26th September 2023

Research reveals Britain’s favourite cuisine

Written by: Edward Waddell
New research from BoldData has found that Italian restaurants are growing in popularity as they represent 8.5% of all restaurants in the UK ahead of Indian (8.4%) and Chinese (6.7%).

For the first time Italian is topping the list of international restaurants based in the UK. According to this data 1,617 Italian restaurants registered at Companies House since 2022, an increase of 16.4%. Even chef Gordon Ramsey joined in on the trend with the opening of his popular concept Street Pizza.

There are currently 11,489 Italian restaurants in The United Kingdom. Closely followed by Indian (11,378 eating places) and Chinese (9,123 restaurants).

A spokesperson for BoldData said: “It's a tasty battle between pizza and curry, and diners in the UK are loving every bite of it. When it comes to pizza and pasta, London is the place to be. London has a whopping 2.165 Italian restaurants, a growth of 67% compared to 2018. Manchester comes in second with 531 restaurants.”

Top ten (international) cuisines in UK

  • Italian restaurants: 11,489
  • Indian restaurants: 11,378
  • Chinese restaurants: 9,123
  • American restaurants: 3,022
  • Turkish restaurants: 2,875
  • Thai restaurants: 1,819
  • Japanese restaurants: 998
  • French restaurants: 760
  • Pakistani restaurants: 724
  • Portuguese restaurants: 691