UK’s least expensive and costliest locations for Christmas dinner as extra Brits fork out

Christmas dinner can be a tiresome feat and for family cooks, it can be something they dread.

Al most half (47%) of Brits admit to stressing over the seasonal feast. Luckily, many pubs, restaurants, and bars open their doors for those wanting to ditch the dishes this year. With this in mind, the experts at GIGAcalculator were keen to discover which UK cities were the priciest for those hoping to dine out this Yuletide, digging into Christmas day menu data to find out more.

According to the findings, Manchester was crowned the most expensive city to eat out on Christmas Day, with a median of £159 per person. With median gross weekly earnings of £565 within the city, Mancunians will need to fork out 28.14% of their weekly earnings to eat out for Christmas dinner.

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The northern city is renowned for its great eats so it’s unsurprising the restaurants were rated a median of 4.4 out of 5 on Google, the joint highest in the UK. One of the more expensive restaurants in the city is at The Lowry Hotel where Christmas Day lunch will set you back £170 per adult.

Belfast sits in second place, with a median cost of £149 per person and an average rating of 4.4 for the establishments offering the meal. Belfast residents will need to set aside almost a quarter (23.96%) of their weekly wage (£621.90) to dine out on Christmas Day.

Whilst in third place is the UK’s capital. London’s median cost is £109 for a Christmas meal, with a plethora of high-end and more affordable options on offer.

For those really looking to treat themselves this festive season, the prestigious Claridges in Mayfair offers fine-dining festivity on Christmas Day with lunch costing an eye-watering £525 a head – a staggering 583% higher than the UK average – and even £260 per child.

In comparison, Kingston upon Hull is the cheapest city to eat out for Christmas dinner. Dining out on the big day will set you back a median cost per head of £64.99, almost £25 less than the UK average (£89.95) with an average Google rating of 4.3 out of 5 for its restaurants offering the festive feast.

The Three Crowns is one of the cheapest options within the port city, costing £58.99 for their three-course menu.

Newport placed second on the list of cheap Christmas day dining, with a median total of £66.49 per person.

Cardiff landed in third place, with a median cost of £67.99 for their Christmas day options, with the locations offering this special menu averaging 4.1 out of 5 ratings.

And whilst the seaside city only placed seventh within the top ten for cheapest Christmas day eats, Southend-on-Sea was crowned the most affordable place for locals to dine out on Christmas day.

The research revealed that those living in Southend-on-Sea are set to spend the lowest percentage of their weekly earnings on eating out on the big day, with a median meal price of £75 – almost £15 less than the UK’s average.

With this in mind, those residing in the city will spend just 11.23% of their weekly wage (£667.70) on the festive feast.

To view the full data, click here.

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