Voting

Malaysia’s Top 30 Bars award categories have been carefully curated to ensure that we celebrate the achievements, talent and diversity of Malaysia’s Bar Community.

Malaysia’s Top30 Bar List is a compilation of 50 bar industry specialists through their experiences from around the World.

This list is left to the discretion of these well-traveled and trusted experts. The list is the outcome of a voting system. Because this list is based on personal experiences, it will never be definitive, but we believe it is an accurate reflection of current tastes and a reliable predictor of the greatest locations to drink and dine in Malaysia.

The main rules of voting are:

Panelist from The Council will vote for seven bars or restaurants each, in order of preference.

Secret Shoppers are also deployed to each bar and restaurant to evaluate the outlets based on a list of categories. The Jury’s must have visited the bars and restaurants in the last 12 months and the jury’s cannot vote for a temporary bar, ‘pop-up’, or ‘guest shifts’.

These criteria are designed to allow our jury’s to vote far and wide and they can even vote for a small, unknown bar in a remote area in any part of Malaysia– it is their opinion and the experiences they have had that matters.

This method means that no external influences (from the Malaysia’s Top30 team or Our Sponsors) can influence the list. It also means that every bar and restaurant in Malaysia is eligible, unless it is closed at the time that the list is announced, or we receive notice that it will be closing in the near future.

There are no criteria that a bar or restaurant has to meet. They certainly do not have to sell a certain product. They do not need to have been open a certain number of years and they do not need to have won any other awards. Bars can even nominate themselves too.

Judging for these awards is split into three rounds of voting, enabling us to best evaluate Malaysia’s leading bars and bartenders.

1st Round

Creation of a long list of more than 200 bars based on the recommendations of 50 bar enthusiasts, experts and the Top30 team.

2nd Round

Short list of 100 bars by the Malaysia’s Top30 team and The Council.

3rd Round

50 bar enthusiasts, industry experts, connoisseurs, mystery diners and writers will vote for the Top30 Bars and the special awards in the long list of categories based on a point system. This will also help us then arrive at the Malaysia’s Top30 Bars.