Curious where Seattle'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 and SafeGraph, a dataset of commercial points of interest and their visitor patterns, to uncover which eateries have been in the spotlight this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at Seattle 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.
Dumpling The Noodle
Open since January, this Chinese spot, which offers noodles and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Noodles" on Yelp.
Citywide, noodle spots saw a median 1.5% increase in new reviews over the past month. Dumpling The Noodle only recently appeared on Yelp, but while many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, it has seen strong initial popularity.
It's not the only trending outlier in the noodle category: Dough Zone Dumpling House has seen a 11.8% increase in reviews, and Momosan Ramen & Sake and Menya Musashi Tsukemen & Ramen have seen 7.5 and 6.4% increases, respectively.
Located at 1719 N. 45th St. (between North Wallingford and North Densmore avenues) in Wallingford, Dumpling The Noodle offers hand-pulled noodles and rice noodles, as well as dumplings, buns, wontons and bubble tea.
Dumpling The Noodle is open from 11:30 a.m.–9 p.m. daily.
Eight Row
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Green Lake's Eight Row, the beer bar and New American spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "American (New)" on Yelp saw a median 1% increase in new reviews over the past month, Eight Row bagged a 14.5% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a convincing four-star rating.
There's more that's trending on Seattle's New American scene: Pair has seen a 0.9% increase in reviews, and Art of The Table has seen a 0.3% bump.
Open at 7102 Woodlawn Ave. NE (between 72nd and 71st streets) since August 2019, Eight Row offers fried eggplant, pumpkin gnocchi, bison tartare, duck breast and more.
Eight Row is open from 4 p.m.–10 p.m. on Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m.–10 p.m. on weekends. (It's closed on Monday.)
Indi Chocolate
Pike Market's Indi Chocolate is also making waves. Open since 2013 at 1901 Western Ave., Suite D (between Pike Place and Virginia Street), the popular chocolatier and shop, which offers coffee, tea and more, has seen a 1.5% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 2.1% for all businesses tagged "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp. As for foot traffic, Indi Chocolate saw visits more than triple over the past month, according to SafeGraph data.
There's more than one hot spot trending in Seattle's coffee and tea category: Atulea has seen a 5% increase in reviews.
Indi Chocolate specializes in cacao based products including teas, spice rubs, infusion sets and body care products made from cocoa butter. Over the past month, it's maintained a convincing 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Indi Chocolate is open from 8 a.m.–5 p.m. on Monday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 a.m.–5:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, 8 a.m.–7 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m.–6 p.m. on Sunday. According to SafeGraph, foot traffic is heaviest at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., and on Saturdays and Fridays, so go on Tuesdays if you want to avoid the rush.
Marination
Belltown's Marination, an outpost of the famous chain, is the city's buzziest seafood spot by the numbers.
The well-established Asian fusion and Korean spot, which offers seafood and more and opened at 2000 Sixth Ave., Amazon Doppler (between Virginia and Lenora streets) in 2015, saw a 0.8% increase in new reviews over the last month — matching that of all businesses for the Yelp business category "Seafood" — but saw visits nearly triple over the same time frame, according to SafeGraph's foot traffic data.
It's not the only trending outlier in the seafood category: Rider has seen a 3.6% increase in reviews, and Staple & Fancy and Old Stove Brewing have seen 0.3 and 2.8% increases, respectively.
Marination offers fish tacos, pork sliders, kimchi fried rice, Spam musubi and more on the menu.
Marination is open from 11 a.m.–8 p.m. daily. According to SafeGraph, it usually gets busy on Thursdays and Tuesdays, and it attracts a quarter of its total visitors over those two days, with a slowdown on Saturdays.
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.
