Curious where Seattle's in-the-know crowd is eating and drinking? It's easy to spot lines out the door, but some underlying trends are harder to see.
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to analyze which restaurants have been in the spotlight this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Seattle businesses on Yelp by category and counted how many reviews each received. Rather than compare them based on number of reviews alone, we calculated a percentage increase in reviews over the past month, and tracked businesses that consistently increase their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance.
Read on to see which spots are closing the year out strong.
Dexter Brewhouse
Open in its current form since July 2017, this brew pub and traditional American spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (Traditional)" on Yelp.
Citywide, traditional American spots saw review counts increase by a median of 1.8 percent over the past month, but Dexter Brewhouse saw a 24.5 percent increase, maintaining a mixed 3.5-star rating throughout. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis review counts increased by more than 400 percent.
It's not the only trending outlier in the traditional American category: Henry's Tavern South Lake Union has seen a 24.1 percent increase in reviews.
Located at 803 Dexter Ave. North (between Valley and Aloha streets) in the Cascade, Dexter Brewhouse offers a variety of craft brews, appetizers (chicken wings, garlic fries, nachos and more), sandwiches, burgers and more.
Katsu Burger & Sushi
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Ballard's Katsu Burger & Sushi, the sushi bar and Japanese spot, which offers burgers and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Sushi Bars" on Yelp increased their review count by a median of 1.6 percent over the past month, Katsu Burger & Sushi bagged a 19.3 percent increase in reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a sound four-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.6 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.
Open at 2034 N.W. 56th St. (between North 22nd and North 20th avenues) since June, Katsu Burger & Sushi offers everything deep-fried, from pork burgers and nori fries to sushi and matcha milkshakes.
Sal Y Limon
Lower Queen Anne's Sal Y Limon is the city's buzziest bar by the numbers.
The bar and Mexican spot, which opened at 10 Mercer St. (between North Queen Anne and North First avenues) in April increased its review count by 11.8 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median review increase of 1.9 percent for the Yelp category "Bars."
Sal Y Limon offers a variety of tacos, burritos, tortas, quesadillas and much more. Check out the website for a full list of offerings and more information.
