Food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending today?
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 discover which local businesses have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we first 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. Then we analyzed foot traffic data from SafeGraph to validate the trends.
Read on to see which spots have the momentum heading into springtime.
M Georgina
Open since November 2019, this New American spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp.
Citywide, New American spots saw a median 1.2% increase in new reviews over the past month, but M georgina saw a 95.5% increase, maintaining a healthy 4.5-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the New American category: The Stanton DTLA has seen a 66.7% increase in reviews.
Located at 777 Alameda St. in downtown Los Angeles, M georgina offers grilled squid ink pasta, wood baked black cod and chard saag. View the menu here.
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.)
Breadologie Bakery
Granada Hills' Breadologie Bakery is also making waves. Open since May 2016 at 17517 Chatsworth St., the popular bakery, which offers coffee, tea and more, has seen a 1.7% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.5% for all businesses tagged "Bakeries" on Yelp. As for foot traffic, Breadologie Bakery saw visits more than triple over the past month, according to SafeGraph data.
Breadologie is "a family-owned small-batch bakery specializing in viennoiseries and artisan breads," according to its Yelp page.
Breadologie Bakery serves pain au chocolat, cinnamon sticky roll and croissant. See what else is on the menu. Over the past month, it's maintained a healthy 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Breadologie Bakery is open from 7 a.m.–1 p.m. on Wednesday-Saturday and 8 a.m.–1 p.m. on Sunday. (It's closed on Monday and Tuesday.) According to SafeGraph, foot traffic is heaviest at 11 a.m., 12 p.m. and 1 p.m., and on Fridays and Saturdays, so go on Wednesdays if you want to avoid the rush.
Lam's Restaurant
North Hollywood's Lam's Restaurant is currently on the upswing in the Thai category on Yelp.
While businesses categorized as "Thai" on Yelp saw a median 0.9% increase in new reviews over the past month, this Thai spot increased its new reviews by 29.4% — and kept its rating consistent at four stars. Review counts increased by more than 250% on a month-to-month basis.
Open for business at 11640 Victory Blvd. since July 2017, Lam's Restaurant features chicken teriyaki, egg fried rice and orange chicken.
Lam's Restaurant is open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. daily.
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.
