United Kingdom
Allergy-friendly restaurants across the UK
These guides cover how to eat out with a food allergy in ten UK cities. They explain what to ask a kitchen, how labelling law treats packed food and cooked food, and how hygiene ratings differ between nations. They do not name restaurants as safe, and they do not invent menus.
SafePlate’s search is free. Add peanut, mustard and the other foods you avoid, then open a city. The Allergy Confidence Score stays unknown until something on file mentions that food. Chris Faulkes built the site; he is anaphylactic to peanuts and severely allergic to mustard.
City guides
London
Borough food teams, mainline termini, and several separate A&E hospitals.
Manchester
Manchester City Council only, with A&E at Oxford Road and Wythenshawe.
Birmingham
Birmingham City Council, three adult A&Es, and the children’s hospital in the centre.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh Council food team at Waverley Court, and A&E at Little France.
Glasgow
Glasgow’s own food-law phone line, and two adult emergency departments.
Bristol
Bristol’s food safety team, with separate adult A&Es at the BRI and Southmead.
Leeds
Leeds splits hygiene inspections from allergen labelling, with two adult A&Es.
Liverpool
Liverpool City Council’s narrow hygiene remit, and A&E at the Royal and Aintree.
Cardiff
Shared Regulatory Services for Cardiff, and A&E at the University Hospital of Wales.
Nottingham
Nottingham’s combined food team, and a single A&E at the Queen’s Medical Centre.
The 14 allergens
UK food businesses have to be able to tell you about celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soya, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and the named tree nuts. Each has its own eating-out guide.
Questions people ask
Do these city pages list restaurants that are safe for allergies?
No. Each page explains how to eat out in that city and links to a SafePlate search. Places come from OpenStreetMap. An Allergy Confidence Score appears only when a menu or a visitor note mentions the food you avoid. You still confirm the meal with the kitchen.
Are allergen rules the same across the UK?
Food businesses across the UK have to be able to tell you about the same 14 allergens. Since 1 October 2021, food packed on the premises before you choose it needs a full ingredients list with those allergens emphasised. A meal cooked to order still needs an allergen answer, which can be written or spoken. Hygiene stickers differ: 0 to 5 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and usually Pass or Improvement Required in Scotland.
Why do Wales and Scotland look different from England?
In Wales, food businesses have to display the hygiene rating. In England, display is voluntary. Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme, so the public result is usually Pass or Improvement Required rather than a number from 0 to 5. None of those results is an allergy score.
See the chef card · Why SafePlate exists · How the score works. This is not medical advice. Confirm every meal with the kitchen.