When did you last have a takeaway? What did you go for? Chinese? Curry? Thai? Maybe you tucked into good old fish and chips.
While many of us have intentions to cook – even attempting a few meals from scratch – it seems that by the weekend, we down kitchen utensils and head straight to the takeout apps. And why not? Today, there’s more choice than ever before and plenty of culinary delights to sample.
So, with so many of us tucking into a takeaway, what’s Birmingham’s go-to? And how many of us are ordering in? Read on to find out!
The UK loves a takeaway
One of the first questions many of us asked when the first UK lockdown was announced in March 2020 was will takeaways close too? We asked this in Scotland early in the pandemic and we were still asking about it in England during the second lockdown.
It seemed that as a nation, we couldn’t be without our fast-food fix. But this wasn’t just a pandemic thing. We’ve consistently enjoyed takeaways since they grew in popularity in both the UK and the US in the 1950s.
Interestingly, pizza was one of the first types of fast-food to become popular in the UK – and it remains the takeaway of choice for the people of Brum. According to a survey by gaming platform, Jackpotjoy, we’re most likely to search for ‘pizza takeaway near me’, with 9,900 of us Brummies searching for this Italian favourite over any other cuisine.
However, pizza does make number four in the UK’s top five takeaway cuisines, with 14,800 searches each month. But it’s fish and chips that – perhaps unsurprisingly – takes first place, as 201,000 Brits search for this dish from one month to the next.
Cities across the map are tucking into a chippy tea. Out of 11 cities surveyed, nine listed this classic takeaway as their go-to treat. Norwich, Leeds, Belfast, and Edinburgh are among those cities. Meanwhile, here in Birmingham we were the only city to choose pizza. The only other city to try something different is Glasgow, which is all about the Indian cuisine.
Times are changing
So, fish and chips might be top tier of the takeaways, but it might not be for long. There are reports that it’s going to cost over a tenner for this favourite meal soon. So, we might be onto something here in Brum by sticking with our pizza.