UAE – Award-winning delivery service Deliveroo has announced the shortlist for its Restaurant Awards 2024, as well as panellists for the Restaurant of the Year category.
The competition recognizes Deliveroo’s best restaurant partners across the Middle East.
The final round of public voting is open until October 16 across the 25 listed categories, from best Burgers to Best Desserts. The full list of categories and shortlisted finalists is available here.
The winners will be revealed on November 7.
The first round of public voting opened from August 14 to September 10. The third edition of Deliveroo’s Restaurant Awards attracted 400 hopefuls, which translated to 15 entrants per category.
The restaurant partners that made this initial shortlist were selected based on metrics like performance, total number of orders via the platform, the total number of repeat orders and their star rating on the app.
The first round of public voting trimmed the shortlist to three restaurants per category, with over 300,000 votes cast in this first round.
The Restaurant of the Year Award has no nominees and will be selected via a panel of experts.
These panellists include Anis Harb, General Manager at Deliveroo Middle East. The second panellist is Tamara Wright, a seasoned reporter at What’s On Dubai.
The third panellist is Peyman Al Awadhi, an entrepreneur from the UAE and co-founder of Wild Peeta, an Emirati shawarma brand.
The other panelist is Laura Lai, a seasoned writer that has profiled restaurants and other players in the Dubai food scene. The fifth panelist is Alex Augusti, a content creator that made a career out of exploring diverse cuisines across the city.
According to the delivery platform, the panelists will evaluate the finalists on various aspects of food delivery like food quality, packaging and presentation, value for money, going the extra mile for customers, and brand personality.
Deliveroo also revealed that its delivery drivers will vote for the Best Restaurant Voted by Riders.
Anis Harb, General Manager at Deliveroo Middle East, said, “The first round of voting for the third edition of Deliveroo’s Restaurant Awards in the UAE brought in a record number of votes from the public.”
“This year’s awards are particularly exciting with the introduction of six new categories, showcasing even more of the incredible concepts within our industry. Food has an incredible way of uniting people, and we thank our loyal customers for their support.”
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