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Always a massive talking point within the UAE restaurant industry, the annual The Black Hat Guide was released this month, as once again eager chefs, restaurant staff, restaurateurs and dining enthusiasts discover which outlets have been awarded the highly coveted three hat rating for exceptional performance in their price category.
The team at What's On have spent the last 12 months critiquing more than 1,300 restaurants in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to assess the standard of the food and service using The Black Hat Guide's unique rating system. The system awards restaurants for quality, price and service, with one hat being assessed as very good, two hats being excellent and three hats being exceptional, the highest rating awarded to the best of the best. The most exceptional in their price category is (based on a meal for two, excluding drinks) have been awarded from one to three hats. The three price brackets are: up to Dhs249, Dhs250 to Dhs749 and Dhs750+.
This year's guide awards three hats to a total of 49 restaurants, which represents four per cent of all outlets reviewed.
In total 35 per cent of more than 1,300 restaurants were awarded hats, 20 of which were new restaurants being critiqued for the first time, and five of those gained an impressive two hats rating. Hakkasan Dubai was the only existing restaurant to be promoted from two to three hats.
Vincent Chasseignaux, Assistant General Manager comments “We are thrilled to have been awarded this status by The Black Hat Guide, which shows how well our new a la carte menus have been received on the market. The Executive Chef, Toh Chye Siong, and his team have worked very hard together with our Corporate Chef, Ho Chee Boon, to create new dishes keeping our menu fresh and exciting while maintaining our iconic signature dishes, for which we have become so popular. It is a great achievement for the restaurant as we continue to set the standard as one of Dubai's leading restaurants.
Ian Fairservice, Managing Director and Group Editor-in-Chief of Motivate comments: “The restaurant scene has never been in better shape in the Emirates, and given the number of new entries into the book this year, the industry continues to thrive. The 2014 edition of The Black Hat Guide once again gives diners the opportunity to make an informed choice when deciding where to eat out, knowing that every establishment has had their food, service and price critiqued and rated.”
The Black Hat Guide provides diners with an indispensable and comprehensive guide to eating out in the UAE. Arranged by price and location, readers will find restaurants listing include cuisine, an estimated budget for two people and the What's On team's view of the menu and what to expect.
Group Editor, Mark Evans comments on the 2014 edition: “This year's guide contains more than 100 new restaurants, many of which have been awarded hats, demonstrating the excellent and ever-expanding food scene in the UAE. Putting The Black Hat Guide together has been enormous fun for the What's On staff and has caused much debate in the office about which places deserve hats. We look forward to readers joining the discussion and telling us what they think. As we've found, nothing stirs up more debate than food.”
The Black Hat Guide 2014 is free with the March issue of What's On, and can be purchased from all good book stores and magazine outlets for only Dhs20.
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