Best Service: West

All praise the rooms that nurtured staff who understand the charmed line between pleasant and pushy. West (Gold), under Brian Hopkins, gets highest praise: “So smoothly executed,” one judge remarked, “you don’t even know how they did it until you realize you’re not walking out of the restaurant—you’re floating.”

The trick is to turn customers into companions, as Bishop’s (Silver) does every night, but without getting too chummy—though a sense of humour can work wonders.

The staff at Boneta (Bronze) know this well.

Honourable Mentions go to the front-of-housers at Lumière and Le Crocodile.

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