Are these trending Philadelphia restaurants on your radar?
In Riva | Photo: Dan W./Yelp
Curious where Philadelphia'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 deduce which restaurants have been in the spotlight this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at Philadelphia 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 worth exploring this autumn.
Vernick Fish
Open since 2019, this seafood spot is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Seafood" on Yelp.
Citywide, seafood spots saw a median 1.8% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Vernick Fish saw a 40.6% increase, maintaining a sound 4.5-star rating throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the seafood category: Alpen Rose has seen a 19.3% increase in reviews, and Relish has seen a 1.8% bump.
Located at 1876 Arch St. in Logan Square, Vernick Fish offers items like oysters, Parmesan salmon and rice croquettes topped with shrimp aioli.
Vernick Fish is open from 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m.–midnight daily.
Chops Restaurant & Bar
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about Logan Square's Chops Restaurant & Bar, the 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 1.5% increase in new reviews over the past month, Chops Restaurant & Bar bagged a 3.4% increase in new reviews within that time frame, maintaining a mixed three-star rating. It significantly outperformed the previous month by gaining 1.5 times more reviews than expected based on its past performance. As for foot traffic, Chops Restaurant & Bar saw a 49% increase in visits in the past month, according to SafeGraph data.
Open at 1701 John F Kennedy Blvd. since 1995, Chops Restaurant & Bar offers dishes like calamari, goat cheese gnocchi and New Zealand lamb.
Chops Restaurant & Bar is open from 11:30 a.m.–9 p.m. on weekdays and 5 p.m.–9 p.m. on Saturday. (It's closed on Sunday.) According to SafeGraph, people visit Chops Restaurant & Bar most on Mondays and Wednesdays, and it attracts a quarter of its total visitors over those two days, so go on Saturdays if you want to avoid the rush.
In Riva
East Falls's In Riva is also making waves. Open since 2011 at 4116 Ridge Ave., the popular Italian spot, which offers pizza and more, has seen a 2.1% increase in new reviews over the last month — matching that of all businesses tagged "Italian" on Yelp — but visits to In Riva increased by more than 50% over the same time frame, according to SafeGraph's foot traffic data.
There's more than one hot spot trending in Philadelphia's Italian category: Giuseppe & Sons has seen a 6.6% increase in reviews.
In Riva offers dishes like Neapolitan-style pizza pies, King crab-topped pasta and more. Over the past month, it's maintained a strong four-star rating among Yelpers.
In Riva is open from 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. on Tuesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m-9 p.m. on Sunday. (It's closed on Monday.) According to SafeGraph, it's usually busiest at 6 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., and people visit In Riva most on Fridays and Saturdays, so go on Wednesdays if you want to avoid the rush.
Oh Brother Philly
Old City's Oh Brother Philly is the city's buzziest cheesesteak spot by the numbers.
The well-established spot to score cheesesteaks, burgers and sandwiches, which opened at 206 Market St. in 2018, increased its new review count by 6.2% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.6% for the Yelp category "Cheesesteaks."
Oh Brother Philly offers bites like smoked brisket sandwiches, plant-based burgers and cheesesteaks stuffed with mushrooms and truffle cream.
Oh Brother Philly is open from 11 a.m.–11 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and 11 a.m.–4 a.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.
