Unsure where Los Angeles's in-the-know crowd is 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 uncover which local businesses have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.
To find out who made the list, we looked at Los Angeles 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 getting plenty of attention this winter.
Brulae
Open since September 2019, this dessert shop, which specializes creme brûlée, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Desserts" on Yelp.
Citywide, dessert spots saw a median 1.5% increase in new reviews over the past month. Brulae only recently appeared on Yelp, but while many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, it has seen strong initial popularity.
"Brulae is a creme brûlée-centered cafe and confectionery boutique 10 years in the making," according to its Yelp page. "We want to spark the beginning of making creme brûlée’s into its own niche and ignite the taste buds of other creme brûlée lovers to make this underrated dessert into the next foodie craze."
Located at 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Canoga Park, Brulae features flavored creme brûlées like original, mango sticky rice, banana almond Nutella and salted caramel apple pie.
Brulae is open from 10 a.m.–9 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.–9:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.–7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Genwa Korean Bbq
Downtown Los Angeles' Genwa Korean Bbq is also making waves. Open since November 2019 at 450 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite B and C, the Korean spot is relatively new to Yelp, but has seen a surge of new reviews, while all businesses tagged "Korean" on Yelp saw an increase of 1.6% for new reviews in the past month.
Genwa Korean Bbq features Korean steak tartare, thinly sliced beef tongue, mushroom bulgogi and more. Over the past month, it's maintained a superior 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Genwa Korean Bbq is open from 5–10 p.m. on weekdays and 4–10 p.m. on weekends.
M georgina
Downtown Los Angeles's M georgina is the city's buzziest New American spot by the numbers.
The New American spot, which has been open at 777 Alameda St. since November 2019, is still relatively new to Yelp but has seen a surge of new reviews. Meanwhile, the median new review count for the Yelp category "American (New)" was up 1.1% over the past month.
It's not the only trending outlier in the New American category: The Stanton DTLA has seen a 92.9% increase in reviews.
M georgina features marinated salt spring mussels, chicory lettuce salad with caramelized fuyu persimmon, grilled squid ink pasta and wood-baked black cod. See what else is on the menu.
M georgina is open from 3:30–10 p.m. on Tuesday-Thursday, 3:30–10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 3–10 p.m. on Sunday. (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.
