Community restaurants and micro, small, and medium food enterprises were feted in the inaugural 5-Star Eats Awards hosted by superapp Grab Philippines.
Nominated and victorious establishments are all nationwide merchants included in the platform’s 5-Star Eats program which accounts for mechants with at least a 4.5 star-rating on the app, have a limited number of branches, and other operational factors like quality standard and service fulfillment.
The ceremony was held last September 4 in a Makati hotel where Grab Philippines’ Director for Commercial Cams Tuason began the evening thanking program members for “carrying communities” and “bringing kababayans” with them.
“We are not crowning the largest brands with big budgets but the merchants that go beyand that, earning the repeated trust of Filipino diners,” Tuason also said. “You earned this one order, one good review at a time.”
Winners were chosen by three measures: People’s Verdict from users, Experts’ Validation from a blind tasting judged by food experts, journalists and content creators and Data’s Proof from the platform’s service metrics.
Cebu City-based Alberto’s Pizza was the night’s big winner as it took home Merchant of the Year as well as the Regional award for Visayas. The other Regional honors went to L.A. Bakeshop (Luzon), Kyu Kyu Ramen 99 (Metro Manila), and Chikoy’s Lugawan (Mindanao).
Wok It Out won the Viral Hit Award, Go! Salads was named the 5-Star Dine Out Restaurant, Claudette’s was named the platform’s Rising Star, and Mylene’s Ensaymada and Banana Cake took the GrabFood Exclusive Star Award. Some establishments were awarded for specific dishes they serve like Cake2Go the Platinum 5-Star Plate for its Toblerone Overload, Vito’s BBQ the Filipino Icon for its Boneless Chicken Plate and Sushi Nori the Japanese Icon for its Aburi Poké.
Visibility and expansion
Tuason also sat down with members of the media including Philstar.com to discuss 5-Star Eats, both the program and the inaugural awards.
“When we launched the program, it was really meant to give additional visibility to some of our merchants who have been doing amazing things, delivering quality food consistently, great service,” said the executive.
After reiterating how the awards were designed across Choice, Excellence, and Performance categories, Tuason noted how much of the awardees are based or originated outside the capital region.
That, for her, is a reflection of more merchants, even within Metro Manila, are onboarding the platform and falling within the program’s ratings, service quality, and operations reliability to be worthy of recognition.
“For me, it’s not really a surprise, but it was more of a pleasant revelation that really, us working with the merchants, these metrics are improving across the board,” Tuason ended.