The award for most dubious awards goes to...

How important are these awards things anyway? Useful to decorate that awkward bit of wall. Plus you can re-use the frame with a nice family photo, or if it's a plaque, sell it to a scrap collector for a few kuai. Ha! Of course not! Awards are a fantastic way for restaurants to show their customers that they're popular, which in turn suggests that the food / price / atmosphere is among the best in its class. It should be said, The Beijinger awards (and City Weekend, Time Out etc) aren't the only culinary accollades in town. Some of those others can be downright confusing, not to mention misleading...

Take Uama Teppanyaki on Lucky Street, for example. It sports a row of proudly displayed plaques outside. This is the coveted “Famous Restaurant” from the Beijing Foreign Flavor Restaurant Industry. This certificate has been awarded on behalf of the BWFA - "Beijing's Western Food Association". Never heard of them? Want to know who they think are the best western restaurants in Beijing? Find out here.

Coincidentally, this regal crest shows that Uama Teppanyaki is a fully paid-up member of the BWFA. Congrats guys!

Here’s a 2007 plaque from the Beijing Commercial Office for its “special foreign flavor”.

And even those hard-working pen pushers at the Chaoyang General Chamber of Commerce have found the time to award a silver "Chaoyang Recommended (Restaurants)" plaque.

To my knowledge, Uama Teppanyaki hasn't scooped anything in the Beijinger Reader Awards since I've been in town. And, alas, it didn't make the nomination cut this year for "Best Japanese". Still, you're free to vote for it as a "write-in" candidate -- cast your ballot here: http://www.thebeijinger.com/2011RestaurantAwards/index.html. Not that I'm trying to influence your votes, or lure you inside on false pretexts or anything. That would be wrong.