There's no magic incantation and no cabal of advertisers which we invoke. Instead restaurants are nominated based on a combination of:

• Website buzz
• CW Reviews
• User reviews/comments
• Industry input
• Editorial expertise

Shanghai’s got a huge selection of restaurants and bars (including a host of undiscovered ones), and everyone has different tastes. Accordingly, it’s hard even to narrow down the nomination lists to something eight. So if you guys have any undiscovered favorites that didn’t make the cut, let us know here by posting a comment--if any non-nominated place can get enough support we’ll look into adding them as a late entry onto the ballots.

Each category has 3 winners: Readers’ Choice Winner, Runner-up and Editor’s Pick. The first two are assigned purely according to reader votes (look for the final vote tallies in our June issues) , but the Editor’s Pick can be awarded for a range of different reasons (in essence, a combination of the reasons listed above). It can be used to highlight a place that just narrowly missed the cut, to big up a place that's doing a good job at something new, or just to spots that we feel have been generally overlooked by the city.

We have personally visited all of the restaurants and bars nominated, and we believe they represent the strongest candidates in Shanghai.

Click http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/contests/shanghai_restaurant_bar_contest/ if you want to vote in the awards. Our annual awards ceremony will go down at the end of May and the winners will be featured in our June 3 (Dining) and June 17 (Nightlife) issues.