As fans of cronuts and cake pops can attest, 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 analyze which restaurants have been in the spotlight this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Irvine 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 extra cool, right now.
Breakfast Republic
Open since May 2019, this breakfast and brunch and traditional American spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp.
Citywide, breakfast and brunch spots saw a median two percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but Breakfast Republic saw a 72.6 percent increase, maintaining a healthy four-star rating throughout.
Located at 4213 Campus Drive in University Town Center, Breakfast Republic serves up granola with housemade yogurt, steak and eggs and jambalaya topped with eggs. Check out the menu here.
Potbelly Sandwich Shop
Walnut Village's Potbelly Sandwich Shop is also making waves. Open since May 2019 at 14431 Culver Drive, the fast food spot, which offers sandwiches and salads, has seen a 55.3 percent bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.9 percent for all businesses tagged "Sandwiches" on Yelp.
There's more than one hot spot trending in Irvine's sandwich category: Piadina has seen a 14.7 percent increase in reviews, and Falasophy has seen a 10.6 percent bump.
Potbelly Sandwich Shop offers smoked ham sandwich with swiss cheese, meatball sandwich with marinara sauce and provolone and grilled chicken sandwich with cheddar. Over the past month, it's maintained a solid four-star rating among Yelpers.
Hako
Northwood's Hako is the city's buzziest Japanese spot by the numbers.
The Japanese spot, which opened at 4790 Irvine Blvd., Suite 103 in November 2018, increased its new review count by 6.8 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of two percent for the Yelp category "Japanese."
The menu features karaage fried chicken, shrimp tempura udon, spicy tuna roll and pork loin tonkatsu with rice, soup and salad. View 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.
