5th Annual that's Beijing Reader Restaurant Awards

It's time once again for the readers of that's Beijing to elect their favorite restaurants of 2008 in the 5th Annual that's Beijing Restaurant Awards

The process started last month when a select panel of 200 foodies were asked to name their favorites in over 50 cuisine categories. Their top picks were then included onto the official ballot that is now live here.

To add a little spice this year we're having two "Restaurant of the Year" categories – one for Chinese restaurants and one for non-Chinese, and we've added two new categories (Best Middle Eastern and Best Contemporary), as well as brought back one absent from last year's awards (Best Taiwanese) and combined Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Singaporean into the catch-all Best Southeast Asian category.

In total, 145 worthy eateries were named to the ballot in 26 categories.

Top nominees this year include:

* Chef Too (5 nominations: Best Brunch, Restaurant of the Year, Best Steak, Best Service and Best Family Friendly Restaurant)

* Salt (5 nominations: Best Business Lunch, Restaurant of the Year, Best Steak, Best Contemporary, and Best Service)

* Cafe de la Poste (5 nominations: Restaurant of the Year, Best Steak, Best French, Best Value for Money, and Best Place for a Romantic Dinner)

* Alameda (5 nominations: Best Business Lunch, Restaurant of the Year, Best Contemporary, Best Value for Money, and Best Place for a Romantic Dinner)

* Annie's (4 nominations: Best Family Friendly Restaurant, Best Pizza, Best Italian, and Best Value for Money)

* Aria (4 nominations: Best Wine Selection, Best Business Lunch, Restaurant of the Year, and Best Place for a Romantic Dinner)

* Din Tai Fung (4 nominations: Restaurant of the Year, Best Taiwanese, Best Service, and Best Family Friendly Restaurant)

* Hatsune (4 nominations: Best Business Lunch, Restaurant of the Year, Best Japanese, and Best Service)

* Made in China (4 nominations: Best to Impress Visitors, Restaurant of the Year, Best Beijing Duck, and Best Service)

This year's nomination panel consists of an eclectic mix of Beijing residents. From wine company personnel, food critics, chocolatiers and currently unaffiliated chefs and food service professionals, to average Joes who just love to eat out. They were all randomly selected from contact lists and previous years' balloting.

In the process, the category list was narrowed to 26 select categories. The other categories were eliminated for a variety of reasons, either:

* the nomination panel's vote spread was so wide that no one restaurant received more than one or two votes, indicating that there is no real consensus choices for the category

* There were too few competitors in the category – for it to be a contest, we believe there has to be at least 8 credible competitors – so for instance, the category of Best Shandong was cast out as only 3 restaurants were named in the nomination round

* It was clear from the nomination round vote that a category was not generally understood, or overlapped with another category.

Polling is open until April 7 – giving you plenty of time to get out there and try the competition before you vote.