If the success of an event is gauged by the number of gatecrashers, then the DNA After Hrs Food Awards, presented by Seagrams Ninehills held on June 20 at the Hyatt Regency Mumbai was a huge success. The idea was to reward Mumbai's restuarants and 20 awards were given out to restaurants which got the best ratings in the first two years that DNA's restaurants reviews started (we are only four years old as a newspaper). That means there are zillions of places yet to be reviewed, so watch out!

The evening was a fun-filled event, with guests being a mix of restaurateers, celebs, film stars, the ad crowd and lots more. There were also some off-beat awards like the dishiest female (deepika padukone), dishiest male (arjun rampal), dishiest couple (sanjeeda shaikh and aamir ali) and ms sweet tooth (amrita rao). The comedian Vir Das was irrepressibly funny while something relevant played some great music. The award, the Gourmate -- a cute little chef -- was made by creative awards and rewards and guests got an elegant gift hamper of cosmetics and toiletaries from shiseido.

Fittingly, the food provided by Hyatt Regency Mumbai was quite fabulous and covered just about every cuisine you could think of. The desserts were to die for. And good wine, whisky and vodka from Seagrams.

It's great fun doing these reviews because not only do you get to eat great food (sometimes, the rest of the time at least its an adventure or at worst an experience), it's also incognito. We don't go as far as the legendary Ruth Reichl who when she was the food critic of The New York Times wore elaborate disguises so she wouldn't be recognised, but the idea is to remain as unobtrusive as possible. (It also takes me away from my otherwise very serious work avatar.)

I have to thank DNA and our dynamic marketing department for this wonderful experience. I've been reviewing restaurants in Mumbai for over 20 years now for a number of publications, but this is the first time that they've culminated in an awards show. So now, knives sharpened and ready for next year!