Asian Fusion And More: What's Trending On New York City's Food Scene?

NEW YORK (Hoodline) - Curious where New York City'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 analyze which local businesses have been most discussed this month.

To find out who made the list, we looked at New York City businesses on Yelp by category and counted how many reviews each received. Rather than compare them based on the number of reviews alone, we calculated a percentage increase in reviews over the past month and tracked businesses that consistently increase their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance.

Read on to see which spots are worth exploring this spring.

Buntopia

Open since 2017, this Asian fusion spot and sushi bar, which offers ramen and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Ramen" on Yelp.

Citywide, ramen spots saw a median 2.8 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but Buntopia saw a 36.7 percent increase, with a slight upward trend from a four-star rating a month ago to 4.5 stars today.

Located at 994 Broadway (between Willoughby Avenue and Ditmars Street) in Stuyvesant Heights, Buntopia offers sushi rolls, scallion pancakes, ramen, rice bowls and more. (View the full menu here.)

Madame Vo BBQ

Open since December 2018, this Vietnamese spot, which offers barbecue and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Vietnamese" on Yelp.

Citywide, businesses tagged "Vietnamese" saw a median 2.3 percent increase in new reviews over the past month, but Madame Vo BBQ saw a 36.8 percent increase, maintaining a solid four-star rating throughout.

Located at 104 Second Ave. (between Seventh and Sixth streets) in the East Village, Madame Vo BBQ offers barbecue oysters, crab soup with white asparagus and egg, lemongrass marinated short rib roll and more. (Check out the menu here.)

Mint Kitchen

Is Greenwich Village's Mint Kitchen on your radar? According to Yelp review data, the Mediterranean and vegetarian spot is getting plenty of attention.

While businesses categorized as "Vegetarian" on Yelp increased their media new review count by 2.3 percent over the past month, Mint Kitchen nabbed a 50 percent increase in reviews within that timeframe, maintaining a superior 4.5-star rating.

Located at 83 University Place (between 11th and 12th streets), Mint Kitchen offers a chicken breast with barley and a cucumber and mint salad, a falafel-crusted salmon with tahini and roasted fennel and more. (View the full menu here.)

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.

Also see: Chinese Food In NYC: Expert Spotlights What's Changing