Yo! Sushi takes top spot at the Caterersearch.com Web Awards

Restaurant group Yo! Sushi has been crowned the big winner in this year's Caterersearch.com Web Awards, picking up the title of Website of the Year.

The chain of conveyor-belt sushi bars, which has also won the award for best website in the Restaurant - Group category, was voted the overall winner by the users of Caterersearch.com and the judges of the Caterersearch.com Web Awards.

Judges praised Yo! Sushi's website (www.yosushi.com) for its professional and slick first impression. "An immense amount of thought has gone into delivering a captivating, interactive, futuristic, informative experience," one judge said. Another commented: "A really good site - bright, fun, easy and relevant."

Luxury Scottish resort Gleneagles (www.gleneagles.com) retained the Hotels - Independent title for the third year running. It was chosen for its website's ease of use and "great use of external sites such as Facebook and YouTube".

Restaurant chain Giraffe (www.giraffe.net) picked up the award for Best Use of Social Media, a new category for 2010, and was commended for its innovation. One judge commented that the site had "good use of Twitter and Facebook" and drove a community "through signing up customers for the Hug club with the promise of offers".

In our second new category, Services Supplier, law firm John Gaunt (www.john-gaunt.co.uk) won and was praised by one judge for its "great knowledge sharing - rather than charging people for advice John Gaunt has written FAQs". "A very clear and well constructed [site], well optimised and a lot of relevant up-to-date content," added another judge.

Equipment supplier Richard Haworth (www.richardhaworth.co.uk) was commended for its "clear and clean layout, with sharp images and effective use of electronic catalogue", winning the Equipment Supplier award.

In the other categories, Aiden Byrne's restaurant website, www.thechurchgreen.co.uk, won the award for Restaurant - Independent for being a "nice, homely site" which was "clean and with great food pictures". It was also praised for its good use of community and customer involvement.

Hand Picked Hotels (www.handpickedhotels.co.uk) picked up the Hotels - Group award after its website impressed judges with its innovation and interactivity, as well as its "use of expert guides and PDFs to download".

The award for recruitment website went to Tragus Careers (www.traguscareers.co.uk), with one judge applauding its online recruitment strategy for being "polished - Tragus clearly sets out potential employees' career paths".

Last year's overall winner Strada (www.strada.co.uk), picked up the award for Online Marketing. Judges praised the website for its excellent use of interactivity, use of podcasts and video.

The Foodservice Website award went to Well Being Being Well (www.wellbeingbeingwell.co.uk) for "effectively bringing together food and health information and recipes to promote wellbeing".

Winners in full

Website of the Year
Yo! Sushi
www.yosushi.com

Best use of social media
Giraffe
www.giraffe.net

Equipment supplier
Richard Haworth
www.richardhaworth.co.uk

Foodservice     
Well Being Being Well
www.wellbeingbeingwell.co.uk

Hotel Group
Handpicked Hotels
www.handpickedhotels.co.uk

Hotel Independent
Gleneagles
www.gleneagles.com

Restaurant – group
Yo! Sushi
www.yosushi.com
 
Restaurant – independent
The Church Green
www.thechurchgreen.co.uk

Online Marketing award
Strada
www.strada.co.uk

Recruitment
Tragus Careers
www.traguscareers.co.uk

Services Provider
John Gaunt
www.john-gaunt.co.uk

By Katherine Alano