Want the inside word on San Francisco's buzziest 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 eateries have been getting extra attention this month.

To find out who made the list, we first looked at San Francisco 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 getting extra attention right now.

New Thai Elephant

Open since August, this Thai restaurant is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Thai" on Yelp.

Citywide, Thai spots saw a median 1.1% increase in new reviews over the past month, but New Thai Elephant saw a staggering 188.9% increase, with a slight upward trend from a four-star rating a month ago to 4.5 stars today. Moreover, on a month-to-month basis, New Thai Elephant's review count increased by more than 570%.

Located at 393 Bay St. (at the corner of Bay and Mason streets) in North Beach, New Thai Elephant, which has another location in downtown San Mateo, serves up a menu of classic Thai dishes, from chicken satay and papaya salad to pad thai and panang curry. There are vegan and vegetarian options, too. (Find the full menu on the restaurant's website.)

New Thai Elephant is open from 11 a.m.–9:30 p.m. daily.

It's not the only trending outlier in the Thai category: The Thonglor has seen a 62.5% increase in reviews.

Street Taco

Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Potrero Hill's Street Taco, the Mexican spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.

While businesses categorized as "Mexican" on Yelp saw a median 1% increase in new reviews over the past month, Street Taco bagged a staggering 122.2% increase in new reviews within that time frame, with a slight downward trend from a four-star rating a month ago to its current 3.5 stars. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.8 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.

Open at 980 16th St. since July, this third outpost of the fast-casual "Mexico City street food" spot (the original Street Taco opened on Haight Street in 2014) offers tacos with a dozen different fillings, including carnitas, grilled shrimp and nopales (cactus), all served on handmade corn tortillas.

Street Taco is open from 10 a.m.–10 p.m. on Monday–Saturday and 10 a.m.–8 p.m. on Sunday.

Little Sweet

The Inner Sunset's Little Sweet is also making waves. Open since August at 1253 Ninth Ave. (between Lincoln Way and Irving Street), the bubble tea shop has seen a notable 192.3% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.6% for all businesses tagged "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp.

Little Sweet offers Taiwanese milk and fruit teas prepared hot or cold, with add-ins like boba and pudding. Try the special brown sugar-laced milk tea with mini boba or an egg puff waffle topped with ice cream. Little Sweet has two other shops in San Francisco and a fourth on the horizon.

Over the past month, the new bubble tea shop has seen its Yelp rating tick down from 4.5 stars to four stars.

Little Sweet is open from 11 a.m.–10 p.m. daily.

There's more than one hot spot trending in San Francisco's coffee and tea category: Blue House Café has seen a 108.3% increase in reviews.

Dumpling House

The Castro's Dumpling House is the city's buzziest dim sum spot by the numbers.

Dumpling House, which opened in the old Pho 335 space at 335 Noe St. in August, increased its new review count by a dramatic 164% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1% for the Yelp category "Dim Sum."

As the name suggests, Dumpling House specializes in dumplings, serving up more than a dozen varieties of fried and steamed dumplings, pot stickers and buns. Look for the black truffle xiaolongbao and the pork dumplings with sweet corn. Other menu items include noodle dishes, chicken wings, turnip cakes and spring rolls.

Dumpling House is open from 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 5–9:30 p.m. on weekdays, and from 11 a.m.–9:30 p.m. on weekends.

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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.