Top area restaurants are gearing up for the annual Crab Cook-Off at the Taste of Cambridge on Saturday, July 8th. The event returns after a brief hiatus in 2016. This will be the twelfth year of the competition, featuring 11 restaurants and 13 different dishes.

“I am looking forward to welcoming back the Taste of Cambridge event this year, thanks to the dedication of our volunteer planning team and our talented local restaurants,” said Cambridge Main Street executive director Katie Clendaniel. “Our staple categories are very traditional to our region, but we are seeing some creative dishes that aren’t traditional at all, with several falling under the crab specialty category this year.”

The contest is judged in two ways. This year, five celebrity judges receive blind tastings of all entries and choose winners in five different categories, plus “Best in Show” based only on the ribbon colors associated with different entries. Those are the “Judge’s Choice” awards.

There is also a popular vote, “The People’s Choice.” While admission to the Taste of Cambridge street festival is free, only buyers of tickets ($30 in advance; $35 on the day) get to sample all contest entries and receive a ballot to cast their votes for the winners. Taste has been selected as an official qualifying event of the World Food Championships for the third year, and the winner of the Judges Choice will be awarded a Golden Ticket to compete at the World Food Championships in Orange Beach, Alabama, later this year.

The categories in the Taste competition are: cream of crab soup, Maryland vegetable crab soup, crab dip, crab cake or crab ball, and crab specialty dish.

The restaurants participating in this year’s competition are:

• Bistro Poplar

• Blue Point Provision Co. at the Hyatt

• Black Water Bakery

• The High Spot

• Jimmie & Sook’s

• Palm Beach Willies

• RAR Brewing

• Rock Lobstah

• Stoked

• Three Sixty at River’s Edge

• River View at the Point