The Pub is Britain's Favourite Place to Eat
The pub is now the British public's favourite place to eat out, according to a new MORI poll carried out for the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association (BLRA)to launch Pub Food Week. In fact, of those who go to a pub at least once a month, over eight in ten of all British adults, nearly half, 49% of 18-34 year old men and over half, 55% of young women, say they would rather go to the pub for a meal than eat/cook at home.
The pub is now the British public's favourite place to eat out, according to a new MORI poll carried out for the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association (BLRA)to launch Pub Food Week. In fact, of those who go to a pub at least once a month, over eight in ten of all British adults, nearly half, 49% of 18-34 year old men and over half, 55% of young women, say they would rather go to the pub for a meal than eat/cook at home.
Pubs are becoming an increasingly female preserve. While women are less likely than men to go to the pub to drink, their propensity to do so has actually increased over the last few years. Younger women in particular have become the most frequent drinkers (see chart). Three in four women aged 18-34 say they drink in a pub at least once a fortnight, one in three do so at least once a week. This is only slightly fewer than men as a whole (38% at least once a week), although considerably less than younger men, just over half of whom go drinking in pubs at least once a week.
The British public are increasingly likely to eat out, with ever greater choices of places catering for a wide variety of tastes. However, it is the pub which emerges as the most popular place to eat out in. Two-fifths of adults in England and Wales - some 16 million people - claim that they eat either a bar snack or a full meal in a pub restaurant at least once a month. As a place to eat in, the pub is more popular than the fish and chip shop, the Chinese, burger bar or Italian restaurant.
It is pub eating habits that changing attitudes are most apparent. Food is most likely to be a reason to attract women to the pub, especially those who are older and infrequent pub goers. Moreover, 41% of young women compared with 54% of young men eat in the pub bar area at least once a month.
Family friendliness and offering healthy food are also important ways of attracting women to eat in pubs. Half of women aged 35-54 say they take at least a little interest in the calories and the fat content of the dish.
Technical details
The survey on behalf of the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association (BLRA) was conducted among a representative sample of 2,00 adults in England and Wales. Face-to-face interviews took place between March 1 and April 3 1997.
