As fans of cronuts and cake pops can attest, food trends come and go. So how can you tell which tastes are trending right now?
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 restaurants have been getting outsized notice this month.
To find out who made the list, we first 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. Then we analyzed foot traffic data from SafeGraph to validate the trends.
Read on to see which spots are extra cool, right now.
Dumpling Time
Open since February, this Thrive City outpost of the Design District restaurant is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Dim Sum" on Yelp.
Citywide, dim sum spots saw a median 0.9% increase in new reviews over the past month. This new location of Dumpling Time, the third in SF, only recently appeared on Yelp, but while many new businesses struggle to gain reviews, it has seen strong initial popularity.
Located at 191 Warriors Way, Suite 101, Dumpling Time is the first restaurant to officially open in the Chase Center's new shopping and dining destination, Thrive City. The menu at the new spot boasts a wide array of soup dumplings, bao, shumai, gyoza and more. There's also a full bar serving signature cocktails and sake.
Dumpling Time in Thrive City is open from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–10 p.m. on Tuesday-Saturday. (It's closed on Monday and Sunday.)
Sushi Shio
The Mission's Sushi Shio is also making waves. Open in the former Tawla space (206 Valencia St.) since December, Sushi Shio has seen a 46.4% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.1% for all businesses tagged "Sushi Bars" on Yelp.
Operated by the Mins Group, which also owns the Mission's Sushi Hon and SoMa's Sushi Ondo, Sushi Shio offers diners a customizable omakase (tasting menu) experience, featuring up to 12 pieces of nigiri. Over the past month, it's seen its Yelp rating tick down from 4.5 stars to four stars.
Sushi Shio is open from 5–11 p.m. on Tuesday-Sunday. (It's closed on Monday.)
The Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery
The Design District's The Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery is the city's buzziest New American spot by the numbers.
After shuttering its original Bayview headquarters last fall, Seven Still moved its operations to this new facility at 100 Hooper St. Slated to officially open later this month, the new flagship has nevertheless been open to the public for some time, increasing its new review count by 27.3% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1% for the Yelp category "American (New)." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.4 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
In addition to a full brewery and distillery that crafts both beer and spirits, the facility boasts an outdoor courtyard space, a bottle shop and a restaurant. Stop by for pints and cocktails, as well as a menu of elevated bar grub, like tuna poke "nachos," poutine topped with butter chicken and a burger with caramelized shallot aioli.
The Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery is open most days. See its website for an up-to-date schedule of hours.
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.
