Nominate your favourite dining experience and someone can dine out on the honour
Get online and vote now for the Best Cafe and Best Dining Experience categories at the Scotsman Food And Drink Awards 2018
For this year’s Scotsman Food and Drink Awards, the judging panel will be seeking those new venues, individuals and businesses that have been making a big impression in the cafe and dining scene in two returning categories.
First, they will once again be looking for the Best Dining Experience. Last year, Edinburgh seafood aficionados Odine took home the award. Lauded for their high-end dining experience by the likes of Jay Rayner and Andrew Fairlie, Ondine was chosen by the panel for its excellent service, enjoyable atmosphere and a menu which features an extensive array of Scotland’s top seafood including Loch Fyne oysters, Barra cockles and Eyemouth lobsters, all expertly cooked by patron chef Roy Brett and his team.
Roy said: “It was a great privilege for Ondine to win Best Dining Experience at The Scotsman Food and Drink Awards last year. The team have consistently worked hard to provide the very best for our valued customers. It is a real honour for any independent restaurant to pick up an award of this stature.
“Going into our ninth year of business, to be recognised in this way gives a momentous feeling to the whole team. It creates a buzz and sense of excitement not only for our chefs and front of house staff but also for our loyal customers who have been on the journey with us for almost a decade. As it’s so vital to support local businesses, I look forward to the ceremony this year where the top talents in Scotland will be recognised once again.”
This year the judges are looking for restaurants that offer a unique or different dining experience with aspects such as food presentation and ambience being taken into consideration.
The Scotsman will also be looking for your nominations for the Best Cafe or Deli category, with Newporton-tay’s Kitschnbake having won the accolade last year.
The judges will take into consideration the quality and variety of drinks and food, value for money and how quickly diners take to be served.
Mary-jane Duncan, director of Kitschnbake, said: “The level of support received for our small, family business has been overwhelming and we were truly delighted to have received the Best Café at the inaugural Scotsman Food and Drinks Awards in November last year.
“Here at Kitschnbake we believe the communal aspects of enjoying food together are just as important as preparing it. I am immensely proud of my extraordinarily passionate and talented team and quite simply would not be able to do what I do without the commitment of my team and our customers and for that I have nothing but thanks.
“Scotland has the most amazing concentration of local producers and I am excited and honoured to be a small part of this wonderful growing local scene. Collaborating with these talented folks will help everyone in ‘Scotsman Country’ continue on their culinary adventure and allow all the brilliant local producers and their products to shine through.”
Nominated for their exciting and inventive cakes, the Newport-ontay based café were recognised for working closely with other local artisan producers and providing some of the best homemade baking to be found in the local area.
The panel decided that a focus on community was key to whichever nomination would eventually win this award and though there was a lot of debate surrounding the entries it was agreed that Kitschbake was by far the strongest candidate.
With less than two weeks until the 23 July deadline there is still time to nominate for both of these categories, or any of the 13. To do so, all you have to do is head over to our dedicated awards website: www.scotsmanfoodanddrinkawards.co.uk