English food first choice for diners

EATING OUT is becoming more popular in the UK, with diners preferring English cuisine to Indian and Chinese, according to figures released yesterday.

French restaurants are half as popular among the British as they were 10 years ago, with just 4 per cent of diners visiting them as their first choice.

The study, Eating Out - Ten Year Trends, shows one in five consumers prefers a meal in a traditional English restaurant compared with 17 per cent who would rather go to an Indian and 16 per cent who would choose a Chinese.

The number of adults who visit a restaurant for dinner at least once a week has risen from 7 per cent a decade ago to 16 per cent. Men are almost twice as likely to eat out at least every one to two weeks. The most frequent out-of-home diners are younger adults.

The survey of 1,546 adults was done by Mintel, the UK consumer market analyst.