Online ordering for Middle Eastern restaurants and shawarma shops 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: Birmingham has 40 premises with shawarma, falafel or Lebanese in the name on the FSA register, most in B12 and B10. A Birmingham Middle Eastern restaurant can run its own ordering page with Chefzi: £9 to £49 a month per location (ex VAT), 0% commission ever, first month free with no card.

The register lists 40 premises in Birmingham with "shawarma", "shawerma", "shwarma", "Lebanese", "Arabic", "Syrian", "Iraqi", "Yemeni", "mandi", "falafel", "felafel" or "grill house" in the business name, 8 of them registered as takeaways and 32 as restaurants or cafés. The most are in B12 (7), B10 (5), B8 (4), B2 (3). That is 1.1% of the area's 3,522 takeaway, restaurant and café premises, against 0.4% across the UK, so the word is more common here than in the UK as a whole.

If you run a Middle Eastern restaurant or shawarma shop 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.

How we counted Middle Eastern names in Birmingham

We counted whole words in the registered business names of takeaway, sandwich shop, restaurant, café and canteen premises in the Birmingham council area, ignoring capital letters and accents. The words are shawarma (also spelt shawerma and shwarma), Lebanese, Arabic, Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni, mandi, falafel (also felafel) and the two-word phrase "grill house". Of the 40 matches, here is how often each word appears (a name can contain more than one): shawarma 21, grill house 9, syrian 3, lebanese 3, yemeni 2, falafel 1, mandi 1, arabic 1.

Three limits to keep in mind. First, 21 of the 40 names contain a shawarma spelling, and shawarma is also one of the words on our kebab shop pages, so the same premises can be counted on both. Second, "grill house" can be the name of a grill that serves other food: 9 of the 40 matches rely on that phrase alone, so without it the count would be 31. Third, Turkish names (Turkish, mangal, ocakbasi, Istanbul, Anatolia) are counted separately and are not in this total; Birmingham has 8 of them on the same register pull, which is below the 15 we need to give them a page of their own.

Because the counts overlap, you may also want the shawarma shops in Birmingham and the kebab shops in Birmingham page, which uses a different word list.

What the FSA register shows for Birmingham Middle Eastern names

This is a name-keyword count, not a census. It only finds premises whose registered name includes one of those words, so it misses Middle Eastern restaurants and shawarma shops with other names, and it counts anything with the word in it, whatever it sells. We look at takeaway and sandwich shop premises and at restaurant, café and canteen premises only, and we do not name any business.

Of the 32 with a numeric rating, 9 (28%) are rated 5 and 5 (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 8 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

B12 holds the most, 7 of the 40 (18%), and the premises sit across 8 postcode districts in all. Where several Middle Eastern-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.

Birmingham Middle Eastern names in numbers

Per 10,000 residents the count is 0.34, against 0.12 for the UK as a whole, which is above the national rate. The population used is the ONS estimate of 1,176,960 for the council area. Birmingham has more of these names than any other UK council area on the register, and ranks 1st of 30 in the West Midlands.

B10 is the district where the name is most common relative to local food premises (5%); B2 is the lowest of these four at 2%. The area-wide share is 1.1%.

Inspection dates tell a second story. Of the 40 premises on this list with an inspection date, 52% were inspected in the 12 months to 13 November 2026, against 45% of all takeaway and restaurant premises in the area; the median gap since the last inspection is 11 months 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.

Turkish takeaways in Birmingham

The register has 8 premises in Birmingham with a Turkish-style word in the name (turkish 6, istanbul 2): 0 registered as takeaways and 8 as restaurants or cafés, most in B26 (3), B18 (1), B16 (1). That is 0.07 per 10,000 residents against 0.09 across the UK. This is a name count, so it misses Turkish kitchens trading under other names. If you run one, see our Turkish restaurants page.

What this means for your online ordering

• Zones that match the map. The premises are concentrated in B12 and B10, so a tight zone around the busiest district with a wider second zone for the rest of Birmingham fits the spread.
• List falafel and sides as add-ons. Falafel, hummus, rice and flatbread can be pick-several choices with their own surcharges, so a customer builds the plate without typing a note.
• Put your link where customers already look. Add your ordering link to your Google Business Profile (how) and a QR code on every bag (QR kit).
• 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.
• Wrap, plate or box as a required choice. A shawarma can be a wrap, a plate or a box as a required choice, with salad and sauces as a pick-several choice and a surcharge for extras. The ticket shows each choice on its own line.

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.

The general rules for England and Wales are in our late night refreshment licence guide. Chefzi lets you set collection and delivery hours separately, so your ordering hours can follow whatever your licence conditions say. This is general information, not legal advice.

How to start

1. Send us your menu on a short call. We build it into Chefzi with you, and you should be 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. Add your ordering link to your Google Business Profile (how) and a QR code to every bag (QR kit).
4. Text your regulars (SMS and email marketing, Plus and Pro) with their permission.

For more, see the shawarma shop 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.

A worked example for a Birmingham Middle Eastern restaurant

These are assumed numbers, not Birmingham data: with no published average order value for Birmingham Middle Eastern restaurants and shawarma shops, the example takes £25 (the commission calculator default) and 30 orders a week. Use your own.

Suppose 30 orders a week (about 130 a month, £25 each, £3,250 in sales) shift from Just Eat to your own Chefzi link. Just Eat's published rates (read 12 November 2026, details) are 14% with your own drivers and 30% when it delivers, plus VAT. At 14% those 130 orders cost £455 plus £91 VAT, £546 in all; at 30% they cost £975 plus £195 VAT, £1,170.

With Chefzi the 130 orders carry 0% commission and the bill stays at the flat plan price: £22 a month on Plus (£19 billed annually), per location, excluding VAT. We have not modelled card processing fees on either side, and the example ignores orders that remain on the marketplaces.

What Chefzi does not do

• Delivery: you run your own drivers. Chefzi has no courier integrations.
• No kiosk and no CRM.
• Pre-order lead time is one setting per location, not per dish.
• Marketplace orders still pay the marketplace's commission. Chefzi helps you move regulars across; it does not change what Just Eat, Deliveroo or Uber Eats charge.

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 "shawarma", "shawerma", "shwarma", "Lebanese", "Arabic", "Syrian", "Iraqi", "Yemeni", "mandi", "falafel", "felafel" or "grill house", 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.