Food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending right now?
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to deduce which restaurants have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Los Angeles 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 have the momentum heading into summer.
St. Anne's
Open since 2019, this cocktail bar and New American spot, which offers salads and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Salad" on Yelp.
Citywide, salad spots saw a median 2.2 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but St. Anne's saw a massive 137.8 percent increase, with a slight downward trend from a five-star rating a month ago to 4.5 stars today.
Located at 11102 W. Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood, St. Anne's offers shareable plates like crab cakes and braised short rib and sun-dried tomato tortellini. When it comes to main dishes, look for specialty burgers and ribs.
Woon
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Historic Filipinotown's Woon, the Chinese spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Chinese" on Yelp saw a median 2.6 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, Woon bagged a 90.6 percent increase in new reviews within that timeframe, with a slight downward trend from a five-star rating a month ago to its current 4.5 stars.
Open at 2920 W. Temple St. since March, Woon offers beef and veggie noodles and sides like fried tofu fish cakes and pork belly bao.
Itacho
Melrose's Itacho is the city's buzziest sushi bar by the numbers.
The sushi bar, which offers ramen and more and opened at 7311 Beverly Blvd. since 2010, increased its new review count by 32.2 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.8 percent for the Yelp category "Sushi Bars." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 9.3 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
Itacho offers specialty rolls and build-your-own bowls. Look for the specialty red tofu yaki bowl topped with garlic and a soft egg.
Konbi
Echo Park's Konbi is currently on the upswing in the Japanese category on Yelp.
While businesses categorized as "Japanese" on Yelp saw a median 1.8 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, this Japanese spot, which offers sandwiches and coffee and tea, increased its by 30.2 percent—with its Yelp rating declining slightly from four stars to 3.5 stars. Review counts increased by more than 280 percent on a month-to-month basis.
There's more abuzz in the world of Los Angeles Japanese: Rice & Nori has seen a 27.6 percent increase in reviews.
Open for business at 1463 Sunset Blvd. since 2019, the business offers a small selection of sandwiches, vegetable plates and pastries. Look for the eggplant katsu sandwich with onion dashi, cabbage and Bull-Dog Sauce.
This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
