Online ordering for Middle Eastern restaurants and shawarma shops in Glasgow

Updated 13 November 2026. This page reads the Food Standards Agency register as it stood on 13 November 2026. It covers the Glasgow council area and names no business. For the area as a whole, see our Glasgow page.

In short: The FSA register lists 39 premises in Glasgow with shawarma, falafel or Lebanese in the name, most in G1 and G5. A Glasgow Middle Eastern restaurant can keep regulars ordering direct on its own Chefzi page: £9 to £49 a month per location, excluding VAT, 0% commission ever, and a free first month, no card needed.

The register lists 39 premises in Glasgow with "shawarma", "shawerma", "shwarma", "Lebanese", "Arabic", "Syrian", "Iraqi", "Yemeni", "mandi", "falafel", "felafel" or "grill house" in the business name, 28 of them registered as takeaways and 11 as restaurants or cafés. The most are in G1 (8), G5 (5), G51 (4), G2 (3). That is 1.2% of the area's 3,333 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.

That makes Glasgow a place where a direct ordering page earns its keep: the same few streets hold a lot of Middle Eastern-named premises, so being easy to find and easy to order from is the whole game.

How we counted Middle Eastern names in Glasgow

We counted whole words in the registered business names of takeaway, sandwich shop, restaurant, café and canteen premises in the Glasgow 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 39 matches, here is how often each word appears (a name can contain more than one): shawarma 26, falafel 4, grill house 2, syrian 2, lebanese 2, yemeni 1, mandi 1, arabic 1.

Three limits to keep in mind. First, 26 of the 39 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: 2 of the 39 matches rely on that phrase alone, so without it the count would be 37. Third, Turkish names (Turkish, mangal, ocakbasi, Istanbul, Anatolia) are counted separately and are not in this total; Glasgow has 5 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 kebab shops in Glasgow page, which uses a different word list.

What the FSA register shows for Glasgow Middle Eastern names

The method is a name-keyword count, not a census: we count premises whose registered name has one of the words, which misses Middle Eastern restaurants and shawarma shops trading under other names and includes anything that merely uses the word. The scope is takeaway and sandwich shop plus restaurant, café and canteen premises, and nothing here names a business.

Of the 25 with a published result, 13 (52%) show a Pass. Scotland uses the Food Hygiene Information Scheme, where a result is Pass or Improvement Required and showing it is voluntary. Across all rated takeaways in Glasgow, 83.9% show a Pass. A result is a snapshot of one inspection.

Where they cluster

G1 holds the most, 8 of the 39 (21%), and the premises sit across 8 postcode districts in all. A zone per district lets you charge a small fee for the close streets and a higher minimum for the outer ones, in Chefzi's delivery zones.

How Glasgow 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:

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

Glasgow in the wider picture

Glasgow has 1,122 takeaway and sandwich shop premises and 2,211 restaurant, café and canteen premises on the register. On takeaway premises it ranks 1 of 363 UK council areas, and 1 of 32 in Scotland. Across all rated takeaways in Glasgow, 83.9% show a Pass against 86.7% across Scotland. Glasgow is part of Glasgow and the West, whose page lists every council area there with its takeaway and restaurant counts.

Glasgow against the UK: the numbers

Per 10,000 residents the count is 0.60, against 0.12 for the UK as a whole, which is above the national rate. The population used is the ONS estimate of 654,330 for the council area. By raw count, Glasgow is 2nd of the 363 UK council areas for these names and 1st of 32 in Scotland.

The word is most concentrated in G5, where 5% of the district's food premises carry it, and thinnest in G2 at 1%. Across the whole area the share is 1.2%.

On freshness, 62% of the 39 dated records were inspected in the last 12 months, compared with 27% across all 3,333 dated takeaway and restaurant premises in Glasgow. The median time since inspection is 8 months for this list and 28 for the whole area.

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 Glasgow

The register has 5 premises in Glasgow with a Turkish-style word in the name (turkish 3, istanbul 2): 2 registered as takeaways and 3 as restaurants or cafés, most in G51 (1), G4 (1), G1 (1). That is 0.08 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.

How a direct ordering page helps here

• Zones that match the map. The premises are concentrated in G1 and G5, so a tight zone around the busiest district with a wider second zone for the rest of Glasgow fits the spread.
• 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).
• 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.
• 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 Glasgow: what to check

In Scotland, selling food or hot drink between 11pm and 5am needs a late hours catering licence from the council, under section 42 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, whether the food is eaten on the premises or taken away. We could not open Glasgow's licensing page automatically, so ask the council's licensing team for its current process and fees.

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. Book a short call: we enter your menu with you and aim to have your ordering page live within 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. Put the link on your Google Business Profile (how), and print a QR code for each 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 Glasgow location page for every takeaway and restaurant figure in the council area, or all UK locations.

A worked example for a Glasgow Middle Eastern restaurant

These are assumed numbers, not Glasgow data: with no published average order value for Glasgow Middle Eastern restaurants and shawarma shops, the example takes £25 (the commission calculator default) and 40 orders a week. Use your own.

Suppose 40 orders a week (about 173 a month, £25 each, £4,325 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 173 orders cost £606 plus £121 VAT, £727 in all; at 30% they cost £1,298 plus £260 VAT, £1,557.

On Chefzi the same 173 orders carry 0% commission. You pay the flat plan: Plus, which adds card payments, is £22 a month (£19 billed annually) per location, excluding VAT, and it does not change if the month is busier. Card processing charges depend on your payment provider and are not modelled on either side. Orders customers still place through Just Eat, Deliveroo or Uber Eats keep paying those apps' commission; the example only covers the ones you move.

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 Glasgow City, 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.
• Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, section 42: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/45/section/42
• Chefzi facts and pricing, chefzi.co.uk, read 13 November 2026.