Want the dirt on Houston's most talked-about local spots?
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to uncover which restaurants have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Houston 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 worth exploring, right now.
Dragon Bar
Open since February, this bar and Asian fusion spot, which offers barbecue and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Bars" on Yelp.
Citywide, bars saw a median 3.9 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but Dragon Bar saw a 40 percent increase, maintaining a mixed 3.5-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the bar category: Indianola has seen a 15.4 percent increase in reviews.
Located at 9889 Bellaire Blvd., Suite 314, in Sharpstown, Dragon Bar offers barbecued meats, seafood and hot pot. (Check out the entire menu here.)
Crawfish & Beignets
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Sharpstown's Crawfish & Beignets, the Cajun/Creole and Vietnamese spot, which offers seafood and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Seafood" on Yelp saw a median 3.2 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, Crawfish & Beignets bagged a 40 percent increase in new reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a sound 4.5-star rating.
Open at 9600 Bellaire Blvd., Suite 102 since March, Crawfish & Beignets offers Cajun-style seafood such as crawfish, oysters, crab, shrimp and mussels. Diners can choose from sauce options like Cajun, garlic butter, lemon pepper and Thai citrus. The spot also offers fried seafood baskets and po'boy sandwiches. (Here's the entire menu.)
Common Bond Cafe & Bakery
University Place's Common Bond Cafe & Bakery is also making waves. Open since March at 2276 W. Holcombe Blvd., the bakery and breakfast and brunch spot, which offers desserts and more, has seen a 44 percent bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 3 percent for all businesses tagged "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp.
Common Bond Cafe & Bakery offers sandwiches, flatbreads, soups, salads and pastries. At lunchtime, try the specialty beef bourguignon (slowly braised beef, potatoes, carrots, pearl onions and a baguette), or the pork belly sandwich (crispy honey-soy glazed pork belly, pickled carrots, red onion and cucumbers, gochujang aioli, bibb lettuce) with shoestring fries. Over the past month, it's seen its Yelp rating tick down from 4.5 stars to four stars. (Take a look at the rest of the menu here.)
Revolver Houston
Washington Avenue Coalition / Memorial Park's Revolver Houston is the city's buzziest cocktail bar by the numbers.
The popular cocktail bar, whiskey bar and lounge, which opened at 6502 Washington Ave. in 2015, increased its new review count by 9.5 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 4.2 percent for the Yelp category "Cocktail Bars." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 16.0 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
Revolver Houston offers burgers, sandwiches, wings, tacos and salads. Yelpers recommend ordering the chicken fried bacon to start, then tackling the Revolver burger (with pickles, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheddar cheese, bacon, with sriracha aioli) and finally, the fried apple pie for dessert. The bar serves more than 120 types of whiskey and has 19 craft beers on tap. (Explore the menu here.)
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.
