Online ordering for Chinese takeaways in Birmingham

Updated 13 November 2026. Figures come from the Food Standards Agency register as pulled on 13 November 2026. The page covers the Birmingham council area, and no business is named. The whole-area picture is on our Birmingham page.

In short: the register lists 84 premises in Birmingham with "Chinese", "China", "wok", "noodle", "Canton", "Szechuan", "Sichuan", "Peking", "Beijing", "Shanghai", "Hong Kong", "dim sum" or "chow" in the business name, 55 of them registered as takeaways and 29 as restaurants or cafés. The most are in B5 (14), B29 (7), B23 (6), B33 (4). That is 2.4% of the area's 3,522 takeaway, restaurant and café premises, against 2.5% across the UK, so the word is about as common here as in the UK as a whole.

If you run a Chinese takeaway here, other premises with the same word in their name are likely to be near you, and a customer scrolling a delivery app may see several of you at once. Your own ordering page is the one place where no rival is listed beside you.

What the FSA register shows for Birmingham Chinese names

Read this as a name-keyword count, not a census. A premises is counted only if its registered name contains one of the words, so Chinese takeaways with other names are missed and any place using the word for something else is included. Only takeaway, sandwich shop, restaurant, café and canteen premises are counted, and no business is named.

Of the 70 with a numeric rating, 25 (36%) are rated 5 and 11 (16%) are rated 0, 1 or 2. That is a lower share than the 42.8% of all rated takeaways in Birmingham that hold a 5. A further 14 are awaiting inspection, awaiting publication or exempt. A rating is a snapshot of one inspection, and the FSA says so on every record.

Which postcode districts have the most

B5 holds the most, 14 of the 84 (17%), and the premises sit across 8 postcode districts in all. Where several Chinese-named kitchens share a district, a short delivery time and a clear minimum order do more to win a repeat customer than a deeper menu.

How Birmingham compares with the council areas next to it

The five nearest council areas by the centre of their food premises, with the same name-keyword count:

Birmingham has more of these names than any of its five nearest neighbours.

Birmingham in the wider picture

Birmingham has 972 takeaway and sandwich shop premises and 2,550 restaurant, café and canteen premises on the register. On takeaway premises it ranks 2 of 363 UK council areas, and 1 of 30 in West Midlands. Across all rated takeaways in Birmingham, 42.8% hold a 5 against 62.0% across England, and 15.0% are rated 0 to 2 against 5.8%. Birmingham is part of West Midlands, whose page lists every council area there with its takeaway and restaurant counts.

How common Chinese names are in Birmingham

Using the ONS estimate of 1,176,960 residents, that works out at 0.71 Chinese-named premises per 10,000 people, compared with 0.73 across the UK, so Birmingham sits close to the national rate. Birmingham has more of these names than any other UK council area on the register, and ranks 1st of 30 in the West Midlands.

B33 is the district where the name is most common relative to local food premises (8%); B5 is the lowest of these four at 6%. The area-wide share is 2.4%.

These premises are inspected about as recently as the area as a whole: 49% inspected within a year (84 dated records) against 45% overall, with a median of 13 months since inspection against 14.

Population figures are ONS mid-2025 estimates; every other figure comes from the same FSA register pull as the tables above. Small samples move a lot from one inspection to the next, so read the shares as a guide to where the pattern is, not as a verdict on any business.

What this means for your online ordering

• Zones that match the map. The premises are concentrated in B5 and B29, so a tight zone around the busiest district with a wider second zone for the rest of Birmingham fits the spread.
• Separate collection and delivery hours. Stop delivery when your last driver finishes and keep collection open at the counter, or the other way round.
• Text your regulars with their permission (SMS and email marketing, Plus and Pro), so a quiet evening can be filled by one message.
• Pause ordering when the kitchen is flat out, and mark an item out of stock when it runs out, so nobody orders what you cannot make.
• Sauce and rice or noodles as required choices. Sweet and sour, curry or black bean can be a required choice on each dish, with egg fried rice, boiled rice, noodles or chips as a second, and extras at a surcharge.

Late-night hot food in Birmingham: what to check

Serving hot food or drink between 11pm and 5am normally needs a late night refreshment licence under the Licensing Act 2003, issued by the local council. Birmingham's council publishes its process here: Birmingham council licensing page (checked 13 November 2026). Check it before you open your ordering hours past 11pm.

Our late night refreshment licence guide sets out the England and Wales rules. In Chefzi, collection hours and delivery hours are separate settings, so you can match whatever your licence allows. This is general information and not legal advice.

How to start

1. Put your menu into Chefzi on a short call with us. We set it up with you and aim to have you live in 24 to 48 hours.
2. Set required choices for the way your customers order, and set your delivery zones by postcode district or radius.
3. Point your Google Business Profile at the page (how) and tuck a QR code into every order (QR kit).
4. With their permission, tell regulars about the page by SMS or email (how, Plus and Pro).

For more, see the Chinese takeaway page, the commission calculator and our guide on moving customers from Just Eat to your own site, and the Birmingham location page for every takeaway and restaurant figure in the council area, or all UK locations.

What Chefzi does not do

• It does not set up delivery for you: you run your own drivers, and Chefzi has no courier integrations.
• It has no kiosk and no CRM.
• A pre-order lead time is set for the whole location, not for one dish.
• Orders placed on Just Eat, Deliveroo or Uber Eats still pay those apps' commission. Chefzi helps you move regular customers to your own site.

Sources

• Food Standards Agency, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme open data API (api.ratings.food.gov.uk), authority Birmingham, business types Takeaway/sandwich shop and Restaurant/Cafe/Canteen, name search for "Chinese", "China", "wok", "noodle", "Canton", "Szechuan", "Sichuan", "Peking", "Beijing", "Shanghai", "Hong Kong", "dim sum" or "chow", extract 13 November 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
• Birmingham council licensing page linked above: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/LA2003premiseslicence (opened 13 Nov 2026).
• Chefzi facts and pricing, chefzi.co.uk, read 13 November 2026.