50 British Foods to Try Before Anything Else
British food is far better than its reputation, and most of its greatest hits are cheap, hearty and easy to find. Here are fifty classics from all four nations — savoury standbys, curry-house institutions and the puddings Britain does better than anywhere. Our picks, in the order we'd recommend starting.
Entries 1–10
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Fish and chips
Battered fish with thick-cut chips, salt and vinegar — Britain's defining takeaway, at its best eaten from the paper at the seaside.
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Full English breakfast
The famous cooked breakfast: bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans, toast and usually mushrooms, tomatoes and black pudding.
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Sunday roast
Roast meat, roast potatoes, vegetables and gravy — the weekly centrepiece of British home cooking and pub menus alike.
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Yorkshire pudding
A crisp, puffed batter pudding baked in hot fat, essential alongside roast beef and the pride of its namesake county.
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Toad in the hole
Sausages baked into Yorkshire pudding batter until golden, traditionally served with onion gravy.
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Bangers and mash
Sausages on buttery mashed potato with gravy — simple, cheap and one of the great comfort dinners.
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Shepherd's pie
Minced lamb in gravy under a browned mashed-potato topping; a farmhouse classic found everywhere from home kitchens to pubs.
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Cottage pie
The beef version of shepherd's pie — minced beef and vegetables baked under mash until the top crisps.
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Steak and ale pie
Slow-cooked beef in ale gravy under proper pastry, the benchmark of a good British pub menu.
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Cornish pasty
A D-shaped pastry filled with beef, potato, swede and onion, developed as a portable lunch for Cornish miners and now protected as a regional speciality.
Entries 11–20
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Melton Mowbray pork pie
The famous hand-raised pork pie from Leicestershire, eaten cold with its distinctive bow-walled pastry and jelly.
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Scotch egg
A boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and fried — a picnic and pub-counter staple.
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Sausage roll
Seasoned sausage meat rolled in flaky pastry; sold everywhere from village bakeries to high-street chains, and taken surprisingly seriously.
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Ploughman's lunch
A cold pub plate of cheese, crusty bread, pickle and salad — best with a good chutney and a pint.
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Welsh rarebit
Posh cheese on toast from Wales: a rich, seasoned cheese sauce, often made with ale and mustard, grilled until bubbling.
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Beans on toast
Baked beans in tomato sauce on buttered toast — a humble national institution and the ultimate British quick meal.
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Bubble and squeak
Leftover potatoes and cabbage fried together until crisp-edged, named after the noise it makes in the pan.
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Black pudding
A rich blood sausage with oats and spices, sliced and fried; a fixture of cooked breakfasts, with Bury in Lancashire especially famous for it.
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Kedgeree
An Anglo-Indian breakfast dish of spiced rice, smoked haddock and boiled eggs, born in the days of the Raj.
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Pie and mash
The traditional East London workers' meal: minced beef pie, mashed potato and parsley liquor, served in tiled Victorian pie shops.
Entries 21–30
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Jellied eels
The old East End delicacy of eels cooked and set in their own jelly — divisive, historic and still sold at traditional pie and mash shops.
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Lancashire hotpot
Lamb and onions slow-baked under a lid of sliced potatoes — the north-west's great one-pot dinner.
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Cumberland sausage
A long, coiled, peppery pork sausage from Cumbria with protected regional status, usually served as a whole spiral.
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Chicken tikka masala
The British curry-house classic: grilled marinated chicken in a creamy spiced tomato sauce, often cited as one of the nation's favourite dishes.
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Balti
A fast-cooked curry served sizzling in its thin steel bowl, popularised in Birmingham's 'Balti Triangle' and eaten with naan instead of cutlery.
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Haggis, neeps and tatties
Scotland's national dish — spiced sheep offal and oatmeal served with mashed swede and potato, traditionally toasted with whisky on Burns Night.
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Cullen skink
A thick Scottish soup of smoked haddock, potato and onion, named after the fishing town of Cullen on the Moray coast.
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Arbroath smokie
Haddock hot-smoked over hardwood in the town of Arbroath, with protected status — eaten warm, it is one of Scotland's finest foods.
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Cranachan
A Scottish dessert of whipped cream, raspberries, toasted oats, honey and a splash of whisky, layered like a trifle.
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Scottish shortbread
Rich, crumbly butter biscuits — the classic Scottish sweet treat, traditionally shared at Hogmanay.
Entries 31–40
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Welsh cakes
Small spiced griddle cakes studded with currants, cooked on a bakestone and dusted with sugar — best eaten warm.
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Bara brith
Wales's 'speckled bread': a fruit loaf made with tea-soaked dried fruit and spice, served sliced and buttered.
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Cawl
The traditional Welsh broth of lamb or beef with leeks, potatoes and root vegetables — often called the national dish of Wales.
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Ulster fry
Northern Ireland's cooked breakfast, distinguished by fried soda bread and potato bread alongside the bacon, sausages and eggs.
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Soda bread
Bread raised with bicarbonate of soda rather than yeast, a staple of Irish and Northern Irish baking with a dense, tender crumb.
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Cheddar cheese
Britain's most famous cheese, first made in the Somerset village of Cheddar; proper West Country farmhouse cheddar is a different world from the supermarket blocks.
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Stilton cheese
The 'king of English cheeses' — a blue cheese with protected status that may only be made in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
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Crumpets
Spongy, hole-pocked griddle cakes toasted and soaked with butter — a teatime staple that has no real equivalent elsewhere.
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Hot cross buns
Spiced fruit buns marked with a cross, traditionally eaten at Easter but now toasted and buttered all year round.
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Cream tea
Warm scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, served with a pot of tea; Devon and Cornwall famously disagree over whether jam or cream goes on first.
Entries 41–50
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Afternoon tea
The full ritual: finger sandwiches, scones and pastries on a tiered stand with tea — a nineteenth-century invention that became a national institution.
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Victoria sponge
Two light sponge layers with jam and cream, named after Queen Victoria — the benchmark cake of every village fete.
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Bakewell tart
A shortcrust tart of jam and almond frangipane from the Derbyshire town of Bakewell, close cousin of the older Bakewell pudding.
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Battenberg cake
The distinctive pink-and-yellow chequered sponge wrapped in marzipan — as pleasing to slice as it is to eat.
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Eton mess
Crushed meringue, strawberries and whipped cream folded together; gloriously untidy and linked by name to Eton College.
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Sherry trifle
Layers of sponge, fruit, custard and cream — with a proper splash of sherry — assembled in a glass bowl for every British celebration.
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Sticky toffee pudding
A dark date sponge drenched in toffee sauce, popularised in the Lake District and now arguably Britain's best-loved dessert.
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Spotted dick
A steamed suet pudding dotted with currants, served with custard — an old-school classic with an immortal name.
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Apple crumble and custard
Stewed apples under a buttery crumble topping, drowned in custard — the definitive British homemade pudding.
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Christmas pudding
The dense, dark steamed fruit pudding served flaming with brandy butter on Christmas Day, made weeks ahead and fed with spirits.
Rankings are our editorial picks, not objective measurements. Details like hours, access and booking can change — always check ahead with the official site before you travel.