Curious where Houston's insiders are eating and drinking? It's easy to spot lines out the door, but some underlying trends are harder to spot.
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 Houston businesses on Yelp by category and counted how many reviews each one 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 getting plenty of attention this summer.
B.B. Italia
Just open since May, this Italian spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Italian" on Yelp.
Citywide, Italian spots saw a median 3.2 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but B.B. Italia saw a 50 percent increase, maintaining a mixed 3.5-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the Italian category: Piola has seen a 14.9 percent increase in reviews.
Located at 14795 Memorial Drive in Memorial, B.B. Italia offers traditional Italian fare like pasta, pizza and meatballs made from scratch. Menu standouts include the frutti di mare with spaghetti, mussels, clams, shrimp, calamari and tomato, as well as the veal chop parmigiana, a 14-ounce pounded bone-in chop breaded and covered with tomato and fresh mozzarella with a side of rigatoni. (Check out the entire menu here.)
Snowy Village
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Sharpstown's Snowy Village, the popular ice cream and shaved ice spot, which offers desserts and more, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt" on Yelp saw a median 3.8 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, Snowy Village bagged an 86.2 percent increase in new reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a strong 4.5-star rating.
There's more that's trending on Houston's ice cream and frozen yogurt scene: Booza has seen a 55.2 percent increase in reviews.
Open at 9600 Bellaire Blvd., Suite 103A, since April, Snowy Village offers bingsoo, a Korean-style shaved ice cream. The franchise has outposts around the world. The spot has a dozen flavors of bingsoo to choose from, including cheesecake, blueberry and injeolmi (red beans and rice cakes). Snowy Village also offers taiyaki, a Japanese-inspired sweet waffle treat in the shape of a fish that's filled with custard, chocolate, sweet potato or injeolmi. (Here's the entire menu.)
Napa Udon House and Wine Bar
Sharpstown's Napa Udon House and Wine Bar is also making waves. Open since January at 9889 Bellaire Blvd., Suite 229, the well-established wine bar, which offers ramen, noodles and more, has seen a 16.5 percent bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 4.3 percent for all businesses tagged "Wine Bars" on Yelp.
Napa Udon House and Wine Bar offers udon that's kneaded in-house daily. On the menu, look for a selection of nine udon dishes, including beef curry, kake (original dry fish stock soup) and seafood (scallops, calmari, shrimp and a soft yolk egg). Napa Udon House and Wine Bar also offers sides like chicken skewers and sweet beef. Over the past month, it's maintained a superior four-star rating among Yelpers.
Dish Society
The Heights's Dish Society is the city's buzziest New American spot by the numbers.
The New American, breakfast and brunch and Southern spot, which opened at 1050 Yale St. in January, increased its new review count by 15.4 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 2.6 percent for the Yelp category "American (New)."
Dish Society has five locations around Houston. Brunch favorites at this spot include dishes like the Southern breakfast skillet with pork sausage, skillet potatoes, jalapeños, onions,peppers, scallions, gruyere cheese, gravy and sunny side eggs; Nutella French toast with three pieces of whole grain toast with Nutella, toppedwith fruit and powdered sugar; and the house breakfast tacos with open range eggs, all natural bacon and white cheddar cheeseon flour or corn tortillas with house salsa. (Explore the menu here.)
BB’s Tex-Orleans
Central Northwest's BB’s Tex-Orleans is currently on the upswing in the seafood category on Yelp.
While businesses categorized as "Seafood" on Yelp saw a median 3.6 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, this Cajun/Creole and seafood spot increased its new reviews by 15.4 percent — and kept its rating consistent at four stars.
This local franchise has nine locations around Houston. Open for business at 1737 W. 34th St., Suite 500, since November, the spot offers "traditional Southern Louisiana-style cooking fused with a Texas twist," according to the business's website.
Try ordering the Bedtime in the Bayou po'boy with fried gulf shrimp, Maw Maw’s shrimp gumbo or the redfish etouffee with blackened redfish smothered in crawfish etouffee. (Here's the entire menu.)
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.
