Award winners: Finding the best food in the air … and on the ground

Story highlights

New York-based food magazine Saveur releases list of culinary travel awards

The awards, in 21 categories, cover all travel aspects from the best food cities to the best economy meals

Singapore Airlines voted best economy class inflight dining, Qantas named for best inflight wine program

CNN  — 

There can’t be many people who pick an air carrier based solely on the quality of their inflight food, but those who do might want to pay attention to the latest awards from New York food mag Saveur.

The magazine’s annual dining survey ranks airlines for the quality of their chow while also doling out awards in 20 other categories.

Saveur’s Culinary Travel Awards polled a panel of 36 experts and, separately, its readers to select winners.

When it comes to economy class food, Singapore Airlines was crowned king by both readers and experts.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Qantas was acknowledged by both as having the best inflight wine program.

Readers and experts differed when it came to first and business class dining – the experts chose Emirates, the readers went for Oman Air.

The two groups had different views on the rest of the awards, except for the best city for markets, with Tokyo getting the unanimous nod.

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Best food and cocktail cities

The experts voted Hong Kong (International) as the best large food destination.

In addition to the usual suspects – Michelin-star restaurants Lung King Heen, Tim Ho Wan and Bo Innovation for Chinese food in Hong Kong – the experts also recommended eating at local seafood market Lei Yue Mun.

New York’s Brooklyn borough was named best U.S. large city food destination for its “close proximity to farms and food producers and a truly collaborative community of food lovers, artisans, and chefs.”

The best small culinary destinations are Copenhagen (international) and New Orleans (U.S.).

The experts recommended NOMA, Kadeau and Restaurant Schoennemann in Copenhagen and called New Orleans’ dining options “dizzying.”

The readers’ food destination choices included Paris (large international city), San Sebastian (small international city), San Francisco (large U.S. city) and Portland (small U.S. city).

Echoing the world’s 50 best bars awards, London again outshone other cities to be chosen by the experts as the best cocktail city. The readers ranked Melbourne as the best.

READ: World’s 50 best bars 2014 winners

Best hotels for food

For hotels with more than 100 rooms, Epicure at Le Bristol in Paris and Le Louis XV-Alan Ducasse at Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo were named the best hotel restaurants for experts and readers, respectively.

The Restaurant at Meadowood, St. Helena in California (experts) and Restaurant Le Gaiac, Hotel Le Toiny, St. Barth (readers) are the best hotel restaurants in smaller hotels.

For visitors who don’t want to leave their hotel bed, The Dorchester in London is the experts’ choice and the Kempinski Hotel Barbaros Bay is the readers’ for best in-room meals.

“Room service at the Dorchester is like eating in a private restaurant, with some of the best service I’ve ever had,” one panelist said.

The full list of awards are available on Saveur’s website.

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