They dined, they wrote and were voted the most helpful.  Congratulations to our top 3 winners for July’s Menuism Restaurant Reviewer Contest. Between the 3 of them, they garnered a total of 75 helpful votes.  Wow!  This trio definitely knows their stuff and apparently, many of you agreed and this is actually BananaWoo’s second win in a row.  If she could do it, you could, too.  Hat’s off to them and if you’d like to keep up with their reviews, check out their profiles below.

BananaWoo from Minnesota

grabalicioussf from San Francisco, CA

mgpinkfish from Cerritos, CA

As you can see, all three of our winners also received some prize money and if you’d like a chance to compete, than be sure to click this link to get more info on the August Menuism Restaurant Reviewer Contest. Good luck and maybe, in a month, we’ll be announcing you as winner as well.

They dined, they wrote and were voted the most helpful.  Congratulations to our top 3 winners for June’s Menuism Restaurant Reviewer Contest. Between the 3 of them, they garnered a total of 323 helpful votes.  Wow!  This trio definitely knows their stuff and apparently, many of you agreed.  Hat’s off to them and if you’d like to keep up with their reviews, check out their profiles below.

BananaWoo from Minnesota

menubuzz from Virginia

Megster11187 from Washington DC

As you can see, all three of our winners also received some prize money and if you’d like a chance to compete, than be sure to click this link to get more info on the July Menuism Restaurant Reviewer Contest. Good luck and maybe, in a month, we’ll be announcing you as winner as well.

Announcing the Menuism Badges of Honor! Actually, those badges have been around for a few months now, but we never made an official announcement about them until now.

As you may know, we like to spotlight those members who have contributed something  special to Menuism by featuring them in this blog.  Currently, members can get recognition in three categories – as a Featured Reviewer, as a Restaurant Review Winner or one of their uploaded photos becomes the Photo of the Week.

As an additional thanks to those lucky few who have gone that extra mile, honor badges can now be seen on their profiles and each one reflects the type of recognition that was received.  See below for examples.

Featured Reviewer Honor Badge: Awarded to those reviewers who have contributed informative and helpful reviews to Menuism.

Restaurant Review Contest Winner Honor Badge: Awarded to those reviewers who have won the Monthly Restaurant Review Contest.

Photo of the Week Honor Badge: Awarded to those reviewers whose photo was chosen as the best of the week.

To see how the honor badges looks on a profile, check out PandaLHU, who already had the distinction of having two honor badges – one for being a Featured Reviewer and the other for her lovely photo of a salmon and apple dish she had photographed and uploaded. Each badge automatically links back to the original content on the blog.  For example, the photo honor badge on PandaLHU’s profile will route you to her Photo of the Week while the star honor badge will take you to her Featured Reviewer Interview.

While these badges are definitely a way to applaud certain reviewers for a job well done, they are also useful in other ways as well.  First, the honor badges signify Menuism’s stamp of approval.  It’s our way of letting you know that we recognize a particular reviewer as being a quality contributor to our site. Second, for newer reviewers, uncertain of how to write reviews in general, they can look to these honor badge holders for inspiration and even emulate them.

In the end, we appreciate all of you who are part of Menuism, whether as a reader, a reviewer or both.  However, we also realize that some of you do put in that extra effort and that’s something Menuism wants to acknowledge and celebrate.  So thanks to all our Featured Reviewers, Restaurant Review Contest Winners and our fabulous foodie photographers.  You do great work and we simply want you and everyone else to know that as well.

By Abby C. Abanes
Menuism Community Manager

You might have already caught the announcement on our business blog or seen the giant badge on the left side of the front page, but I just wanted to let our other readers and users know that we got Honorable Mention for City Guides & Reviews in SEOmoz.org’s Web 2.0 2007 awards!

We’re honored to have our progress recognized and we’re tremendously thankful to YOU, our users. You get even more thanks if you’re a registered user. As always, if you have any feedback or suggestions, let us know!

Thanks and Happy Eating!

- Justin