Brits vote NO to tomato ketchup on a roast, with Canterbury crowned ‘roast capital of the UK’

October 6, 2021

A leading last-minute holiday marketplace has revealed where in the UK the public has the best chance of eating a good roast dinner, with Canterbury coming out as the nation’s ‘roast capital’,followed by Newquay and Norwich. The brand used Google and Tripadvisor reviews to calculate the number of 4.5+ star roast dinner restaurants per 100,000 residents in each location. The brand also surveyed 10,000 Brits on their roast dinner preferences, which identified a pancake, boiled egg and prawns as some of the weird items they’ve eaten with a roast, while the majority (84%) voted no to ketchup & mayo being eaten with one.

One of the UK’s leading last-minute holiday marketplaces has revealed the top 25 places in the UK fora roast dinner, after analysing Google review and Tripadvisor data.

The brand behind the study, Last Minute Cottages, also commissioned a study of 10,000 Brits, t odefinitively found out what a British roast dinner looks like, as well as what weird & wonderful items they’ve eaten as part of a roast, whether tomato ketchup or mayonnaise is acceptable and which items are favoured the least.

To curate the list, Last Minute Cottages used Google and TripAdvisor reviews to reveal the total number of restaurants serving roast dinners with an overall star rating of 4.5 or above. In order to award a fair ranking across all of the destinations, regardless of size and population, the brand worked out the number of 4.5+ star roast dinner restaurants per 100,000 residents.

The top ten ‘Roast Hotspots’, and the number of 4.5+ plus rated roasts per 100,000 people, are:

  1. Canterbury - 138
  2. Newquay - 113
  3. Norwich - 37.72
  4. Belfast - 32.4
  5. Brighton - 31.7
  6. Nottingham - 20.2
  7. Newcastle - 20.1
  8. Portsmouth - 17.6
  9. Southampton - 17.6
  10. Cheltenham - 15.47

A full list of the 25 ‘Roast Hotspots’, and Last Minute Cottages’ ‘Roast Map of the UK’, can be found here.

The survey also asked Brits which food item should always grace a roast dinner plate, and which they’d rather not see.

The five most important roast items, and the percentage of the British public who selected them, are:

  1. Gravy - 97%
  2. Roast Potatoes - 94%
  3. Meat - 84%
  4. Yorkshire Puddings - 84%
  5. Carrots - 81%

The five least important items, and the percentage of the British public who selected them, are:

  1.  Leeks - 2%
  2. Brussel Sprouts - 31%
  3. Pigs in Blankets - 31%
  4. Cabbage - 36%
  5. Cauliflower Cheese - 44%

Beef was the nation’s favourite roast dinner meat, with nearly two fifths (39%) of the votes, followed by Ham and Chicken, both of which were selected by 21% of respondents. Weird and wonderful roast dinner items identified by the research include a pancake, boiled egg, prawns, pork pie, chips and cheesy pasta to name a few.

Matthew Fox, CEO of the Snaptrip Group, said,

“Although the festive season is still a good couple of months away, the cold weather has already begun to creep in, and people are once again beginning to crack open the tins of tomato soup, dust off their winter jackets, and get back into the rhythm of the weekly Sunday roast. So, we decided it was time to find out what a British roast dinner looks like and where in the UK you’ve got the best chance of eating a top-rated one.

“It was interesting to see Canterbury at the top of the list and London at the bottom, however when you look at the number of top-rated-roasts per 100,000 residents, it’s clear London just doesn’t have enough to go around! Our survey also threw up some surprises - nearly half of people don’t think pigs in blankets should be an all-year-round item - all I can say is I know which side of the fence I sit on...”