Restaurant Statistics in 2026: Britain's Favourite Bites

We take a close look at how the UK restaurant sector is performing in 2026, exploring the top likes and dislikes of British diners.

A quick overview of the UK's restaurant sector:

• The total value of the UK's eating out market passed the £100 billion mark for the first time, reaching a forecast £101 billion in 2025.
• The top growth driver is food to go, worth £24 billion in 2025 and growing faster than the wider market, with around 34 net new food-to-go sites opening every week.
• Coffee shops are doing well even amid tight household budgets. The UK's branded coffee shop market is worth £6.1 billion across 11,456 outlets, up 5.2% in a year.
• The fast food brand fame rankings for 2026 show a crowded summit: Pizza Hut, KFC, Domino's, McDonald's, Burger King and Greggs are all recognised by effectively 100% of Brits.
• In the most recent ProVeg UK ranking of plant-based options in fast-food venues, Burger King came top of the list, followed by Subway and McDonald's.
• The most popular restaurant brands are Greggs, JD Wetherspoon, and Domino's, according to YouGov's Q2 2026 popularity ratings.
• The average portion of cod and chips now costs £11.41, up from around £9 in 2023.
• The delivery league table has been shaken up: Uber Eats overtook Just Eat as the UK's biggest delivery platform by share of delivery occasions (27.2% vs 25.2%), and DoorDash completed its acquisition of Deliveroo in October 2025.
• Overall, the UK accounts for around 8% of the global online food delivery market and is projected to lead Europe by revenue by 2030.

How many restaurants are there in the UK?

According to the CGA and AlixPartners Hospitality Market Monitor, there were 98,609 licensed hospitality premises in Britain as of March 2026. The wider picture takes in around 176,685 hospitality businesses across the UK, 99.6% of them small or medium sized.

It's a tough trading climate, with a net 3 to 4 venues closing every day in early 2026 and 350 pubs closing in 2025, leaving 44,650 pubs nationwide. Even so, the full-service restaurant market grew 3.3% to £24.3 billion in 2025.

What are the UK's favourite and biggest restaurant chains?

Greggs, JD Wetherspoon, and Domino's top the list of most popular dining brands in the UK, with Greggs liked by 73% of Brits.

As for the largest food chains, Greggs is now the biggest by number of UK locations, having overtaken Co-op Food, with Costa and Subway close behind.

What are the most popular cuisines in the UK?

When YouGov asked more than 4,300 Brits to name their favourite foreign cuisine in January 2026, Italian food came out on top with 24%, ahead of Chinese (19%) and Indian (17%).

51% of Brits now buy fast food at least once a month, and when choosing where to eat, quality (46%) narrowly beats convenient location (44%) and value for money (40%).

The UK's top 10 cuisines by search

When looking at online search figures, the top two most popular cuisines in the UK are still Indian and Italian, just as they were in 2023.

The big mover is Turkish food, which has climbed into the top five ahead of Japanese and Korean.

The most searched-for cuisines in the UK, based on average monthly search volumes for "[cuisine] restaurant" from Semrush, July 2026.

Hungry for more? Find out your city's favourite cuisine

If we look at the top 10 most populous cities around the UK, Indian restaurants come out on top in most cases, including London, where Indian searches lead Japanese and Italian. Italian food takes the top spot in Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Birmingham (where it ties with Indian).

Leeds bucks the trend with Thai food in second place, and in Leicester, Turkish food makes the top three.

The most searched-for cuisines in major cities in the UK, based on average monthly search volumes for "[cuisine] restaurant [city]" from Semrush, July 2026.

Korean and Malaysian restaurants gaining popularity

In Bidfood's Food and Drink Trends 2026 research, Korean, Malaysian and South American cuisines were named the ones to watch, and 54% of UK consumers say they frequently explore new cuisines when eating out, rising to 76% among self-described foodies.

Vegan restaurants continue to thrive. London was named the world's most vegan-friendly city by HappyCow in 2025, with 214 fully vegan venues, and Edinburgh also made the global top 25. Per head of population, Brighton remains the UK's vegan capital.

What about good old fish and chips?

According to Seafish research published in June 2026, the UK is home to 7,210 fish and chip shops, and the average portion of cod and chips costs £11.41 (haddock fans get away with £10.29).

The nation's favourite is under pressure, though. Out-of-home fish and chips servings fell 9% in 2025, and chippies still account for 46% of all fish and chips servings, with pubs taking a further 25%.

Takeaway and food delivery trends

Food delivery is now worth £14.3 billion a year in the UK, nearly double its pre-pandemic value. The latest search data shows the following ranking (based on average monthly search volumes from Semrush, July 2026):

• Just Eat receives approximately 3,350,000 average online searches every month.
• Deliveroo also gets a significant search volume, with approximately 1,000,000 searches.
• Third in the list is Uber Eats with more than 820,000 searches every month.

Search habits tell only half the story, though. By share of actual delivery occasions, Uber Eats has overtaken Just Eat (27.2% vs 25.2%), with Deliveroo on 16.2%. And the market keeps consolidating: DoorDash, America's biggest delivery firm, completed its £2.9 billion acquisition of Deliveroo in October 2025. Meanwhile, 40% of diners now prefer ordering through a restaurant's own website or app rather than a third-party platform.

If you own a restaurant, cafe, pub, takeaway, food truck or street food stall, now is the perfect time to update your indoor and outdoor signage and make sure your business gets all the attention with a Custom Neon® sign.

Take a moment to see the customised LED signage and wall art we made for restaurants, gastro pubs, and fast food chains throughout the UK.

More research commissioned or undertaken by Custom Neon® can be found by clicking the following links: