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January 04, 2011

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Yelp Top 10 Restaurants of 2010!

Posted by Jason, Search Engineer

We said goodbye to 2010 and with 2011 came the inevitable New Year’s resolutions. But let’s just get things out in the open and be honest with ourselves: we all know that you aren’t gonna give up drinking and those french fries have your name on them.

While less than ? of the 15 million reviews on Yelp are food-related, it’s no secret yelpers have an appetite. In an effort to help make resolutions everyone can actually stick to, we’ve pulled together a list of the hottest Yelp restaurants of 2010 in the US, as well as some of our top Yelp cities**. These businesses kept our tummies happy and our souls merry last year — and for those we haven’t yet tried, we resolve to use the rest of the 361 days in 2011 to rectify that!

Top 10 US:
It was a tough battle and it came down to East vs. West. While San Francisco may have taken the World Series, New York got one better and took home Yelp Gold. Ippudo New York came in as the MOST POPULAR U.S. business on Yelp in 2010. With nearly 2,000 Yelp reviews, lines that trail out the door at any day, time or season and pork buns that make a rather large number of diners think they’ve died and gone to Heaven, we can see why they were crowned victor. But they were also amongst good company, with LA eateries dominating the list and SF favorites rounding it out.

(If these buns could talk, they’d probably say they were delicious)

1. Ippudo NY, New York
2. Ike’s Place, San Francisco
3. Bottega Louie, Los Angeles
4. Wurstküche, Los Angeles
5. Griddle Cafe, Los Angeles
6. Bi-Rite Creamery, San Francisco
7. Daikokuya, Los Angeles
8. Philippe The Original Restaurant, Los Angeles
9. Oinkster, Eagle Rock
10. Brenda’s French Soul Food, San Francisco

Top 10 Los Angeles:
Downtown LA represented hard on Yelp Los Angeles’s Top Ten 2010 list with Bottega Louie edging out the competition (must have something to do with that peanut butter terrine). But other than location, this year’s picks are a mixed bag of cuisine and saucy sips from German-heavy Wurstküche to the sweet treat shop, Milk and many more!

1. Bottega Louie
2. Wurstküche
3. Griddle Cafe
4. Daikokuya
5. Philippe The Original Restaurant
6. Father’s Office
7. Wood Spoon
8. Milk
9. Animal
10. Umami Burger

Top 10 San Francisco:
Despite problems with its, err, popularity, it comes as no surprise that perennial Bay Area favorite, Ike’s, came out on top. But San Franciscans weren’t shy about finishing off their sammy with a sweet treat: Bi-Rite Creamery, Tartine and Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream also followed suit.

1. Ike’s Place
2. Bi-Rite Creamery
3. Brenda’s French Soul Food
4. Tartine Bakery
5. Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream
6. Katana-Ya
7. SO
8. San Tung Chinese Restaurant
9. NOPA
10. Mama’s

Top 10 New York:
According to Yelp New York, the food scene theme for 2010 was a keen focus on old time favorites that serve up affordable and consistently lovely grub. Ippudo New York came in as the most popular business on Yelp New York in 2010. But many of these names will look familiar, not just because you’ve read about them online or in print, but because you’ve likely been there once (or thrice).

1. Ippudo NY
2. The Meatball Shop                           
3. Shake Shack
4. Katz’s Delicatessen
5. Doughnut Plant
6. 53rd and 6th Halal Cart
7. Lombardi’s Pizza
8. Caracas Arepa Bar
9. Clinton St. Baking Company
10. Prosperity Dumpling                         

Top 10 Chicago:
2010 was the year of meat for Yelp Chicago. Kuma’s Corner reigned supreme as the place to grab the best burger on a pretzel bun with Hot Doug’s dishing up the dogs a close second. The list boasts a number of places to get your carnivore on: XOCO known for its Mexican street meat, Crisp for Korean chicken and Smoque ensures you’re always in need of a napkin with some of the best ‘que in the city.

1. Kuma’s Corner
2. Hot Doug’s
3. XOCO
4. The Purple Pig
5. The Publican
6. Revolution Brewing Co
7. Girl and the Goat
8. Big Star
9. Crisp
10. Smoque BBQ

**Rank determined by how many people in the Yelp community have bookmarked the business in 2010, combined with average star rating, total review count, and total checkins.

Jan 4, 2011 1:36:12 PM | Permalink

This is pretty cool. Not sure I can use this info for anything but it’s still good to know.

The best Skateboard video of all time is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. Check out the behind the scenes of the reunion video shoot. http://www.skateboardermag.com/features/videodays/

Guy Hepner in LA has an interesting exhibition coming up by some young photographers this Saturday. They have combined photos of different currency and laid graphics as commentary over the top.

Very cool- from Joost de Valk