Food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending right this minute?
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp to deduce which restaurants have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.
To find out who made the list, we 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.
Read on to see which spots are riding a trend, right now.
Cocosueño
Open since December 2019, this Mexican restaurant is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Mexican" on Yelp.
Citywide, Mexican spots saw a median 1% increase in new reviews over the past month. Cocosueño only recently appeared on Yelp, but while many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, it has seen strong initial popularity.
Here's more about the business, from its history section on Yelp: "Cocosueño is an irrepressible expression of our time spent traveling through Mexico and Central America, the yearly visits to see our family and friends back home, and a deep desire to bring you the heart of those moments from places we know and love. We delight in offering you authentic food, gracious service and the highest quality cocktails in a transportive atmosphere and, yes, in the unlikeliest part of town."
Located on the fourth floor of the Westfield San Francisco Centre (865 Market St.), Cocosueño serves up Mexican comfort food, including vegetarian pozole, enchiladas de nopales and 11 types of tacos. The full bar offers beer, wine and an assortment of tequila-based cocktails.
Cocosueño is open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. daily.
Lupulandia Brewery
The Mission's Lupulandia Brewery is also making waves. Open since November 2019 at 2243 Mission St. (between 18th and 19th streets), the cocktail bar and brewery is relatively new to Yelp but has seen a surge of new reviews, while all businesses tagged "Cocktail Bars" on Yelp saw an increase of 1.3% for new reviews in the past month.
An offshoot of the Tras Horizonte brewery and restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, Lupulandia Brewery offers house beers and at least a dozen craft cocktails highlighting tequila, mezcal and rum. There's also a full menu of bar food available. Over the past month, this spot has seen its Yelp rating tick down from 4.5 stars to four stars.
Lupulandia Brewery is open from noon–midnight on Wednesday-Friday and 11:30 a.m.–midnight on weekends. (It's closed on Monday and Tuesday.)
Izumiya
The Western Addition's Izumiya is the city's buzziest Japanese spot by the numbers.
The sushi bar and Japanese restaurant, located at 1581 Webster St., Suite 270 (between Post and Geary), increased its new review count by 45.5% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.1% for the Yelp category "Japanese." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 3.3 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
Recently under new ownership, this "shokudo," or informal Japanese eatery, specializes in Japanese staples, from ramen and donburi to okonomiyaki (savory pancakes), bento boxes and sushi rolls.
Izumiya is open from 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5:30–9 p.m. on Tuesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5:30–9:30 p.m. on Friday, and 11:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m. on weekends. (It's closed on Monday.)
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.
