Unsure where Sacramento'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 both Yelp and SafeGraph, a dataset of commercial points of interest and their visitor patterns, to uncover which restaurants have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Sacramento 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.
We also used foot traffic data from SafeGraph to validate outliers and identify businesses trending in other ways.
Read on to see which spots are getting plenty of attention, right now.
Solomon's Delicatessen
Open since June, this New American spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp.
Citywide, New American spots saw a median 2.1% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Solomon's Delicatessen saw a 97.9% increase, maintaining a mixed three-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the New American category: Camden Spit & Larder has seen a 10.2% increase in reviews, and Fire Wings has seen a 1.9% bump.
Located at 730 K St. in downtown Sacramento, Solomon's Delicatessen offers Jewish deli fare —from bagels and shmears to pastrami, corned beef and Reuben sandwiches — plus a full bar and bottomless mimosas. (Check out the menu here.)
Solomon's Delicatessen is open from 7 a.m.–9 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m.–9 p.m. on weekends.
Aji Dori Restaurant
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Southside Park's Aji Dori Restaurant, the Japanese restaurant and brunch spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp saw a median 1.6% increase in new reviews over the past month, Aji Dori Restaurant bagged a 45.8% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a convincing four-star rating.
There's more that's trending on Sacramento's breakfast and brunch scene: Bacon & Butter has seen a 25.8% increase in reviews, and Tower Cafe has seen a 0.7% bump.
Open since June at 1100 R St., Aji Dori Restaurant offers a variety brunch options, from pork belly and eggs served over fried rice to French toast with berries and matcha syrup (here's the brunch menu). It also offers a more sushi-focused lunch and dinner, plus a happy hour menu that's good all day on Mondays.
Aji Dori Restaurant is open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.–11 p.m. on Friday, 9 a.m.–11 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m.–9 p.m. on Sunday.
Yue Huang
Yue Huang is also making waves. Open since 2016 at 3860 Truxel Road, the well-established Cantonese spot, which offers seafood and dim sum, has seen a 2.1% increase in new reviews over the last month — matching that of all businesses tagged "Seafood" on Yelp — but the number of visitors to Yue Huang more than doubled over the same time frame, according to SafeGraph's foot traffic data.
Yue Huang offers a wide variety of dim sum specialties. Over the past month, it's maintained a mixed 3.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Yue Huang is open from 11 a.m.–10 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m.–10 p.m. on weekends. According to SafeGraph, it's usually busiest at 11 a.m., 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., and people visit Yue Huang most on Saturdays and Sundays, with a slowdown on Tuesdays.
Maya Traditional Mexican Cuisine
Richards' Maya Traditional Mexican Cuisine is the city's buzziest Mexican spot by the numbers.
The restaurant, which opened at 455 Bercut Drive in July 2018, increased its new review count by 11.9% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 2.1% for the Yelp category "Mexican." With an extensive menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner offerings with a specialization in dishes from Guanajuato, Maya outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.8 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
Maya Traditional Mexican Cuisine is open from 9 a.m.–9 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.–11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m.–8 p.m. on Sunday.
Scott's Burger Shack
North City Farms' well-established Scott's Burger Shack has seen a major increase in foot traffic recently.
While Scott's Burger Shack stayed in line with the median 4.2% increase in new reviews for businesses categorized as "Burgers" on Yelp over the past month, visits to Scott's Burger Shack increased by more than 50%, according to SafeGraph's foot traffic data.
Open for business at 4127 Franklin Blvd. since 1982, Scott's Burger Shack offers burgers, fries, subs, shakes and more, including the signature "Fat Boy Combo": a half-pound bacon cheeseburger meal with all the fixin's, large fries and extra large soda.
Scott's Burger Shack is open from 11 a.m.–7 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. on Wednesday and 11 a.m.–5 p.m. on Saturday. (It's closed on Sunday.) According to SafeGraph, it usually gets busy at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., and on Fridays and Thursdays, with a slowdown on Mondays.
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.
