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My local neighborhood newspaper, the Ahwatukee Foothills News publishes an annual "Best of the Best" guide to local restaurants (and a few other odd categories). Each year I open the guide, and each year I'm more and more disappointed in the seemingly bad taste of many of my neighbors. If I had to sum up my problem in one blurb, it would be "corporate chain restaurants". Rather than turn this into a long winded rant, I just want to point out a few examples:
Best Coffee Bar: Starbucks
While there aren't a lot of great coffee shops in Ahwatukee, there are a few, and some of them are much better than Starbucks!
Best Oriental Food: Abacus Inn
I don't have a problem with the winner here as much as I have an issue with the category. Best "Oriental Food"?? That's like saying best North American food. Besides, who calls it oriental food anyway? Both the winner and runner-up are Chinese restaurants. Ahwatukee also has Japanese, Thai, and Indian (which there is no separate category for).
Best Sub Sandwich: Subway
You have got to be kidding me here. There's no way Subway should have beat out #2 Capriotti's. If you've been to both, there's just no comparison.
Best Burger: Sonic
I don't even know how to go about addressing this one.
Best Vegetarian Food: Trader Joe's
Don't get me wrong. I love Trader Joe's, but come on, it's a grocery store, not a restaurant! For vegetarian choices in Ahwatukee, Star of India, Thai Rice Box, or Capriotti's could easily have fit the #1 spot.
Now, for winners I feel do deserve their top spots:
Best Pizza: Nello's
Best Italian Food: Va Bene
Best Wings: Native New Yorker
sigh.
It looks like they used the popular vote to determine who won. Popularity is no way to judge the value of a restaurant. Chains have an inherent advantage in a popular vote because they're well known and ubiquitous. Usually a single location can't compete because of the sheer number of people familiar with the chain. I'm surprised Va Bene was able to win over Olive Garden (unless there's no Olive Garden in Ahwatukee, which would explain it).
I agree with you, the Best of Ahwatukee is a joke. The same ones seem to win every year, so its obvious that those are the ones spending way too much time filling out forms with fake names and emails so ensure they win again. Its an bvoisu set up. Most of the great spots in Ahwatukee never even get on the Best of List, Ahwatukee deserves better recognition than that.
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