Want the inside word on San Diego's most happening local spots?
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp and SafeGraph, a dataset of commercial points of interest and their visitor patterns, to uncover which area businesses have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at San Diego 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. Then we analyzed foot traffic data from SafeGraph to validate the trends.
Read on to see which spots are sizzling hot, right now.
RoVino The Foodery
Open since August, this spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Italian" on Yelp.
Citywide, Italian spots saw a median 1.3% increase in new reviews over the past month, but RoVino The Foodery saw an imposing 431.2% increase, maintaining a strong 4.5-star rating throughout.
Located at 969 Market St., Suite 101 (between 10th and Ninth avenues) in East Village, this spot is the latest creation of Tom Tarantino and his partners, who also operate the RoVino Restaurant + Wine Bar in Little Italy. The new venture includes a food market, as well as a restaurant, which features pizza, salads and pasta entrees like bucatini, rigatoni, tagliatelle, capellinignocchi and cheese ravioli.
RoVino The Foodery is open from 8 a.m.–10 p.m. on Monday-Thursday; 8 a.m.–11 p.m. on Friday; 9 a.m.–11 p.m. on Saturday; and 9 a.m.–10 p.m. on Sunday.
Enclave
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Scripps Ranch's Enclave, the gluten-free, Asian fusion and vegetarian spot is a hot topic, according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Vegetarian" on Yelp saw a median 1.1% increase in new reviews over the past month, Enclave bagged a 90.9% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a sterling five-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 10.0 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.
Open at 10051 Old Grove Road since March 2017, Enclave's menu includes falafel tacos, lemongrass organic chicken, grilled fish and gluten-free pancakes.
Enclave is open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. daily.
Daphne's
Mission Valley East's Daphne's is also making waves. Open since late June at 2195 Station Village Way, Suite A (at Rio San Diego Drive), the Mediterranean and Greek spot has seen a 47.6% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.4% for all businesses tagged "Mediterranean" on Yelp. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis Daphne's's review count increased by more than 200%.
Daphne's offers gyros, salads, pita sandwiches and grilled skewers with steak, shrimp or chicken. Over the past month, it's seen its Yelp rating improve from 3.5 stars to four stars.
Pacific Fresh Grill
Pacific Beach's Pacific Fresh Grill is the city's buzziest seafood spot by the numbers.
The spot, at 2015 Garnet Ave., Suite 103 (between Noyes and Morrell streets), opened in late May and increased its new review count by 31.4% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.3% for the Yelp category "Seafood." It 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: Mizukiyama Sushi has seen a 20.4% increase in reviews.
Pacific Fresh Grill's menu includes a swai fish plate and shrimp and fish tacos. It's open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m.–7 p.m. on Saturday. (It's closed on Sunday.)
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.
