Bahrain’s Best Restaurants Awards Return for a Fifth Year, with Public Voting Open and a December Gala
Bahrain Confidential’s poll pairs a judges’ list with a public vote; its December 2025 gala named 26 restaurants by judges and 25 by public vote.
Bahrain Confidential has opened the public vote for the 2026 Bahrain’s Best Restaurants Awards, now in their fifth year. The English-language lifestyle magazine, published in Manama by Arabian Magazines, says winners of the 2026 public vote will be honoured at a gala in December. Its announcements give no exact date and no voting deadline.
How the awards work
Two routes lead to the list. In the judges’ vote, hospitality leaders, experts, food bloggers and community members each name their five favourite restaurants; judges cannot choose restaurants linked to their own brands or hotels, and there are no categories or rankings. In the public vote, diners enter a name and email address and choose up to three restaurants. A restaurant missing from the list can be written in under “Other”, or added through an online form, which the magazine says takes 24 to 48 hours. The platform first launched in 2019, and the organisers supply restaurants with a QR code that links to the voting page.
The magazine states that it does not decide the winners. All the detail here comes from its own pages, so it describes the awards as the organiser presents them.
What last year produced
The 2025 gala was held on 10 December at The Gardens of The Gulf Hotel Bahrain. American Express Middle East presented the awards, in partnership with Porsche, Fine Foods, The Gulf Hotel Bahrain and Gulf Brands International. A panel of 46 judges, including general managers of five-star and leading four-star hotels, food influencers and industry experts, produced a list of 26 restaurants by judges’ vote. The public vote, held for the third time, produced 25 more. The magazine had said the judges’ results would appear in its October special edition, ahead of the December gala.
The judges’ list included Avli by tashas, Cipriani Bahrain, Fish Market and Takht Jamsheed, which has since opened a second branch at Marassi Galleria. The public list included Kula, Urth Caffé and The Orangery Tearoom & Patisserie. Sato Japanese Restaurant and Bushido by Buddha-Bar appeared on both. The magazine says neither it nor its partners influenced the results.
A different kind of list
A reader’s poll and a judges’ panel are not the same as an inspector-led guide, and the two lists here answer different questions: which restaurants hotel managers, influencers and industry experts rate, and which ones diners choose. For a regional comparison, see our report on MENA’s 50 Best 2026.
Sources & fact-check4
- Vote for your favourite restaurants (Bahrain’s Best Restaurants)Bahrain Confidential, 7 September 2026
- Bahrain’s Best Restaurants 2026: how to get your dining spot on the public voting listBahrain Confidential, 8 September 2026
- Bahrain’s Best Restaurants Awards 2025: the winnersBahrain Confidential, 11 December 2025
- Bahrain’s Best Restaurants Awards 2025 (announcement)Bahrain Confidential, 26 August 2025
Every name, number and date in this story was checked against the sources above before publication. Spotted something wrong? Tell us — we correct errors openly. See our editorial standards.
