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| Photo by Freeimages.com/Ramin Sabour |
by Consumer Affairs Editor and Katie Morley, The Daily Telegraph, May 03, 2016
English pub food is being replaced by US-style meals as ribs and burgers replace fish and chips, analysts have found, as one of Britain's biggest pub chains opens burger shacks in its beer gardens.
American all-day diners, smokehouses and barbecue pits are invading the UK as Brits are ditching traditional fare for super-calorific American "dude foods" like burgers and milkshakes.
Our day-to-day diets are now more virtuous thanks to a healthy-eating trend sweeping the UK, experts said, which is balanced out by "treat days" becoming more indulgent.
Young's, a chain of 180 pubs, is introducing American-style shacks on its premises serving up traditional US fare including burgers, fries, a "New York" strip of ribs and key lime pie.
Young's plans open 20 standalone burger restaurants by 2018, but claims the move is an expansion of the British cuisine it already serves, rather than a move to become more American-like.
As the US trend sweeps the UK themed restaurants including Dunkin' Donuts, Red's True Barbecue and Grillstock Smokehouse latest were named among a list of "top 10 fastest growing restaurants" in a report by Horizons, which analyses consumer trends.
Meanwhile popular brands from the US including Fatburger and Shake Shack have both announced their intention to expand into the UK in a bid to cash in on the trend.
Nicola Knight, an analyst at Horizon, said: “British diners have been showing a particular interest super-healthy food so it’s interesting to see them also going for extremely indulgent food at the other end of the spectrum. It shows that while they are becoming more health conscious they also want to treat themselves in a big way too. We seeing a growing number of traditional British pubs cottoning onto this trend by offering American menus.”
A spokesman for Young’s said: “We are extremely proud of our Young’s burger and the new Burger Shacks allow us to extend our British food offer significantly whilst maintaining our appeal among a younger demographic looking for more informal dining options.”
This article was written by Consumer Affairs Editor and Katie Morley from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
