Food and Drink Guide to the United Kingdom: What to Eat and Drink

British food has long since shaken off its bland reputation. Alongside comforting classics you will find regional specialities in every nation, a huge range of international cooking and a pub culture that is part of daily life. Here is what to order and how eating out works.

Signature dishes to try

• Fish and chips: battered cod or haddock with thick-cut chips, best eaten from a chip shop near the coast. Add mushy peas or a pickled onion on the side.
• Full English breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, grilled tomato, mushrooms and toast, often with black pudding.
• Sunday roast: roast beef, lamb, pork or chicken with roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables, gravy and a Yorkshire pudding, served in pubs every Sunday.
• Pies and pasties: a steak and ale pie, or a Cornish pasty, the crimped pastry parcel of beef, potato, swede and onion.
• Afternoon tea: finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and small cakes. In Devon and Cornwall, whether the cream or the jam goes on first is a famous local debate.

Regional specialities across the four nations

• Scotland: haggis with neeps and tatties (swede and potatoes), Cullen skink, a creamy smoked haddock soup, and fresh Scottish salmon.
• Wales: Welsh rarebit, a rich cheese sauce grilled on toast, and Welsh cakes, small griddled cakes studded with currants.
• Northern Ireland: the Ulster fry with soda farls and potato bread, and champ, mashed potato with spring onions and butter.
• England: Lancashire hotpot in the north-west, pie and mash with green parsley liquor in London's East End, and the balti, which grew up in Birmingham's curry houses.

Street food, markets and quick bites

London's food markets, such as Borough Market and Camden Market, are perfect for grazing, and most big cities now have covered food halls packed with independent stalls. For a quick lunch, supermarkets sell a sandwich, snack and drink bundle known as a meal deal, and high-street bakeries sell sausage rolls and pasties to take away. Curry is so loved that chicken tikka masala is often called a national favourite; Brick Lane in London is one of the best-known streets to try it.

What to drink

• Tea: usually black with a splash of milk. Ask for "builder's tea" if you like it strong.
• Beer: try a cask ale, also called real ale, pulled by hand pump and served at cellar temperature rather than ice-cold. Lager and craft beer are everywhere too.
• Cider: Somerset and Herefordshire are known for traditional, often cloudy farmhouse cider.
• Whisky: in Scotland, compare a smooth Speyside single malt with the smoky malts of Islay. Note the Scottish spelling, without an "e".
• Gin: small distilleries have sprung up across the country, and a gin and tonic is a pub staple.

How eating out works

In most pubs you order food and drinks at the bar, giving your table number when you order a meal. Restaurants have table service, and popular places and Sunday lunch slots fill up, so book ahead at weekends. Outside the big cities, kitchens may stop serving earlier than you expect, especially on Sundays.

On tipping, around 10 to 12.5 per cent is customary in restaurants for good service. Check the bill first: many restaurants, particularly in London, add a discretionary service charge, in which case nothing more is needed. Nobody expects a tip for drinks at the bar, and tipping in cafés is optional.

Dietary needs

Vegetarian and vegan food is easy to find, from supermarket ranges to pub menus, and dishes are usually clearly marked. Staff are used to allergy questions, so mention any allergy when you order. Halal food is widely available in large cities, and gluten-free versions of staples, including fish and chips, are increasingly common.

Stay connected in the United Kingdom

Mobile data makes eating out much easier: you can read recent reviews, check whether a pub still serves food on a Sunday evening, book a table or find the nearest chippy as you walk. A HelloSIM eSIM is data-only, so you install it before you travel, it connects once you land, and your own number stays on your phone for calls and texts.