Toast and more: What's trending on San Jose's food scene?

Toast and more: What's trending on San Jose's food scene?Gente Cafe | Photo: Chaelon K./Yelp
Hoodline
Published on November 25, 2019

Food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending at this very moment?

We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to analyze which restaurants have been most discussed this month.

To find out who made the list, we looked at San Jose 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 have the momentum heading into the end of the year.

Gente Cafe

photo: s g./yelp

Open since September, this cafe and bakery, which offers coffe and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp.

Citywide, coffee and tea spots saw a median 2% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Gente Cafe saw a massive 163.6% increase, maintaining a sterling five-star rating throughout.

It's not the only trending outlier in the coffee and tea category: Chromatic Coffee has seen a 71.4% increase in reviews, and Tastea and Voyager Craft Coffee have seen 28.6 and 15.6% increases, respectively.

Located at 17 N. Second St. in downtown San Jose, Gente Cafe offers toasts topped with honey butter; avocado, cilantro and chili; and apricot and goat cheese. The eatery also offers espressos, lattes, teas and more.

Gente Cafe is open from 7:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9:30 a.m.–3 p.m. on Saturday. (It's closed on Sunday.)

Poki Bowl

Photo: Tell it like it is ../Yelp

Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Berryessa's Poki Bowl, the Asian fusion spot, which offers poke and seafood, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.

While businesses categorized as "Seafood" on Yelp saw a median 1% increase in new reviews over the past month, Poki Bowl bagged a 71.4% increase in new reviews within that time frame, with a slight upward trend from a three-star rating a month ago to its current 3.5 stars.

There's more that's trending on San Jose's seafood scene: Flourishing Garden has seen a 1.2% increase in reviews.

Open at 2532 Berryessa Road since 2019, Poki Bowl offers poke with vegetarian and vegan options, as well as a variety of add-on toppings.

Poki Bowl is open from 11 a.m.–8 p.m. daily.

Tostadas

Photo: Tostadas/Yelp

Downtown San Jose's Tostadas is also making waves. Open since June at 304 E. Santa Clara St., Suite A, the well-established Mexican and breakfast and brunch spot has seen a 15.2% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.5% for all businesses tagged "Mexican" on Yelp.

Tostadas offers truffle fries, tostadas, chilaquiles and more. Over the past month, it's maintained a convincing four-star rating among Yelpers.

Tostadas is open from 7 a.m.–9 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 7 a.m.–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Ozumo

Photo: Ozumo/Yelp

Winchester North's Ozumo is the city's buzziest sushi bar by the numbers.

The well-established izakaya, sushi bar and bar, which opened at 355 Santana Row, Suite 1010 in 2018, increased its new review count by 7.8% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.1% for the Yelp category "Sushi Bars." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.1 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.

It's not the only trending outlier in the sushi bar category: Sushi Kan has seen a 7.7% increase in reviews.

Ozumo Santana Row offers sushi, like spider rolls and rainbow rolls, plus garlic edamame, sweet corn fritters and black cod.

Ozumo Santana Row is open from 3:30 p.m.–9 p.m. on Monday, 3:30 p.m.–10 p.m. on Tuesday-Thursday, 3:30 p.m.–midnight on Friday, 11:30 a.m.–midnight on Saturday and 11:30 a.m.–9 p.m. 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.