Manilas Best Kept Restaurant Secrets Awards 2010

MBKRS Awards 2010 Winners Crowned

The judges have spoken and the Manila’s Best Kept Restaurant Secrets Awards 2010 winners have just been announced at the grand awarding ceremony held at Enderun Colleges’ Culinary Center last November 24, 2010.

Here is a complete list: Best Italian Restaurant L’Incontro Ristorante Italiano; Best French Restaurant La Regalade French Bistro; Best Spanish Restaurant Cirkulo; Best Japanese Restaurant Tsukiji; Best Chinese Restaurant Peking Garden; Best Continental Cuisine Antonio’s; Best Thai Restaurant AzuThai; Best Filipino Restaurant Café Juanita; Best Middle Eastern Restaurant Ziggurat Cuisine; Best Korean Restaurant Korean Garden; Best Indian Restaurant Kashmir; Best Central European Restaurant Mickey’s Delicatessen; Best Specialty Cuisine Cyma Greek Taverna; Best Steakhouse Mamou; Best Bistro Apartment 1B Gourmet Comfort Food; Best Restaurant-Bar The Establishment; Best Enoteca Galileo Enoteca; Best Fusion Cuisine Kai; Best Wine ListMasseto Wine Bar and Restaurant; Best Burger Joint Brother’s Burger (Bonifacio High Street); Best Dessert, Ice Cream and Cake Shop Bizu Patisserie; Best Newcomer The Goose Station; Best Hotel Restaurant – International Buffet Circles (Makati Shangri-La); Best Hotel Restaurant – Fine Dining Cicou (Hotel Céleste); Best Hotel Restaurant – Specialty Cuisine Inagiku (Makati Shangri-La); Best Hotel Bar Martinis (Mandarin Oriental); Best Emerging Talent Sunshine and Rob Pengson; Best Chef Antonio Escalante; Lifetime Achievement Award winnerMargarita Fores; People’s Choice Award winner People’s Palace.

The MBKRS Awards 2010 are presented by Citibank, who recently launched their Citi Dining Privileges program, in association with San Miguel Lifestyle Brews, including San Miguel Premium All-Malt, Super Dry, and Cerveza Negra. Leading accounting firm SGV&Co. witnessed the announcement of the winners at the awarding ceremony, which are the results of the online ballot voted on by the panel of more than 100 judges distinguished in the restaurant industry and other related fields, and compiled using the survey tool QuestionPro.

It was a night filled with excitement and anticipation. Enderun’s Etoile Bar and Atrium were packed to the brim with restaurateurs, chefs, hoteliers, foodies and fans. There was food everywhere! Lavish spreads prepared by restaurants such as Mana-ish, Sugi, Alba’s, Cyma, Mesa, Ninyo’s, Sala, Zong, Chocolate Fire, Le Bistro Vert, Magyar Hungarian Restaurant, and Discovery Suites were laid out for guests to enjoy, along with great wines supplied byFuture Trade International, Brumms Quality Wines, Best World Beverages and Fly Ace Corporation, and coffee by Malonggo Coffee. Free flowing lifestyle brews, which are expertly designed to accompany food, were provided by San Miguel Brewery.

The evening was hosted by authors and organizers Ines Cabarrus and Elian Habayeb, who were joined on stage by presenters including F.A.S.H. on Lifestyle Network co-host Ferdi Salvador, foodie Gianna Kessler, WAVE 89.1 FM DJ Wendell Garcia, Phil Lux Manager Stephanie Kienle, food writer Marco Rodriguez, Olive Magazine Editor-In-Chief Stephanie Zubiri, San Miguel’s Erik Riola and Elaine Ninoza, Citibank’s Bea Teh-Tan and Alma Gruenberg, Zong’s Joshua Tiu and Women’s Health EIC Lara Parpan, Our Awesome Planet food blogger Anton Diaz, Cook Magazine EIC Nancy Reyes-Lumen, Chocolate Fire’s Koby Parcell, and megastar and Spoon on Net 25 host Janice de Belen.

And what a crowd! The list of names read like a celebrity list of who’s who in the Manila restaurant industry: C’Italian’sChris Locher, Aubergine’s Norbert Gandler, Cicou’s Cyrille Soenen, Discovery’s David Pardo de Ayala, Chef Sau del Rosario, Chefs Sunshine and Rob Pengson, Chef Jessie Sincioco, Cyma’s Chef Robby Goco,L’Entrecote’s Chef Martin Kaspar, Chef Nino Laus, LU’s Luis de Terry, L’Incontro’s Tina Pamintuan, Caffe Caruso’s Dario Giardini, Bellini’s Roberto Bellini, Café Juanita’s Dr. Efren Vasquez, J and Malu Gamboa, Mari de Terry, Chef Adrian Cuenca, 4^th Street Kitchen’s Michelle Pantoja with the dashing Santi Picornell, Colin Mackay, and Margarita Fores. From the hotel scene there included Mandarin Oriental’s F&B Director Chico Angeles and Manager Javier Berenguer-Testa with his lovely wife Lexi Schulze Testa, Sofitel General ManagerGoran Aleks, and Discovery General Manager Bobby Horrigan.

Other attendees from the foodie world included F&B World’s Nana Ozaeta, The Wine Steward’s Jay Labrador, actorJohnny Revilla, Living Well on QTV’s Ayee Domingo, Lifestyle Asia’s Cheryl Tiu and Lifestyle Asia Travel’sPierra Labrador, Dine Asia EIC Mary Anne Miely. The list goes on! Other guests included the lovely misses Sasha Haman, Alexandra Rocha and Jessica Tan-Gan, Enjoy Philippines’ Alfie Sy, Vanessa Fernando, Net One’sRaymond Rufino, 99.5 RT’s Ana Gonzalez, Tim Yap, Karen Grupp-Elizalde, UNO Magazine’s RJ Ledesmawith his charming wife Vanessa, Stram Events’ Tetta Tirona, Philippine Star’s Audrey Carpio and even the fabulous thespian Ms Cherie Gil!

Also seen were technology sponsor Optimind’s Wendy Ang, Kashmir’s Indra and Sirjan Singh, Mana-ish’s Philip Mazloum and Chef Majd Francis, L’Opera’s Abba Napa, and Apartment 1B’s Bobby Lim. Also there were Citibank Country Manager Sanjiv Vohra, along with Citi’s Cecille Fonacier, Arlene Magtira, Mattel Luna, and Lynden Catapang, SGV&Co partners Rossana Fajardo, Vivian Cruz-Ruiz, Teresita Baes, Aldrin Cerrado, Sr. ManagerJuliet Bautista along with top regional execs from Ernst & Young Tokyo and Malaysia, and Enderun Colleges foundersJavier Infante, John Suits, and Jack Tuason, who gave the welcome remarks.

TV sponsors covering the event include the Lifestyle Network, Channel V, Net 25, Studio 23, the Asian Food Channel, Living Well on QTV, and Cityscape on ANC. Radio sponsors include Dream 106.7 FM, Mellow 94.7 FM, 101.1 Yes FM, 96.3 FM Easy Rock, Jam 88.3 FM, and Internet radio station musicandwineradio.com. Magazine sponsors include Appetite, Lifestyle Asia, Rogue, Sense & Style, Uno, Women’s Health, Expat Travel & Lifestyle, Monday, 24/7 Nocturnal Navigator, Dine Asia, Circuit, Cook, F&B World, andEntrepreneur. Newspaper sponsors include Manila Standard Today, Manila Bulletin, Business Insight,Daily Tribune, and Expat Newspaper. Top food and lifestyle blogs supporting the MBKRS Awards 2010 include ourawesomeplanet.com, manilareviews.com, wheninmanila.com, foodiemanila.com, One Big Bite, gmanews.tv, dessertcomesfirst.com, and chuvaness.com. Other sponsors include B+C Design, SATB, and Enjoy Philippines.

Visit www.MBKRSawards.com for more information on winners, nominees, judges, and sponsors of the MBKRS Awards 2010, and pick up a copy of the bestselling coffee-table book that inspired it all Manila’s Best Kept Restaurant Secrets, available at all major bookstores or by contacting 897-0087.