UNITED-KINGDOMDespite jokes and stereotypes, British cuisine has improved greatly over the past few decades. Restaurants and supermarkets in the upper/middle range have consistently high standards, and the choice of international dishes is the best in Europe. However, British eating culture is still in the middle of a transition phase. Unlike their continental neighbours, many (especially poorer) Britons still eat to live rather then live to eat, and as a result, food quality is variable on the budget end of the market.
Chicken tikka masala with rice is sometimes claimed as the UK's most popular dish, though roast beef is a more traditional national dish.
Many large shops, especially department stores, will have a coffee shop or restaurant.
Smoking is now banned in all restaurants, cafés, bars and pubs - there are no exceptions.
Take-aways : A 'take-away' is either a shop supplying prepared meals for people to eat elsewhere, or the meal itself. A very British take-away is the sandwich shop, a popular choice at lunchtimes; they often sell pies and cakes also. Alternatively, most towns and many main road routes have a selection of fast food chains. Various types of take-aways are present in nearly all towns: ranging from fish and chips (genuine "chippies", specialist fish and chip shops, some of which have a "sit down" section, are still very common, but are no longer ubiquitous); to "Indian" (often Bangladeshi) and Chinese shops. Thai and Indonesian takeaways are becoming quite common, and lots of others in bigger towns. Generally the standard of take-aways is good, but the best guide is, as always, to observe what the locals are doing.
Restaurants : Larger towns have a range of restaurants to suit most tastes and you will find a very broad range of different cuisines, including India, China, Thailand, France and Italy. Waiters generally expect a 10% tip and in some places this is automatically listed on your bill. However, if you are dissatisfied with the service in any way, you are under no obligation to pay the service charge.
Balti : One of the most popular types of restaurant in Britain is the Indian restaurant. Most common in certain areas of large cities and not often found directly in city centres or other tourist traps, Indian restaurants serve cuisine commonly known to their customers by the generic term "curry". Common Indian restaurant dishes include Chicken Tikka Masala, Prawn Biryani and the incredibly spicy Vindaloo (of Portuguese origin). A recently fashionable version of curry is known as "balti", possibly named after the metal bowl the food is cooked (and served) in. Balti cuisine, and a number of other commonly served dishes such as the ubiquitous chicken tikka masala, originated in the UK though it is clearly based on food from the Indian subcontinent. Birmingham in the Midlands is considered the balti capital of the UK as this dish was conceived there.
The pub (public house) is the most popular place to get a drink in the UK. Even small villages will often have a pub, serving spirits, wines, beers, cider, and alcopops, accompanied by crisps, nuts, and pork scratchings. Many serve snacks or meals. The greater volume of drinks served are various kinds of beer, mainly lagers, bitters, and one particular brand of Stout. People not looking to drink real ale are free to choose a pub just on the basis of location, and character, because most national "smooth" bitters or TV-advertised lagers are available in any non real-ale pub. However, even non-real-ale drinkers often find that they prefer the types of pubs with a range of real ales, because they tend to be more "traditional": with a more individual character and less oriented to juke boxes, games machines, fruit machines, and large crowds. In England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland there is now a blanket ban on smoking inside pubs and restaurants, though many pubs have areas outside (often known as "Beer gardens") where smoking is permissable.
British real ales, championed by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), are amongst the best in the world - though people used to colder, blander, fizzier beers may find that the taste needs to be acquired. People looking for real ale will need to select the right pubs, because although a wide range of pubs serve one or two real ales (some of these have only a "token" barrel with low turnover and a strange taste: often, unfortunately, people's first and understandably only experience with "real ale"), only a "real ale pub" will have a wide selection. The phrase "free house" was usually the main indicator for people looking for a good choice of beer, because this indicated that the pub was not owned by a particular brewery and served whatever beer its landlord thought would appeal to their customers. However, this is no longer a significant factor, because most national pub chains are now owned by large conglomerates who deal centrally with brewers and serve the same mass-market brands in all their pubs: these conglomerates (not being breweries) can still call their pubs "free houses".
British people usually follow a kind of un-written code of conduct when in pubs, though types of venue can vary dramatically. Ranging from 'local' pub, usually a quiet place consisting of one or two rooms, to a chain pub (e.g. J.D. Wetherspoons) which are very large rooms capable of holding hundreds of people.
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