Curious where New York City'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 analyze which eateries have been most discussed this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at New York City 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 this autumn.
Maestro Pasta
First, open since July, this fast-casual pasta shop is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Italian" on Yelp.
Citywide, Italian spots saw a median 1.6% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Maestro Pasta saw an impressive 181.8% increase, maintaining an excellent five-star rating throughout.
Located at 45 John St. (between Nassau and Dutch streets) in the Financial District, Maestro Pasta serves fresh noodles cut and cooked to order. Choose your dough and your pasta's shape, and top your order with one of six traditional sauces, such as bolognese and alfredo. Additional toppings include meatballs, roasted chicken and grated cheese.
Maestro Pasta is open from 11 a.m.–8 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m.–4 p.m. on Saturday. (It's closed on Sunday.)
Xu's Public House
And Chelsea's Xu's Public House is also making waves. Open since August at 15 Union Square West (between 14th and 15th streets), the fine-dining Asian fusion restaurant, which serves a seafood-focused menu, has seen a dramatic 190.9% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.9% for all businesses tagged "Seafood" on Yelp.
Xu's Public House specializes in "Nouveaux Shanghai Cuisine," according to its website. The menu is divided into cold and hot plates, featuring offerings like truffle sea scallops, crab meat dumplings, sea urchin pastries, mozzarella shrimp spring rolls and more. Over the past month, the restaurant has maintained a healthy 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Xu's Public House is open from 10 a.m.–10 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (It's closed on Tuesday.)
&pizza
The Financial District's &pizza is the city's buzziest pizza spot by the numbers.
This location of the East Coast pizza chain, which opened at 63 Wall St. (between Hanover and Pearl streets) in July, increased its new review count by a significant 156.2% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 2.1% for the Yelp category "Pizza." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.3 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
&pizza's fast-casual concept offers build-your-own personal pizzas. Guests choose a sauce and cheese and customize their pie with more than three dozen toppings and add-ons. &pizza also sells its own line of soft drinks, including iced tea and gingery berry lemonade.
&pizza is open from 11 a.m.–11 p.m. daily.
Red Peony Chinese Cuisine
Finally, Midtown's Red Peony Chinese Cuisine is currently on the upswing in the Shanghainese category on Yelp.
While businesses categorized as "Shanghainese" on Yelp saw a median 2.5% increase in new reviews over the past month, this Shanghainese and Cantonese spot, which offers dim sum and more, increased its new reviews by a substantial 171.4% — with its Yelp rating improving from 3.5 stars to four stars. Review counts increased by more than 200% on a month-to-month basis.
Open for business at 24 W. 56th St. (between Fifth Avenue and Avenue Of The Americas) since July, Red Peony Chinese Cuisine offers a full array of meat, seafood, veggie and noodle dishes. It also serves traditional dim sum and chef's specials like crispy duck, lobster with ginger scallion sauce, Shanghai-style spareribs and more.
Red Peony Chinese Cuisine is open from 11:30 a.m.–9:45 p.m. daily.
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.
