National Pride: How Different Nationalities/Regions Voted in the 2014 Reader Restaurant Awards

With the voting over in the 2014 Reader Restaurant Awards (full results here), it's time to take a closer look at the vote totals.

One of the more interesting ways to parse the data is to look at how various nationalities and regions voted on their own cuisines. Each year we have awards that are tied to nationalities or regions -- for instance, Best French, Best Italian, and we ask voters' nationalities on the ballot.

In many categories (for instance Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese), we only had a smattering of votes from people from those countries, so no statistical significance could be achieved.

In others (for instance, American, French, Italian, Malaysian/Singaporean, Middle Eastern and South Asian), we have over enough votes from those nationalities/cuisines to draw a statistically significant comparison between their preferences vs the poll as a whole. So let's take a look at each below. In the following charts, the overall vote appears at the left, whereas the national/regional subset appears at right. Dark green implies the overall "Best" winner, whereas light green are the runners-up.

Italians on Beijing's Italian Offerings

It's pretty much a given that the unwashed masses prefer Annie's when it comes to Italian food, but Beijing's Italian community feels a little different. In the Casual Italian category, the Italians prefer Mercante, while Annie's falls out of their preference, not making it into the top 3 (with Eatalia joining their ranks of faves). Seems Italians and non-Italians alike appreciate La Pizza.

In the fine dining category, once again there's agreement -- Italians and non-Italians give high marks to Opera Bombana and Tavola, while Isola peeks into the Top 3 on the Italians' list over Mio.

How the French feel about Beijing's French Fare

Meanwhile, there's the French Vote: In the fine dining category, the capital's French residents give the nod to Brasserie Flo, Parnas joins Temple Restaurant Beijing in the French Top Three.

As for French casual dining, Cafe de la Poste impresses the French as much as the rest of the population, with both constituencies making it their top choice. O'Steak also appears on both lists, though the French ranked Crepanini over crowd favorite La Taverne.

Americans on American Grub

Those seeking the authentic American experience in Beijing can't do better than a visit to Home Plate, which Americans themselves agreed was the top US-style spot in town. There's mutual agreement over the American-ness of Great Leap as well, while Americans slightly preferred Element Fresh over crowd-pleaser Blue Frog.

Middle Easterners rank Middle Eastern Offerings

It looks like everyone agrees upon which are the Best Middle Eastern restaurants in town – but not specifically which way to rank them.

Middle Easterners voted Biteapitta as the best Middle Eastern restaurant, whereas it was a runner-up in the general vote. Rumi would be hailed as the general vote's Best Middle Eastern restaurant, but was a runner up Middle Easterners. 1001 Nights appears on both spots as well -- meaning you can't go wrong with any of the top triumverate.

South Asians on Indian / Pakistani Food

The award for Best South Asian was given to Ganges and Taj Pavillion in the Reader Restaurant Awards,  a sentiment shared by the sub-group of South Asians by voting these two restaurants as their favorites as well (even if the latter edged out the former in this case). However, South Asians would disagree with the general vote on the other runner-up position: The overall vote praised Indian Kitchen, while South Asians would recommend Tadka.

Malaysians and Singaporeans rank their hometown cuisine in Beijing

Just as in the previous category, there isn't much difference in the top selections for Best Malaysian/Singaporean restaurant between the overall vote and native Malaysians and Singaporeans: Both the main group and the sub-group voted Nyonya Kitchen to be its favorite Malaysian/Singaporean restaurant, and awarded a runner-up position to Cafe Sambal. They too were split on the third entry: the overall vote selected Lao Pa Sak, while Malaysians and Singaporeans named Malacca Legend in this position.