After months of meticulous planning, VIP guests and our partners joined the elite of the island’s hospitality and food and beverage (F&B) sector for an event at which we handed out more than 110 of our coveted awards.
We gathered in the fabulous surroundings of the Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea & Spa to recognise the Best and Favourite venues across categories ranging from newcomers to value-for-money and traditional to speciality offerings and regional cuisines.
This record-breaking 15th edition attracted 550 guests and gave us the chance to pay tribute to those who help make the Kingdom’s dining scene both vibrant and entertaining with well-thought-out new concepts continually emerging to excite healthy competition alongside our many much-loved stalwarts.
After the success of 2023’s inaugural Chef of the Year Award, presented purely on the basis of public online votes, it was no surprise that this category was, once again, extremely tightly contested with the honour, by a small margin, going to Chef Tala Bashmi, formerly of Fusions at The Gulf Hotel Bahrain Convention & Spa.
As the voting closed, it emerged that Chef Tala has been designated by United Nations Tourism as a Special Ambassador for Gastronomy Tourism. We wish her all the very best for the future and can’t wait to see what she does next.
As always, with the Fact Dining Awards, two winners were chosen in each of the other 56 categories – the Favourites, selected by a public on-line vote, and the Best, chosen by industry experts and the FACT editorial team.
And, like the Kingdom’s dining sector, we too are growing, with almost 900 nominations considered in the 2024 awards, many of which were suggested by our readership. No surprise then that voting was also at an all-time high, with 68,000-plus individual voters going online to support their favourites!
The plaque for Overall Favourite Restaurant of the year went to Salero, at The Westin City Centre Bahrain, a very popular spot and worthy winner. And the Overall Best Restaurant was, once again, won by CUT by Wolfgang Puck at Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, which never fails to impress with its consistency of both quality and service.
FACT Magazines Group Publisher, Rami Khalil, said: “Every year, when we start out on this journey, I always ask myself, how can we make it better? How can we better serve the industry which is such an important part of who we are and what we do? The answer is always the same, this industry is what makes FACT magazine and these awards possible. The support from the dining sector and our readers and voters never fails to amaze and humble our whole team and we are, as always, so very thankful.”
A great deal of hard work and planning went into the event which was made possible with the support of our generous partners:
Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea & Spa, Porsche Centre Bahrain, BMMI Shops, Vatel Hotel & Tourism Business School, Bidfood, Annoris Events, Asgharali, AQS De Parfum and HSP Marketing.
We look forward to doing it all again in 2025.
