Best New Restaurant

Best Islands Restaurant

Ele Fine Fusion

This unique eatery is tucked off to the side of US 80 on Wilmington Island like a classy oasis of contemporary Asian fusion, and in a relatively short period of time has beaten a field of tough competition for its two titles this year.
Preparing to celebrate its one year anniversary in a few weeks, Ele Fine Fusion has definitely become a staple on the islands.

"A significant portion of the regulars from both Tangerine and The King & I were so committed to the food, they were willing to make the commute to southside Savannah," says Ele Tran, the new restaurant's owner and namesake.

The food may have been what lured folks into the new establishment, but the atmosphere is part of what has kept them coming back.

"Although we wanted to maintain our reputation for unique Asian flavors, we wanted to design an atmosphere unlike anything else available in the Savannah area," says Tran.

Designed and built from the ground up, the relatively large space is broken up into a series of smaller rooms, giving a very intimate feel to the dining area. Adding to the ambience is the acoustic paneling which absorbs the sound of surrounding diners to provide a more pleasant environment.

"The new restaurant was designed to be more of a chic, contemporary place with more of an upscale metropolitan vibe," says Tran. "We also wanted to create a new restaurant that would transform our guests and enable them to escape to the lavish Hollywood fantasy of glitz and glamour." - PR

Runner-up, New: The Melting Pot

Runner-up, Islands: Basil's

Best Chef

Matthew Roher/Cha Bella

Best Organic Restaurant

Cha Bella

From the free-range chicken to the Frutta de Mare seafood plate, repeat winner Roher keeps things exciting (and delightfully prepared). "My emphasis is on consistently delicious, organic, and seasonal fare," he says.

Runner-up, Chef: Kirk Blaine/Driftaway

Runner-up: Organic: Thrive

Best Overall Restaurant

Best Wait Staff

Best Downtown Restaurant

Most Romantic Restaurant

The Olde Pink House

Built in 1771, and fitted out with a pink stucco facade, this longtime favorite is formal, yet the food is as deliciously Southern as it gets.

Runner-up, Overall & Wait Staff: Cha Bella

Runner-up, Downtown: Zunzi's

Runner-up: Romantic: Elizabeth on 37th

Best Southside Restaurant

Tangerine Fusion/Sushi Bar

That cuisine with that Pan-Asian touch from Sean and Ele Tran of The King and I and Ele Fine Fusion fame.

Runner-up: Toucan Cafe

Best Family Restaurant

Carey Hilliard's

Barbeque, Brunswick Stew, seafood and sandwiches at six locations of this venerable chain, which began with restaurants in Savannah and Charleston in the late ‘70s.

Runner-up: Barnes

Best Tybee Restaurant

A.J.'s Dockside

Locally-caught seafood with a view of the scenic Back River, since 2003. Try the jambalaya.

Runner-up: Sundae Cafe

Best Westside Restaurant

Cheddar's Casual Cafe

This Texas-based "neighborhood eatery" is a family hotspot in Pooler, with salads, sandwiches, breaded this-and-that and some mighty big burgers.

Runner-up: Spanky's

Best Take-Out

Best Meal Under $10

Best Lunch

Zunzi's

Johnny and Gabriella DeBeer specialize in combining Swiss, South African, Dutch and Italian cuisine in new and exciting ways. Ever tried Old Indian Town Curry Stew? Here's your chance - and you can take it in a doggie bag!

Runner-up, Take-out: Thrive Cafe

Runner-up, Under $10: Five Guys

Runner-up, Lunch: Soho Cafe

Best Pub Food

Molly McPherson's Scottish Pub & Grill

Sisters Debbie and Jennifer named their pub - which also has locations in Richmond Hill and Charlotte - after their great-grandmother, who left Scotland for Nova Scotia at the tail end of the 19th Century.

Runner-up: Six Pence Pub

Best Tapas

Jazz'd Tapas Bar

With a retro, swingin' cool bar adjacent to the swanky restaurant (down a short flight of stairs on Barnard Street), Jazz'd Tapas is a downtown destination of choice. From the Prosciutto Wrapped Scallops to the Cuban Rubbed Beef Satays, the tapas are never forgotten by those who've visited.

Runner-up: bar food

Best Caterer

Susan Mason

"You're only as good as your last party," believes Mason, whose Southern cooking and hospitality - has kept her in (good) business almost solely through word-of-mouth.

Runner-up: Nick Mueller

Best Outdoor Dining

Best Seafood Restaurant

The Crab Shack

"Where the Elite Eat in their Bare Feet" indeed. Everyone loves the Crab Shack, with its informal setup (rough wooden tables with big holes in the middle for depositing the shells, etc. from your fresh seafood) and its front porch pools-with-live-alligators. Perfect with a cold brewski.

Runner-up, Outdoor: Cha Bella

Runner-up, Seafood: Tubby's Tank House

Best Late Night Restaurant

Sweet Melissa's

They're open until 4 a.m. on weekends, for that post-clubbing burger, chicken sandwich or slice o'pizza. May we recommend the corn pudding?

Runner-up: Sushi-Zen

Best Vegetarian Restaurant

The Sentient Bean

There's more than just steaming cups of joe, green tea and acoustic music at this venerable coffeehouse on the south end of Forsyth Park.

Runner-up: Cha Bella

Best Place for Steak

Ruth's Chris Steak House

Well, duh. Since it opened in 2008, Ruth's C has changed the face of beef-eating in Savannah.

Runner-up: Outback

Best Pancakes

IHOP

Our favorite time of year is "All You Can Eat Pancakes" season.

Runner-up: Pancake House

Best Southern Food

Best Fried Chicken

Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room

You can smell the fried chicken from Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room a block away from the West Jones Street restaurant.

First opened in 1943 as Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House, the family style, Southern cooking landmark is owned and managed by Ronnie and Marcia Thompson and their son Ryon Thompson--the granddaughter, grandson-in-law, and great-grandson of the late Sema Wilkes.

Even before President Obama's unscheduled lunch visit in March put Mrs. Wilkes' into the national spotlight, diners could expect to wait in line for a seat at one of eight oval tables for 10, laden with nearly two dozen traditional Southern dishes. By 10:30 last Tuesday, 42 people waited to be seated at the 11 a.m. lunch start, and by 12:15 there were 111 people in a line that stretched to Whitaker Street.

This reporter's table for 10 was seated by 11:20, and included a group of seven from Alabama and a couple from Toronto. The fried chicken was delivered on a platter once all were seated. After a quick blessing, side dishes were passed around.

Lima beans, field peas, collards, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes with cheddar cheese, beef stew, rice and gravy, creamed corn, barbecue pork, cukes in vinegar, squash casserole, sweet potatoes, dressing, noodles and English peas, okra and tomatoes, biscuits, cornbread, and choice of either banana pudding or berry cobbler for dessert. Either 20 or 22 dishes in total, depending on who counted.

True to its reputation, the chicken was a favorite. Crispy on the outside, hot and tender on the inside. The secret?

"The girl that's doing the chicken has been doing it for 25 years," says Ronnie Thompson, from his spot as cashier under a photo of Mrs. Wilkes and her husband. When they say "cashier" they mean it. Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room accepts no plastic.

Other favorites were the beef stew, the sweet potatoes and the dressing. After seconds and thirds, diners are expected to tote their own plate, utensils and tea glass to the kitchen. - RWG

Runner-up, Southern: Sweet Potatoes

Runner-up: Chicken: KFC

Best Sub Shop

Subway

Somewhere, Jared is jumping up and down. In pants that fit.

Runner-up: Baldinos

Best Wings

Wild Wing Cafe

It's a chain, sure, but they do wings right, and the location - right on the open plaza in City Market - certainly adds to the experience.

Runner-up: Loco's

Best Breakfast

Best Brunch

J. Christopher's

Tough choices in these categories, as there are som many pitch-perfect breakfast places in our fair city. J. Christopher's is a chain based in Marietta.

Runner-up, Breakfast: The Breakfast Club

Runner-up, Brunch: Westin

Best Dinner

Noble Fare

Fine dining in a quiet, intimate atmosphere (only 32 seats) on the corner of Jefferson and Harris. Noble Fare recently celebrated its second anniversary.

Runner-up: The Olde Pink House

Best Burger Under $5

Five Guys

None, presumably, named Moe. Conveniently in the middle of the downtown drinking-and-clubbing district, this national chain's credo is celebrating "the lost art of the burger joint."

Runner-up: Burger King

Best Gourmet Burger

B&D Burgers

Yow! Winner in the burger category every year since 2002. That's fun on a bun.

Runner-up: Five Guys

Best Ribs

Sticky Fingers

Of course, there are several places one can get a good ribbing in Savannah, but this venerable cookery on Abercorn has ‘em all beat, Memphis-style. Make no bones about it.

Runner-up: Blowin' Smoke

Best Buffet

The Lady & Sons

Paula Deen and her boys put out a Southern lunch buffet seven days a week, with everything from fried chicken to "GooeyButter Cakes." That's what those people are lined up on the sidewalk for every morning.

Runner-up: Golden Corral

Best Deli

Best Bagels

Midtown Deli and Bagel Shop

Fans of this Abercorn eatery and bakery say it's one of Savannah's best-kept secrets, and the closest thing to a genuine New York delicatessen in the Hostess City.

Runner-up, Deli: Publix

Runner-up, Bagels: Panera Bread

Best BBQ

Wiley's Championship BBQ

It only took five years until Wiley McCrary's new-to-Savannah barbeque joint took the top honors in our Readers' Poll. In the slow-cooking world of barbeque, where things just aren't ready until they're ready, that's like a snap of the fingers.

McCrary, 63, and wife Jan relocated from Atlanta in 2003. Although they had a successful catering business, they'd never run a restaurant before. For more than 20 years they'd been involved with national barbeque competitions all over the country - and taken prize after prize after prize.

Savannah seemed like a good choice - "it reminds me of the Atlanta I grew up in," McCrary says - and since Wiley's Championship BBQ opened on Whitemarsh Island, it's been a roaring success.

"Faith has a lot to do with it, because we're really been blessed," he explains. "We're blessed with the location we've got, we're blessed with the rent that we've got, we're blessed with some really great customers. We had no idea if it would work, or if it wouldn't work. But I had no other choice, because there was no turning back. I'd been wanting to do this for years."

It's not just the Q, either. The McCrarys' side dishes, from Dutch Crust sweet potato casserole to mac ‘n' cheese to the sweetest, spiciest baked beans in town, are superb.

Technically speaking, the barbeque is Kansas City style. McCrary studied under, and learned from, one of the certified K.C. cooking masters.

"Everybody thinks there's a secret," he says. "The secret is to be consistent in what you do.

"All barbeque is essentially cooked the same, but it's the wood and the sauce that denotes the region. In other words, there's only so many ways you can cook barbeque. People in Kansas City cook barbecue the same way they cook in Memphis. I cook with pecan, and I'm lucky to get it.

Still, the cook himself certainly has something to do with it. "It took me a long time to accept this, but it's a form of art with me," McCrary says. "I'm a barbecue artist." - BDY

Runner-up: Angel's

Best Place to Buy Local Seafood

Charlie Russo's

Charlie Sr. opened the shop in 1946, with an emphasis on fish - and especially shrimp - fresh from coastal Georgia waters. Charlie Jr. runs things nowadays, and things are still the same.

Runner-up: Matthews

Best Gourmet Pizza

Best Pizzeria

Best Delivery Pizza

Vinnie Van Go-Go's

New York style, great calzones, wine and beer, delivery by bicycle. What's not to love? Cash only.

Runner-up, Gourmet, Pizzeria: Mellow Mushroom

Runner-up, Delivery: Papa John's

Best Salad

Kayak Kafe

Sandwiches, soup ... and salad. Lots of salad choices, including the Kayak Kasa, the Iron Booster (love that spinach!) and the top-loaded West Indian Trader.

Runner-up: Ruby Tuesday

Best Soul Food

Sisters of the New South

There's no shortage of great Southern cooking to be found across the city, and in a year when the President of the United States dropped by Mrs. Wilkes for a family style lunch, for this relative newcomer to the restaurant scene to claim the "Best Soul Food" title, there must be something special going on, so I dropped by to investigate.

Walking through the door, diners are welcomed by the sight and smells of an expansive hot line. On the day I visited, the line included a variety of Southern staples, including turkey wings, oxtails, chop steak, and ribs along with companion dishes of sweet potatoes, green beans, mac n cheese and a host of other sides.

The ribs, accompanied by a ramekin of homemade BBQ sauce, were juicy and tender (no small feat for a gravy-less item from a hot line); the mac ‘n' cheese was a cheddary block of pure goodness, and the sweet potatoes melted in my mouth in a swirl of brown sugary decadence.

If you're a connoisseur of meat and three spots and you haven't been through Sisters of the New South, then you owe yourself a trip to their spot on Skidaway. Just make sure you don't have any strenuous activities planned for a few hours afterward. - PR

Runner-up: Mrs. Wilkes'

Best Ice Cream

Leopold's

The shop's been in Stratton Leopold's family for close to 100 years (Johnny Mercer himself was a fan of Leopold's home-made tutti-frutti). Stratton went off and became a Hollywood mogul, but he came home - because his heart is in Savannah, and in dishing out daddy's ice cream recipes.

Runner-up: Cold Stone Creamery

Best Coffeehouse

Gallery Espresso

Sometimes you gotta have a more homey atmosphere than a corporate Starbucks.

Runner-up: The Sentient Bean

Best Bakery

Back in the Day Bakery

Cheryl and Griffith Day make everything - breads, desserts, even the ice cream - by hand and from scratch.

Runner-up: Baker's Pride

Best Desserts

Lulu's Chocolate Bar

Truly a sweet shop: Between 15 to 20 different varieties of cakes, tarts, mousses, truffles, brownies and cheesecakes are on hand at all times, and they're all all hand-made.

Runner-up: Back in the Day Bakery

Best French

Papillote

Ooh-la-la. Continental, swanky and conveniently located in the heart of downtown.

Runner-up: Elizabeth on 37th

Best Japanese

Hirano's

Small and unassuming, with two Savannah locations for Japanese cuisine - they do wonderful things with shrimp - plus incredibly fresh sushi and other delicacies.

Runner-up: Sushi-Zen

Best Sushi

Sushi-Zen

Japanese owned and operated, and a longtime favorite.

Runner-up: Wasabi's

Best Indian

Taste of India

Open on Mall Boulevard since 2005, Taste of India has a lunch buffet that's sure to curry favor with the delightful spices and textures of Northern Indian cuisine.

Runner-up: Pakwan

Best Middle Eastern

Casbah

As in most Moroccan restaurants in the United States, you're encouraged to eat without utensils, as tradition dictates. Just ask if you'd prefer a fork and knife. They have belly dancing shows - and you can buy a fez in the lobby.

Runner-up: Al Salaam Deli

Best Chinese

Wangs II

Chef Pu has an extensive culinary resume that began in China; he's a recent addition to Wangs II, which began as a downtown restaurant in 1985.

Runner-up: Yummy House

Best Italian

Bella's Italian Cafe

This family-owned trattoria specializes in old-world pasta recipes handed down through the generations.

Runner-up: Olive Garden

Best Mexican

Jalapenos

There are three of them in town, specializing in low-cost, no-frills, just plain yummy Mexican dishes.

Runner-up: Carlitos

Best Greek

Olympia Cafe

Not only is on River Street - such a view! - but the menu features everything from Dolmades to Moussaka. Great chops and chicken too.

Runner-up: Grapevine

Best Caribbean

Toucan Cafe

With the right rub - not to mention the right perky Caribbean attitude - you can "jerk" just about anything.

Runner-up: Sol

Best Thai

Best Vietnamese

Saigon

Spice, flavor and kick are the hallmarks of this Broughton Street perennial, whether it's Bahn Xeo, Phad Thai or Drunken Noodles you seek.

Runner-up (Thai): Kao

Runner-up (Vietnamese): Saigon Flavors