Mission
Presenting the best of Chinese and Asian cuisines to the American public.
Overall Criteria for Contesting Candidates
All restaurant candidates must meet the following guidelines to qualify for the competition:
- At least 50% of the menu items must be related to Chinese cuisine.
- For Asian-themed restaurants category, at least 50% of the menu items must be related to Chinese cuisine.
- Must have been in business for a minimum of 2 years (with the exception of Top 100 Rising Stars).
Awards Categories
The Top 100 Chinese restaurants with the highest scores will win the Top 100 Overall Excellence Award.
The additional categories that candidates can compete for include the following:
- Special Awards: Green Restaurants Awards, Healthy Menu Awards, and Best Value Awards
- Category Awards:
Top 100 Regional & Specialty Chinese Cuisines
Top 100 Local Favorites
Top 100 Takeouts
Top 100 Best Décor
Top 100 Rising Stars
Top 100 Buffet
Top 100 Asian Specialty Dish (for Asian Restaurants)
Category Definitions
*Top 100 Chinese Restaurants (Overall Excellence)
Restaurants with the highest overall score include the following criteria:
- Food: The critical factors are consistency, quality, taste, and variety.
- Décor and atmosphere: Based on restaurant type: family-style, upscale, buffet, take-out, specialtheme, and chains.
- Service: Customer satisfaction, friendliness, and efficiency are some important factors.
- Cleanliness and presentation: The dining room, kitchen, and restrooms are evaluated. Restaurant candidates are judged for their level of compliance with the health department.
- Value: Restaurants will be recognized for outstanding offerings under optimum costs.
*Special Awards
Top 100 Green Restaurants
The winners will be recognized when the restaurant has put effort in helping the environment clean, taking actions to conserve resources, prevent pollution, and minimize waste.
Top 100 Healthy Menu
Healthy menu offerings are gaining popularity as diners become more conscious about their eating habits. Many diners seek restaurants that cater to their special dietary needs, such as reducing calories, fat, carbohydrates, or sodium. This category recognizes Chinese restaurants that are meeting the growing wave of healthy diners.
Top 100 Best Value
Competition is fierce in the restaurant business and it is prevalent to find restaurants trying to out-perform each other by offering the best in terms of quality, variety, and value. For this category, restaurants will be recognized for outstanding offerings under optimum costs.
*Category Awards
Top 100 Local Favorites
Some restaurants have proven their success over many years and through difficult circumstances. These restaurants maintain an important community presence and have a significant and devoted customer base.
Top 100 Buffet
The modern buffet spread is larger and more varied than in the past. Chinese restaurants offer more options: stir-fried, steamed, boiled, fried, and roasted items; vegetables, meats, seafood, sushi, and desserts. This category considers variety, value, food quality, and buffet maintenance.
Top 100 Takeouts
Chinese takeout has become part of American diners’everyday lives. Diners look for the following qualities when selecting a takeout restaurant: menu selection, price,packaging, convenience (including parking), promptness, order and accuracy.
Top 100 Best Décor
Clean, tasteful, and interesting décor enhances the dining experience. This category focuses on the effective use of furniture, color schemes, lighting, music, and decorations to create a memorable restaurant environment.
Top 100 Rising Stars
The winners represent the most exciting new places to dine this year. They must outperform the other candidates in innovation and creativity (including restaurant concept and décor), menu offerings, and sales volume.
Top 100 Regional & Specialty Chinese Cuisines
For this category, restaurant winners are awarded for their distinct styles of regional and special cooking. They differ from other Chinese restaurants by their subtle use of special sauces, ingredients, and cooking methods. Regional dishes, authenticity, and taste are considered for this category.
Top 100 Asian Specialty Dish (for Asian Restaurants)
This category focuses on the dishes’ flavors, taste, and presentation. It honors restaurants that use their special ingredients, recipes or cooking methods to create the dish. Successful Asians restaurants bring out the best “truly Asia” dish when it comes to taste and authenticity.
Voting Structure & Selection Procedure
Mystery Diner Evaluation (40%)
This is the reliable extra step for the on-site evaluation component of the award selection. This real time anonymous assessment is done by About Face, a leading mystery dining service company. The mystery diner visits and evaluates each restaurant. The mystery diner’s written report and scorecard are the main measures of success for the candidates.
Public Votes (20%)
Votes can be submitted in two ways:
1) Guests obtain ballots at the restaurant, vote, and turn them in. The restaurant then sends the ballots to Chinese Restaurant News.
2) Online – Guests log on the Top 100 website and cast their votes. Results will automatically be displayed.
Critiques and Diner Reviews (10%)
This segment will review the ratings on popular community forum—Yelp.com and Chinesemenu.com.
Past Won Awards and Honors (20%)
Established restaurants can benefit from awards & honors in this part.
Advisory Panel Evaluation (10%)
A panel of carefully selected food critics, journalists, Chinese Restaurant News editors, and other industry experts will evaluate the restaurant's merits as a whole.
