Unsure where Seattle's insiders are 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 eateries have been seeing especially high review volumes 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 riding a trend this winter.
Kokkaku
Open since 2017, this steakhouse, New American and Japanese spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp.
Citywide, New American spots saw review counts increase by a median of 1.6 percent over the past month, but Kokkaku saw a 20.4 percent increase, maintaining a solid four-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the New American category: JOEY U-Village has seen a 5.5 percent increase in reviews, and Mama Stortini's Restaurant and Bar - Seattle has seen a 5.5 percent bump.
Located at 2208 N. 45th St. (between North Corliss and North Bagley avenues) in Wallingford, Kokkaku offers a variety of Japanese-inspired meats, including the fried half chicken with yuzu kosho white sauce and potatoes; the sockeye salmon with shio konbu paste and tomatoes on the side; and the Wagyu bolognese linguine pasta dish. (See the full menu here.)
Old Stove Brewing
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Pike Market's Old Stove Brewing, the brew pub, which offers seafood, burgers and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Seafood" on Yelp increased their review count by a median of 1.3 percent over the past month, Old Stove Brewing bagged an 11 percent increase in reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a superior four-star rating.
There's more that's trending on Seattle's seafood scene: China Harbor Restaurant has seen a 6 percent increase in reviews.
Open at 1901 Western Ave., Suite A (between Pike Place and Virginia Street), since 2017, Old Stove Brewing offers a variety of craft brews and light snackable fare. If you're there for seafood, expect options like the seasoned raw oysters with cucumber ginger mignonette, Sriracha cocktail and lemon, or the salmon pita with curry-glazed salmon, hummus, tomato, cucumber, raita and cilantro.
Kamonegi
Fremont's Kamonegi is also making waves. Open since 2017 at 1054 N. 39th St. (at North Woodland Park Avenue), the Japanese spot, which offers noodles and more, has seen a 10.4 percent bump in reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 4.4 percent for all businesses tagged "Noodles" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis review counts increased by more than 180 percent.
Kamonegi offers soba, tempura, appetizers for the table and a variety of libations. Noodle options include the zaru noodles served with a cold broth and wasabi; the kake noodles in a hot broth with mitsuba; and the kamonegi with duck breast, duck tsukune, leeks and mitsuba. (See the full menu here.) Over the past month, it's maintained a solid four-star rating among Yelpers.
