The bland familiarity of the English takeaways

DrToffnar

DrToffnar

DrToffnar

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I was up in Scotland last year for a month or so and couldn't help but notice how much more adventurous there takeaways are when compared to ours down South. Perhaps it's just a regional thing but here in Brum and many other places I've been to in the West Midlands the takeaway food options are miserable and samey. Like for like Chinese, Indians and pizza joints offering up awfully greasy fried chicken and soggy chips on the side. In Brum you have a lot of Jerk and piri piri places opening up but that's about as adventurous as it gets.

I've found that the with the advent of Deliveroo and Uber eats the options are a lot more exotic, but only if you live or work close to a big city.

Is it just me or does anyone else find English options incredibly poor?

Oh and just to beat the sniping yes, I can cook from home and 95% of the time do just that.
 
in reference to Scotland? A lot more emphasis on well made and varied products, specifically Italian food I noticed. But the chippy's had a lot more variety too, not just the battered chocolate bar affairs. Pakora of all different kinds, Munchy boxes, more variety of fish and shellfish on the menu. All this just in relatively rural Ayrshire mind, not Edinburgh or Glasgow.
 
Only thing I’ve noticed about English chippys is you often get a selection of fish. In Scotland you get fish. That’s it. It’s likely not Cod either.
 
You live in Birmingham and moaning the food is bland? Birmingham has some absoutley amazing food choices, espically takeaways!

Again, Birmingham food is awesome! Digbeth etc doing takeaway just now too. Plus there is literally an Asian district, with sooo much good food. :D

I mean you do have to go to the city, but this is the same for everywhere. Scottish, and the takeaways near my home village are awful. Live outside the city here, and again awful. Live near any city, amazing.
 
Ahleckz said:
It's generally haddock.
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Only in the good places.

I think the traditional takeaway should die a death. For only a bit more money you can get deliveroo or whatever from your favourite local independent restaurant. We have arguably London's best authentic Naples pizza on our doorstep. It's only about £10-13 a pizza yet people will go and spend £25+ on Dominoes or other such nonsense. Madness...
 
Begbie said:
You live in Birmingham and moaning the food is bland? Birmingham has some absoutley amazing food choices, espically takeaways!

Again, Birmingham food is awesome! Digbeth etc doing takeaway just now too. Plus there is literally an Asian district, with sooo much good food. :D

I mean you do have to go to the city, but this is the same for everywhere. Scottish, and the takeaways near my home village are awful. Live outside the city here, and again awful. Live near any city, amazing.
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I don't live in the city centre. I did mention in the OP that if that where the case there would be plenty more options, as I image there would if you lived in or relatively near any big City. Birmingham is pretty damn big though outside of it's centre :P
 
Scam said:
Only in the good places.

I think the traditional takeaway should die a death. For only a bit more money you can get deliveroo or whatever from your favourite local independent restaurant. We have arguably London's best authentic Naples pizza on our doorstep. It's only about £10-13 a pizza yet people will go and spend £25+ on Dominoes or other such nonsense. Madness...
Click to expand...

Most smaller towns don't have deliveroo or uber eats.
 
DrToffnar said:
in reference to Scotland? A lot more emphasis on well made and varied products, specifically Italian food I noticed. But the chippy's had a lot more variety too, not just the battered chocolate bar affairs. Pakora of all different kinds, Munchy boxes, more variety of fish and shellfish on the menu. All this just in relatively rural Ayrshire mind, not Edinburgh or Glasgow.
Click to expand...

Plenty of all that down here in London.
 
DrToffnar said:
I've found that the with the advent of Deliveroo and Uber eats the options are a lot more exotic, but only if you live or work close to a big city.
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Reading has a plethora of fantastic and fancy foods. Polish pierogi, kopytka and ruskies. Pizzas galore. German Doner kebabs. The Bierhaus. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and a dozen others. Turkish, Greek, Indian, all sorts.
We live about 3 miles from the city-sized town centre, though... we have no takeaways and no-one delivers out this far.

That is all it comes down to.
 
billysielu said:
I just want pattie and chips how hard can it be...
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Have you even seen what kind of world is outside your front door?

That seemingly simple question could have you slammed for sexual misconduct, gender discrimination, hate crime, racism, ageism, modern slavery, perpetuating the suffering of any number of minority and disadvantaged majority groups, and being a capitalist socialist remoaning brexiteer, while also seeing all your data stolen and sold to a lifestyle profiling marketing company, while eviscerating you across all social media, all in less time that it took to type this post.

In short, very hard.

Go on - Now ask about 'just getting a coffee'...!! :D
 
Shadowness said:
What exactly is "more adventurous"?
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I think most UK takeaways are fine.

switzerland takeaways on the other hand like twice as expensive as ours and twice as crap made me realise just how decent most english takeaways are.

I used to live next to a takeaway called swiss chicken that was always busy with deliveries 2-3 smart cars constantly driving even though it was a small place.

I don't think here customers realise all the ingredients were from Germany, the Turkish who owned it let there 2 kids run around in the shop like it was a play ground etc and even the fries were smothered in herbs.

also never had even a half decent pizza in Switzerland and it's directly next to italy...
 
DrToffnar said:
I was up in Scotland last year for a month or so and couldn't help but notice how much more adventurous there takeaways are when compared to ours down South. Perhaps it's just a regional thing but here in Brum and many other places I've been to in the West Midlands the takeaway food options are miserable and samey. Like for like Chinese, Indians and pizza joints offering up awfully greasy fried chicken and soggy chips on the side. In Brum you have a lot of Jerk and piri piri places opening up but that's about as adventurous as it gets.

I've found that the with the advent of Deliveroo and Uber eats the options are a lot more exotic, but only if you live or work close to a big city.

Is it just me or does anyone else find English options incredibly poor?

Oh and just to beat the sniping yes, I can cook from home and 95% of the time do just that.
Click to expand...
a few things come to mind.

Competition, if your in a small town or in a area with not many take away or good take away the bar is set low, customers dont have much choice.
in a city you will see a lot of take aways load of people eating out, so you have more choice.
Most are not bother about the food just the profit.
Low cost and ease of cooking some food compared to others, example, peri peri vs fried,
Not willing to take the risk
Not many customer like change, example how many customer would buy something other then a tika masala ? how many have tried samosas and pakoras ?

the copy a idea mentality, it must have worked well so more started trying it.

if they get the customers they can be lazy,

for example my town maybe has 2-3 good places in total, depending on your choice. so if we want something half decent we need to drive and pick it up from the the city near by
 
I also don't know how you can say the food in Birmingham is bland?! We moved to Norwich from Brum a few years ago and I miss the food all the time. There are a few good places here but they're not a patch on anything we had in the West Midlands.

Just a few of our favourites from when we used to live there:

Amazing Ethiopian food and good value: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta...taurant-Birmingham_West_Midlands_England.html

Korean: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta...Topokki-Birmingham_West_Midlands_England.html

A mix of East Asian: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta...taurant-Birmingham_West_Midlands_England.html

Sushi: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurants-g186402-c38-Birmingham_West_Midlands_England.html

Our favourite curry place, but obviously there are thousands to choose from which aren't just standard chicken tikka massala places: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta...n_Balti-Birmingham_West_Midlands_England.html

Even the generic fried chicken or fish places have more interesting food than the standard fried chicken you get everywhere else: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Resta...g_Kebab-Birmingham_West_Midlands_England.html

The bbq roast chicken from here (and the fish obviously) is amazing!: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowU...ish_Bar-Birmingham_West_Midlands_England.html
 
Moving back to the UK to a small town has been a shock food wise. I'd forgotten how bland and greasy most of our food is.

I really miss being able to get healthy takeout food, Mexican, middle Eastern, Vietnamese etc.
 
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