Curious where San Jose'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 discover which eateries have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at San Jose 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 increased their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance.
Read on to see which spots are worth exploring, right now.
IHOP
Open since 2018, this location of the traditional American breakfast chain, which offers pancakes, burgers and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (Traditional)" on Yelp.
Citywide, traditional American spots saw a median 1.4% increase in new reviews over the past month, but this IHOP location saw a 14.1% increase, maintaining a two-star rating throughout. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis, IHOP's review count increased by more than 200%.
It's not the only trending outlier in the traditional American category: Mesquite and Oak has seen a 6.7% increase in reviews.
Located at 101 Curtner Ave., Suite 60 in Fairgrounds, IHOP offers a variety of pancakes, crepes and omelets, alongside lunch fares like sandwiches and burgers.
Sushi Arashi
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about North Willow Glen/Gardner's Sushi Arashi, the popular sushi bar is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Sushi Bars" on Yelp saw a median 1.9% increase in new reviews over the past month, Sushi Arashi bagged a 9.1% increase in new reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a sound 4.5-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.1 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.
There's more that's trending on San Jose's sushi bar scene: Sushi Koya has seen a 7.5% increase in reviews.
Open at 1181 Lincoln Ave. since 2017, Sushi Arashi offers sushi and sashimi, udon noodle dishes, bento boxes, sake and more.
Tisane
East San Jose's Tisane is also making waves. Open since March at 2980 E. Capitol Expy, Suite 50, the well-established tea room, which offers bubble tea and more, has seen a 36.2% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 4.3% for all businesses tagged "Bubble Tea" on Yelp.
Tisane offers 16 flavors of bubble tea, served along with your choice of eight flavors of wings. Over the past month, it's maintained a superior 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
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.
