Curious where Houston's in-the-know crowd is 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 deduce which eateries have been in the limelight 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 increased their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance.
Read on to see which spots are currently on a hot streak.
El Paso Mexican Grill
Open since April, this family-owned Mexican and Tex-Mex spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Tex-Mex" on Yelp.
Citywide, Tex-Mex spots saw a median 2.4% increase in new reviews over the past month, but El Paso Mexican Grill saw a 44.4% increase, with a slight upward trend from a 3.5-star rating a month ago to four stars today.
It's not the only trending outlier in the Tex-Mex category: Superica has seen a 12.3% increase in reviews.
Located at 7607 Cypress Creek Parkway in Willowbrook, El Paso Mexican Grill makes its own tortillas in-house and serves traditional Mexican dishes, such as fajitas, quesadillas, nachos, enchiladas, burritos, chimichangas and more.
Cajun Town Café
Second Ward's Cajun Town Café is the city's buzziest seafood spot by the numbers.
The Cajun/Creole spot, which specializes in seafood, opened this second outpost at 2240 Navigation Blvd., Suite 100, last December. The restaurant increased its new review count by 38.2% over the past month, making it an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 2.8% for the Yelp category "Seafood." The restaurant outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.2 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
It's not the only trending outlier in the seafood category: 1751 Sea and Bar has seen a 34.2% increase in reviews.
The menu for Cajun Town Café features blackened or fried seafood served with dirty rice, po'boy sandwiches, gumbos, salads, boudin and more.
Prospect Park
Is Mid West's well-established Prospect Park on your radar? According to Yelp review data, the traditional American sports bar, open since 2014, is getting plenty of attention.
While businesses categorized as "American (Traditional)" on Yelp increased their media new review count by 2.7% over the past month, Prospect Park nabbed a 7.3% increase in reviews within that time frame, maintaining a mixed three-star rating.
Located at 3100 Fountain VW, Prospect Park serves an eclectic mix of traditional American comfort foods, such as burgers, tacos, fried shrimp, pizza, salad, chicken wings and more.
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.
