Restaurants put their best dishes to the vote

TORONTO—Some of Toronto’s most critically acclaimed restaurants are among 16 that  are taking part in a contest to determine who has the most popular signature dish.

The judges for Dish Duel are Toronto food bloggers  and the general eating public, with the contest kicking off Feb. 18 when diners start sending in their votes to dishduelTO.com.

The winner will be announced  March 17.

Jacob Younan,  who runs the blog RestosInTO, com, has enlisted the authors of three other blogs to join the judging panel:  Stella Yu (foodjunkiechronicles.com), Amy Lu (amysfoodadventures.com) and Jess W (wherejessate.com).

The contest starts with each restaurant declaring  its best dish. Then diners go to the restaurants and order these creations After this, they register their votes for best dish.

After this two bloggers go out each week and try the dishes.

The bloggers score the dishes out of a total of 25 points. Their scores are added to the percentage of the popular vote won by the dishes. The winner is the one with the highest total score.

The original contestants are matched up in eight  pairs to compete against  each other, with the winner from each pair going on to the next stage. This continues until the final match-up when the winner is declared.

Some of the headliners in Dish Duel are Acadia, Cava, George and Cowbell.  The other contestants,  all of which have been given  at least two stars (very good) by Toronto Life, are:

• Aria

• Ascari Enoteca

• Beast

• Bruda

• The Gabardine

• Malena

• L.A.B.

• Luma

• Loire

• Salt

• Starfish

• Table 17

Plans call for this contest to be followed by other themed tournaments showcasing dishes of specific cuisines.

Currrently, Younan is looking for a sponsor for Dish Duel.