Curious where San Jose's insiders are 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 restaurants have been getting extra notice this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at San Jose 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.
Aloha Fresh
Open since January 2019, this well-established Hawaiian spot, which offers poke, bubble tea and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Bubble Tea" on Yelp.
Citywide, bubble tea spots saw a median 1.7% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Aloha Fresh saw a 3% increase, maintaining a strong 4.5-star rating throughout. According to SafeGraph foot traffic data, the number of visitors to Aloha Fresh more than tripled over the past month.
It's not the only trending outlier in the bubble tea category: Milk Tea Lab has seen a 17.6% increase in reviews, and Teahee and Oros Thai Chicken & Rice have seen 0.6 and 9.5% increases, respectively.
Located at 225 Jackson St. in downtown San Jose, Aloha Fresh offers poke, desserts, boba tea, Spam musubi, fried poi mochi and more.
Aloha Fresh is open from 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.–7 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.–8 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m.–7 p.m. on Sunday. (It's closed on Tuesday.) According to SafeGraph, it's usually busiest at 12 p.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., and people visit Aloha Fresh most on Saturdays and Sundays, with a slowdown on Mondays.
Sabores Of The Valley
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Almaden Valley's Sabores Of The Valley, the breakfast and brunch and New American spot is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Breakfast & Brunch" on Yelp saw a median 1.4% increase in new reviews over the past month, Sabores Of The Valley bagged a 19.6% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a strong 4.5-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.2 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance.
There's more that's trending on San Jose's breakfast and brunch scene: Tostadas has seen a 10.2% increase in reviews, and Voyager Craft Coffee has seen an 8.5% bump.
Open at 6944 Almaden Expressway since September 2019, Sabores Of The Valley offers breakfast staples like eggs Benedict, omelets, avocado toast, steak and eggs, chicken and waffles and more.
Sabores Of The Valley is open from 7 a.m.–9 p.m. daily.
Blue Bottle Coffee
Winchester North's Blue Bottle Coffee, an outpost of the notable chain, is also making waves. Open since November 2019 at 368 Santana Row, Suite 1020, the coffee and tea spot has seen a 1.8% increase in new reviews over the last month — matching that of all businesses tagged "Coffee & Tea" on Yelp
There's more than one hot spot trending in San Jose's coffee and tea category: Yoogool has seen a 1.5% increase in reviews, and Lucky Tea and Gabi's Petite Cafe have seen 13 and 1.8% increases, respectively.
Blue Bottle Coffee offers espresso drinks, drip coffee, cold brew, matcha lattes, adffogato, hot chocolate and more on the menu. Over the past month, it's maintained a superior 4.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Blue Bottle Coffee is open from 7 a.m.–9 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 7 a.m.–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
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.
