New study reveals Newcastle as one of the top ten best cities in the UK for food lovers

Foodie culture is on the rise, with the pandemic resulting in a rise in dine-in food sales and a collective £990m spent on fuelling our obsession for good food.

That’s why MuscleFood conducted a study to identify the top foodie cities in the UK, looking at factors from the number of Michelin star restaurants in the area, to how many Uber Eats restaurants are available to crown the foodie capital of the UK.

69 cities in the UK were ranked across nine metrics, to give an overall ranking of the 'Foodiest Cities' in the UK.

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Each ranking was out of 69, with 69 being the best and one being the worst, with each metric having the same weighting of 1/9 to indicate a fair ranking overall.

The population of the cities was retrieved from the ONS data set and the world population review website, while the total number of UberEats deliveries, total number of healthy UberEats and total number of healthy restaurants in each city were all considered.

The total number of Michelin Guide restaurants was also a factor in the final decisions, as well as the average cost of a weekly food and non-alcoholic drink shop, and the complete number of dessert, tea, and coffee shop and bakeries in each city.

And when the dust had settled and the results were in, Newcastle upon Tyne made it into the top 10 cities for foodies, partially due to its impressive number of UberEats restaurants.

The Toon plays host to a grand total of 428 of these collectively, with 31 healthy restaurants also noted across the city in comparison to its population size.

Newcastle also has eight Michelin Guide restaurants for those looking for something extra special, in the form of the Broad Chare, House of Tides, and the Fern Dining Room to name a few.

The Broad Chare pub on the Newcastle Quayside. (Newcastle Chronicle)

However, it unfortunately missed out on a higher spot in the rankings this year for its lack of coffee shops and bakeries, with 18 and 81 respectively.

Scottish capital Edinburgh took the crown for the most food friendly city in the UK - boasting impeccable statistics per capita. The popular tourist spot has 24 Michelin Guide restaurants and 543 Uber Eats restaurants - as well as 219 tea and coffee shops citywide.

Wells in Somerset found itself at the bottom of the pile in rank 69, with only three healthy restaurants, zero Uber Eats availability, and no Michelin Guide establishments.

To see the complete rankings, check out the table provided by MuscleFood below.

The Top 15 foodie cities in the UK, according to MuscleFood:

#	City	Number of restaurants per Capita	Number of Healthy Restaurants	Number of Michelin Guide Restaurants	Average weekly household spend on food and non- alcoholic drinks	Number of Uber Eats Restaurants	Number of Healthy Uber Eats Restaurants	Number of establishments serving dessert	Number of Coffee + Tea shops	Number of Bakeries
1	Edinburgh	0.3660	117	24	£57.60	543	37	70	219	40
2	Manchester	0.3665	57	19	£57.80	799	63	61	138	28
3	Glasgow	0.2951	54	15	£57.60	667	42	64	171	23
4	Leeds	0.2126	53	9	£56.10	658	57	32	114	20
5	London	0.2263	851	392	£69.90	794	222	551	1576	335
6	Cardiff	0.2505	33	10	£57.40	430	23	36	111	11
7	Liverpool	0.3183	67	6	£57.80	381	21	44	129	24
8	Brighton	0.4000	71	15	£68.70	464	37	43	138	22
9	Newcastle	0.3145	31	8	£57.10	428	25	35	81	18
10	Bristol	0.2765	65	15	£63.10	487	42	36	123	27
10	Birmingham	0.1778	55	16	£60.40	741	50	68	106	23
12	Sheffield	0.2171	32	5	£56.10	442	37	30	96	18
13	York	0.3294	27	9	£56.10	155	10	34	93	17
14	Nottingham	0.3067	34	5	£62.20	504	34	23	86	12
15	Leicester	0.2988	26	7	£62.20	588	33	42	56	13

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