The UK’s Favourite Takeaway

There’s nothing better than ordering a takeaway after a long day at work, or enjoying your favourite cuisine from your sofa on the weekend. After all, food always tastes best when it’s prepared by someone else!

Using monthly Google search volume for takeaway-related terms, we’ve revealed what the UK’s favourite takeaway meal is and which cities in the UK are home to the most passionate takeaway lovers. We’ve also found which cities across the country have the most takeaway and delivery options when it comes to ordering in some of the most popular cuisines.

The UK’s favourite takeaway food is Chinese

With the UK’s first mainstream Chinese restaurant opening in 1908, Brits have now been enjoying Chinese food for well over a century - and our love for it has only grown since then. Our research reveals that it’s the UK’s favourite takeaway cuisine by a long way, with people up and down the country searching for Chinese takeaway restaurants an average of 44,470 times each month. This amounts to 41% of all monthly Google searches for takeaways.

Pizza comes next with a total of 16,900 Google searches each month, which makes sense as Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, and Dominos are some of the most popular restaurant brands in the country. Search volume for pizzas accounts for 16% of all searches for takeaways.

Indian takeaway ranks as the third most popular, because who doesn’t love a good curry? Brits take to Google to search for Indian takeaway spots an average of 13,970 times every month, which is 13% of all takeaway-related searches.

Interestingly sushi ranks above kebabs, which have long been a staple post-nightclub snack for Brits out on the town (2,420 and 2,240 monthly searches respectively).

Rank	Takeaway Type	Total Searches	% of total searches for takeaways
1	Chinese Takeaway	44,470	41.33%
2	Pizza	16,900	15.71%
3	Indian Takeaway	13,970	12.98%
4	Sushi	2,420	2.25%
5	Kebab	2,240	2.08%
6	Vegan	1,840	1.71%
7	Thai	1,730	1.61%
8	Burger	1,720	1.61%
9	Italian	1,680	1.56%
10	Pho	1,540	1.43%

   

Edinburgh is home to the UK’s biggest takeaway lovers

Looking at the number of searches for takeaways made per 1,000 residents in the top 30 most populated UK cities, Scotland’s capital takes the crown with Edinburgh residents making 6,010 searches each month across all cuisines. This works out as 12.6 searches per 1,000 of the city’s 476,626 population.

Bristolians love takeaways almost as much, with every 1,000 people Googling takeaway spots 11.4 times each month, adding up to a total of 4,880 searches. Newcastle upon Tyne follows in third place, where there are 10.5 takeaway searches made each month for every 1,000 Geordies, or 2,930 in total.

Manchester and York take fourth and fifth place, with 9.8 and 9.1 searches per 1,000 people respectively.

Although London has the highest number of total searches with 35,320, it’s third from the bottom when you take the population into consideration. For every 1,000 Londoners, just 9.8 searches are made for takeaways each month.

Rank	City	Population	Total monthly searches	Searches per 1,000 people
1	Edinburgh	476,626	6,010	12.6
2	Bristol	428,234	4,880	11.4
3	Newcastle upon Tyne	280,177	2,930	10.5
4	Manchester	503,127	4,940	9.8
5	York	198,051	1,800	9.1
6	Glasgow	593,245	5,250	8.8
7	Portsmouth	205,056	1,440	7.0
8	Brighton & Hove	273,369	1,880	6.9
9	Nottingham	305,680	2,100	6.9
10	Derby	248,752	1,650	6.6
11	Liverpool	466,415	3,020	6.5
12	Aberdeen	222,793	1,430	6.4
13	Milton Keynes	248,800	1,550	6.2
14	Stoke-on-Trent	249,008	1,550	6.2
15	Swansea	239,023	1,470	6.2
16	Birmingham	1,092,330	6,620	6.1
17	Plymouth	256,384	1,540	6.0
18	Cardiff	346,090	2,050	5.9
19	Belfast	333,871	1,950	5.8
20	Leicester	329,839	1,910	5.8
21	Coventry	316,915	1,810	5.7
22	Kingston upon Hull	256,406	1,460	5.7
23	Wolverhampton	249,470	1,420	5.7
24	Southampton	236,882	1,340	5.7
25	Sheffield	552,698	2,910	5.3
26	Leeds	751,485	3,740	5.0
27	Sunderland	275,506	1,360	4.9
28	London	8,799,800	35,320	4.0
29	Wakefield	325,837	880	2.7
30	Bradford	522,452	1,390	2.7

   

Portsmouth has a higher proportion of restaurants offering delivery than any other city in the UK

You can find takeaways in every city and town up and down the country, but naturally, some places have a cuisine scene that is head and shoulders above the rest.

To get a better idea of which cities offer the most choice when it comes to enjoying a pre-prepared meal from the sofa, we looked at the proportion of restaurants offering pick-up or delivery options for some of the UK’s favourite cuisines. The restaurants offering the following cuisines were analysed:

• Asian
• Japanese
• French
• Italian
• American
• Mexican
• Pizza
• Sushi
• Indian
• Thai
• Chinese

44% of Portsmouth’s takeaway restaurants serving these dishes offer a delivery service, making it the best city to have a delicious comfort meal delivered to your door. Plymouth and Wakefield follow closely behind with 43% and 42% of restaurants offering this service respectively.

However, if you’re happy to go and collect your meal from the restaurant rather than get it delivered, Stoke is the best city for you. Three quarters of Stoke’s takeaway restaurants offer collection, making it the city with the best selection of takeaway pick-up options. Wolverhampton ranks next with 65% and Plymouth appears again, this time in third place with 63% of the coastal city’s takeaway restaurants also delivering.

City	% offering delivery	City	% offering takeaway
Portsmouth	44.44%	Stoke	75.30%
Plymouth	42.98%	Wolverhampton	65.48%
Wakefield	41.12%	Plymouth	63.22%
Wolverhampton	38.87%	Milton Keynes	61.31%
Stoke	36.98%	Coventry	60.19%
Brighton	34.93%	Cardiff	59.81%
Bristol	33.93%	Portsmouth	57.50%
Leicester	33.53%	Bristol	57.34%
Belfast	33.41%	Brighton	57.26%
Edinburgh	33.24%	Edinburgh	56.47%

   

Whether it's a quick alternative to cooking a meal, or a treat to end a busy week, what’s your favourite takeaway cuisine?

       

Methodology & Sources:

A seedlist of the top 30 cities with the highest population was taken. Google Keyword Planner was used to find the number of searches for takeaways per city (Data collected between 16/11/22 - 22/11/2022. Monthly searches was used between Nov 2021 and October 2022). The number of restaurants in each city was collected from TripAdvisor between 22/11/2022 - 8/12/22.