Vancouver Magazine 13th Annual Restaurant Awards

As a food lover, I love the Vancouver Magazine Annual Restaurant Awards. As a website developer and website designer, I unfortunately can't say the same about their website.

First, let's start with the good. The Vancouver Magazine 13th Annual Restaurant Awards are out and just as enjoyable and informative as ever. I would link to them here but they are not online yet! More about the Vancouver Magazine web presence later.

The award winners (which are decided by a panel of food critics unlike the Georgia Straight's Golden Plate awards which are voted for by the people of Vancouver) generally coincide with what Barb and I like.

For example one of our new favourites, Memphis Blues, is "Best New Informal". And Barb's favourite, Lumiere, is "Best French".

I love using these awards to try to figure which (non-ethnic hole in the wall) restaurants to try next. For ethnic hole in the wall eateries, I rely on my network of foodie ethnic friends.

Based on this year's awards, I would like to try the following: Lumiere Tasting Bar, Lucy Mae Brown, Wild Rice, Ginger Sixty Two, and go back to Tojo's and ask him to cook "what's good today" rather than ordering from the menu.

One last word about the Vancouver Magazine website. It is shall we say "challenged" :-) To quote the article from the April 2002 print edition, "Visit Vancouvermagazine.com for a complete list of the top 10 winners in each category". Well, I visited their website and did not find this list! I don't think it's such a big thing to ask that in the 21st century that a magazine of this stature has an up to date web site! It's not hard! If they need professional advice about their website, they could alway hire me! I'd love to work with them.