyous, righteous, drunken applause.

10.44pm
Bang! Xiao Nan Guo obliterates the competition to win Best Shanghainese.

10.50pm
As was widely expected, David Laris returns to collect his second award of the evening, Best Al Fresco Drinking, for his absurdly popular Fat Olive. Laris is beginning to dominate. He’s turning the screw.

10.55pm
Restoring calm, the ceremony takes a quick musical intermission. Toilet break, everyone! (wink wink.)

11.05pm
The awards continue with the appearance on stage of Justin Fischer, that’s Shanghai’s Food & Drink Editor. He proceeds to announce, in his perfect, cut-glass Paris-meets-Atlanta diction, the big French shock of the evening. Le Bistro, Le Royal Meridien trumps The Westin to take Best Hotel Sunday Brunch. You see, readers? Miracles are possible.

11.11pm
You want achievement for Best Indian? By Vishnu, it’s Vedas!

11.19pm
Who in the world should win Best Dive Bar? I Love Shanghai, that’s who. It’s the clear favorite, as always, and yet there’s something Dorian Gray about it all.

11.25pm
JZ Club leave their competitors with their pants metaphorically around their ankles by winning Best Live Music Venue.

11.27pm
The heavily-tipped Mr & Mrs Bund romps home to take the Best French Award. The crowd spontaneously erupts with joy.

11.28pm
Shelter suddenly emerges from the underground to collect the award for Best Hidden Gem. Epic!

11.33pm
Simply Thai pick up the Award for Best Thai - they've nailed that category down now for at least four years.

11.38pm
A few gasps later and The Grill, Grand Hyatt graciously take the stage to accept Best Steakhouse.

11.42pm
One particular fashion model’s dress is exciting debate among a group of other fashion models. “She looks like she’s vomited fake diamonds over herself,” they hiss with envy.

11.45pm
Another shock wave hits the venue. Jean Georges has jumped Laris to win the hotly contested Best Fine Dining!

11.51pm
You want a winner for Best Wine Bar? Drumroll, please – it’s Cuvee!

11.53pm
Glamour Bar wins the award for Best Cocktails. They were always going to win - anyone who has had a martini there will know that they know how to blow your socks off!

11.54pm
Sin take home the award for Best Design. Their whole Adam and Eve styley has clearly impressed. Some of the crowd are now cheering like rabid pagans awaiting their new fertility god. It’s brilliant!

11.59pm
You want to know the Best Place For A Date? Lost Heaven, that’s where. The whistles and whoops confirm it, too.

Midnight
A small measure of decorum is restored when the great Din Tai Fung wins the award for Best Dish for their famous Xiaolongbao.

12.09am
The atmosphere is getting electric. Either that or everybody is wearing Velcro. The award for Best New Club goes to M1NT. And, by the Hammer of Thor!, they go and win Club Of The Year too. Two for Two. It’s a double smackdown.

12.13am
Nothing seems to be happening. Maybe the crowd has suddenly contracted triskaidekaphobia.

12.14am
Oh, we spoke too soon. It’s the Hall Of Fame awards. On stage amble this year’s four recipients: David Laris, Element Fresh, Ji Shi and Judy Qiu. They’re a lovely looking bunch.

12.24am
Now for the all-important Best New Restaurant award. Who could it be, folks? That’s right...Cantina Agave takes the crown amid a tumult of quite literally insane cheering. It’s the most popular win of the evening so far.

12.35am
Heading into the final furlong, we come to the Food & Drink Personality Of The Year award. The lights are dimmed. The crowd are hushed. And the winner is….Cotton Ding! She looks like a goddess, and the crowd are now in full-worship mode.

12.47am
It’s the final award, readers. And the most eagerly awaited of the evening. Who will win for Restaurant of the Year? My fingers are crossed for McDonalds but the award rightfully goes to Cantina Agave. Ladies and gentlemen, you asked for genius and we gave you genius. Rejoice the Cantina!

1.07am
Roll carpet, roll credits. The curtains have come down on the 7th Food & Drink Awards. It’s been an absolutely fantastic evening of fun, flattery and frolics. We’d love to stay and chat with you all but unfortunately we have to jump in a taxi and find our way to utter drunken oblivion. Kisses, hugs, and a very goodnight!

Best American
ELEMENT FRESH
America is more than just artery-clogging burgers and fried chicken and Element Fresh is proof. They’ve steadfastly provided Shanghai with light, fresh and healthy fare with great service. But we need to know: What on Earth do they put in that miso dressing? It’s mega-addictive!

Best Cafe
BOONNA
Fellow comrades, we stand here today as solemn witnesses to a revolution; a cafe culture rebellion, soldiered by Mac-owning, Converse-scuffing, thick-rimmed-spectacle-wearing hipsters. In droves you put down your battered Camus paperbacks and stopped blogging long enough to topple Wagas from its long-held throne. Long live Boonna, your new cafe king!

Best Happy Hour
SASHA’S
What could be better after a hard day’s work than sitting in the garden of a colonial-style villa, tossing back cold pints (or anything else) behind the bar, at half price? It may not last beyond 7pm, but hey, aren’t all beautiful things in life fleeting?

Best Desserts
HOUSE OF FLOUR
Three years in a row! Loyal subjects, it’s official: Pastry chef, restaurateur and all-around nice guy Brian Tan has founded a dessert dynasty. By imperial decree, you are ordered to Zhangjiang Gaoke to pay tribute… and to gorge yourself on his amazing chocolate creations.

Best Spanish
EL WILLY
Chef Willy Trullás Moreno’s cooking is as fun, inventive and unpredictable as his wardrobe. For over two years he’s wowed our city both culinarily and sartorially. We pay homage to this masterful Catalan.

Best Late Night Bites
VELVET LOUNGE
Is there anything slower in the world, apart from a slow worm drinking a sloe gin on a slow boat to China, than waiting for food to arrive in a nightclub? At Velvet there is no wait. Their supremely famous pizzas arrive quickly, crispy and are deliriously tasty, even after 3am.

Best Beer
PAULANER BRAUHAUS
Chalk it up to superior German engineering. Paulaner’s beers are technically flawless, with a perfectly calculated head-to-beer ratio, ergonomically designed beer steins… Oh, and they get you well hammered, too. Mach Schau!

Best Pub
MALONE’S
“So a Singaporean goes to China to open up an American pub with an Irish name…” No, it’s not the beginning of a Benny Hill joke. This really happened. It’s probably the best stop on the Tongren strip. And this year it’s your favorite pub. Cheers.

Best Italian
DA MARCO
Another win for this perennial favorite. What. A. Shocker. Seriously, why do other Italian restaurants even bother? For that matter, why do we even have a ‘Best Italian’ category anymore?

Best Japanese
HAIKU BY HATSUNE
When the Eastern Pearl

Craves the sea’s fresh, raw bounty

She dines at Haiku.

Best Latin American
MAYA
Before Maya, Shanghairen didn’t ‘dine’ on Mexican food so much as they used it as a hedge against an impending tequila hangover. But then Brad Turley’s creative cuisine raised the bar. Thanks to Maya, Mexican food is officially serious food in Shanghai.

Best Theme Night
THE VAULT (LARIS)
Here’s your checklist: Slick suit. Oversized-collared shirt with fat tie. Sunglasses indoors. Got that kit and you’re in. That’s right, Martini nights have become a Shanghai institution for the good-looking, wanne-be-good-looking and the if-I-hang-out-here-long-enough-someone-good-looking-will-talk-to-me crowd. Damn good martinis, mind you. And good value, to boot.

Best Sichuan/Hunan
SOUTH BEAUTY
What’s there to say, folks? You know it. You love it. You’ve voted for it… pretty much every year, in fact. When you have a hankering for some fiery heat, we all know where to go.

Best Cantonese
CRYSTAL JADE
Fluffy chashao bao, shimmering shuijing jiao: a Sunday without Crystal Jade’s dim sum is like a day without the sun. Once again, this Cantonese stalwart (7-years young in Shanghai) has clinched the prize.

Best Shanghainese
XIAO NAN GUO
It was an amazing battle between Xiao Nan Guo and rival 1221. Everyday one was ahead of the other by an eyelash’s length, only to be overtaken the next day. On it went, relentlessly, remorselessly, until the closing date. To us, you’re both thoroughbred champs, but this year the prize goes to Xiao Nan Guo.

Best Al Fresco Drinking
THE FAT OLIVE
A wide open terrace covered in whiter-than-white sofas. An extensive winelist at prices everybody can afford. An inexpensive menu of snacks and sides. Chilled-out tunes playing over the sound system and a view of the Lujiazui skyline over the river. This place ticks all the boxes, which is probably why you ticked it for this award.

Best Indian
VEDAS
Another victory for Vedas? Don’t look so naan-plussed! We know it’s become so predictable that one may assume they have merely curried favor with this publication. But the truth is this: Vedas is just too damn good.

Best Hotel Brunch
LE BISTROT, LE ROYAL MERIDIEN
Someone has finally bested the Westin! Is that even possible? Well, if you’ve ever seen the spread at Le Bistrot, you know it is! Who needs acrobats and string quartets when you’ve got molecular cocktails, caviar, foie gras and a choice seafood station.

Best Live Music
JZ CLUB
Once again, JZ lays the doo-wop smackdown on all the other young noise-making upstarts around town. With a classy nod to Shanghai’s jazzy past and a sophisticated eye towards developing the scene’s musical future, this is your clear winner.

Best Dive
I LOVE SHANGHAI
Choose darts. Choose poker. Choose beer pong. Choose waifs, strays, freaks and f*ck-ups. Choose a booze-stained pool table. Choose punk. Choose rock. Choose Absinthe at an ungodly hour. Choose waking up in the gutter the next morning wondering who the hell you are. Choose I Love Shanghai. You did.

Best French
MR & MRS BUND
Don’t get us wrong, Sens and Bund are a lovely couple, but let’s be honest, they become a little dull. So if you haven’t met the new couple that moved in at 18, Mr & Mrs Bund, you absolutely must have dinner with them sometime!

Best Steakhouse
THE GRILL, GRAND HYATT
Prime location, prime view and prime rib. The Grill at the Grand Hyatt has it all. Besides, have you ever eaten better steak at this altitude? We didn’t think so.

Best Hidden Gem
SHELTER
People used to hide out in this place to avoid getting bombed. Now they fill it up for the sole purpose of getting bombed (on 15 kuai beers, that is). Throw in regular performances by some great DJ’s (both local and international) and you’ve got yourself Shanghai’s best hidden gem.

Best Thai
SIMPLY THAI
Competition for this category must be as ferocious as a couple of Muay Thai fighters hopped up on yabba. But Simply Thai, as they have done for the last few years came out on top. It's a fact that everyone knows these guys - they're everywhere and everyone has been. And the fact that everyone keeps on going back cannot be a bad thing!

Best Fine Dining
JEAN GEORGES
We’ve got three words for you: Jean Georges Vongericthen. Need we say more? They are words synonymous with great food. And with a prime spot on the Bund, JG looks unstoppable.

Best Wine Bar
CUVÉE
Cuvee isn’t so much a wine bar as it is a tiny, tucked away temple to honor the good things in life. Inside you’ll find all the appropriate sacramental implements — fine wines, great whiskies and cigars. Praise be!

Best Place for a Date
LOST HEAVEN
Lost. Heaven. Say these two words and sparks will fly. Candle-dim lighting, sultry mood music, sexy décor, exotic fragrances and thrilling flavors will guarantee you hear four words before dinner is over: “Your place? Or mine?”

Best Design
SIN
Loud, gregarious, psychedelic, biblical. Either you love it or you’re overcome with Catholic guilt by its decor. As the winner, clearly you all love it! And "sat on the top floor of a huge building seems to be this year's "check out our terrace"...

Best Cocktails
GLAMOUR BAR
You’ve crowned those master mixologists at 5 on the Bund cocktail kings of the city. Martini or mojito, bellini or a bloody mary, whatever your tipple you’re sure to be tickled pinker than pink.

Best Dish XIAOLONGBAO AT DIN TAI FUNG
Good for you! You could have gone hog-wild and run off to Yunnan with some tart. But you’ve made you’re loyalty clear. You voted for Shanghai’s signature dish. You’ve made your city proud. And we thank you all!

Best New Bar & Bar of the Year
M1NT
How in the world did an exclusive club get so many votes? Somehow, you all managed to get inside these hallowed halls over the past few months. And you certainly liked what you found. Is it those infamous, um, er, sharks? The ‘rich’ and beautiful clientele? The rumored celebrity sightings? The stunning open air terrace? Or is it just the deliciously potent flaming passionfruit martinis? Whatever their secret, M1NT has firmly established itself as the new favorite party spot for Shanghai’s nocturnal revelers.

Best New Restaurant & Restaurant of the Year
CANTINA AGAVE
The Mexican food scene in Shanghai was already sizzling like a chopped chilli on a skillet, then partners Raffe Ibrahamian and Kelley Lee opened Cantina Agave and turned the heat up full blast. Now you won’t find a better tacos or a tequila selection in Shanghai, not to mention China. Still not convinced? Take a walk down Fumin Lu on any given night. You’ll see throngs of hungry punters spilling out the door, milling about the sidewalk and waiting for another taste!

Personality of the Year

COTTON DING

Let’s be honest, was there any other choice? Cotton got her nickname for the same reason she won this award: that sweetest of smiles and that disarming charm. When she was in high school, it even got her out of trouble with the teachers. They could never stay mad at her. “Your personality,” said one teacher, “is like cotton; warm and soft.” Eventually, this irresistible personality had a lucrative career running two of Shanghai’s favorite bars. We may go to Cotton’s for those long, laid-back happy hours and the excellent taste in music. But, come on, who are we kidding? We really go there just to see Cotton.

Hall of Fame...
This year we induct four more Shanghai food and drink institutions into our illustrious (and oh-so-exclusive) Hall of Fame...

Services to: Local Cuisine
JI SHI RESTAURANT
Ji Shi is a bona fide Shanghai institution. Popular with everyone from Chinese starlets to powerful government types to the hoi polloi (er, that’s us), we are proud to induct this cozy little local with a big reputation as our first truly indigenous Hall of Famer. Congratulations.

Services to: Shanghai Nightlife
JUDY QIU
She was there at the dawn of its creation in the early ‘90s and has since built an empire of nightlife rave spots including Judy’s, Judy’s Too, Judy Q, The Spot, Taco Popo and Studio 78. We honor our matriarch, the Empress of Shanghai nightlife, Judy Qiu.

Services to: Your Good Health
ELEMENT FRESH
Before Element Fresh, the closest you could get to healthy food in this town was to ask the chef to hold the MSG. Element Fresh made healthy, delectable food a viable option again, and for that its induction into our Hall of Fame is, well, elementary.

Services to: Fine Dining
DAVID LARIS
From fine dining to fat olives and a few slices in between, David Laris has grown to become one of the city’s greatest F&B success stories. After five years of going strong, his name is now synonymous with world-class cuisine in Shanghai. Hail King David!

OVERHEARD ON THE NIGHT
We know who you are. We know what you said

Hot dress, shame she’s lacking in the personality department

Trust me, she is a very, very open-minded young lady

Mother, did you HAVE to drink my champagne?

I don’t want a shot, but I’ll be doing one with you in my heart

I could really use your support. Seriously, prop me up - I’ve just finished my fourth martini

I need to tell you a story about fist bumping

Would you mind if I took your boyfriend to do peyote in the Mexican desert?

Hopefully this makes up for the time I wandered around your apartment naked

My dad is 5’11 and three quarters, and so am I, but it’s really important for men to be 6ft…

Here I am darling, surrounded by all the boys!

Oh no, looks like they invited anybody

They may as well put an ‘Editorial Dept’ sign on the cubicle door

Yeah, I could get you Clive Owen’s number

I’ve always been drunk when I’ve visited M1NT, but this is the first time I’ve noticed the sharks