Online ordering for Middle Eastern restaurants and shawarma shops in Southwark

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

In short: Southwark has 22 FSA-registered premises with shawarma, falafel or Lebanese in the name, most in SE1 and SE5. A Southwark Middle Eastern restaurant can take direct orders on its own Chefzi page: plans run from £9 to £49 a month per location (ex VAT), commission is 0% ever, and the first month is free with no card.

The register lists 22 premises in Southwark with "shawarma", "shawerma", "shwarma", "Lebanese", "Arabic", "Syrian", "Iraqi", "Yemeni", "mandi", "falafel", "felafel" or "grill house" in the business name, 13 of them registered as takeaways and 9 as restaurants or cafés. The most are in SE1 (12), SE5 (4), SE16 (3), SE15 (2). That is 1.4% of the area's 1,586 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 Southwark

We counted whole words in the registered business names of takeaway, sandwich shop, restaurant, café and canteen premises in the Southwark 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 22 matches, here is how often each word appears (a name can contain more than one): lebanese 11, falafel 9, shawarma 2.

Three limits to keep in mind. First, 2 of the 22 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: 0 of the 22 matches rely on that phrase alone, so without it the count would be 22. Third, Turkish names (Turkish, mangal, ocakbasi, Istanbul, Anatolia) are counted separately and are not in this total; Southwark has 3 of them on the same register pull, which is below the 15 we need to give them a page of their own.

What the FSA register shows for Southwark 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 22 with a numeric rating, 12 (55%) are rated 5 and 0 (0%) are rated 0, 1 or 2. That is a lower share than the 66.5% of all rated takeaways in Southwark that hold a 5. A rating is a snapshot of one inspection, and the FSA says so on every record.

Which postcode districts have the most

SE1 holds the most, 12 of the 22 (55%), and the premises sit across 5 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 Southwark 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:

1 of the five neighbours have more of these names than Southwark, and 4 have fewer, so the field here is among the bigger ones nearby.

Southwark in the wider picture

Southwark has 620 takeaway and sandwich shop premises and 966 restaurant, café and canteen premises on the register. On takeaway premises it ranks 9 of 363 UK council areas, and 2 of 33 in London. Across all rated takeaways in Southwark, 66.5% hold a 5 against 62.0% across England, and 2.8% are rated 0 to 2 against 5.8%. Southwark is part of Greater London, whose page lists every council area there with its takeaway and restaurant counts.

Southwark Middle Eastern names in numbers

Using the ONS estimate of 312,366 residents, that works out at 0.70 Middle Eastern-named premises per 10,000 people, compared with 0.12 across the UK, so Southwark sits above the national rate. By raw count, Southwark is 5th of the 363 UK council areas for these names and 2nd of 33 in London.

SE5 is the district where the name is most common relative to local food premises (3%); SE15 is the lowest of these four at 1%. The area-wide share is 1.4%.

On freshness, 36% of the 22 dated records were inspected in the last 12 months, compared with 31% across all 1,586 dated takeaway and restaurant premises in Southwark. The median time since inspection is 15 months for this list and 17 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.

What this means for your online ordering

• Zones that match the map. The premises are concentrated in SE1 and SE5, so a tight zone around the busiest district with a wider second zone for the rest of Southwark fits the spread.
• Sell the sharing platter as one item. A mixed grill, mezze spread or family platter can be one menu item with a required choice for each part, so a big order is quick to build.
• Tablet offline? The Chefzi Orders app rings until someone accepts or rejects. If the device is offline, Chefzi texts the restaurant and then calls.
• 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).
• Separate collection and delivery hours. Stop delivery when your last driver finishes and keep collection open at the counter, or the other way round.

Late-night hot food in Southwark: what to check

If you sell hot food or drink after 11pm and before 5am, the Licensing Act 2003 treats it as late night refreshment, so you normally need the council's licence. We could not open Southwark's licensing page automatically, so ask the council's licensing team for its current process and fees.

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. Add your ordering link to your Google Business Profile (how) and a QR code to every bag (QR kit).
4. Once customers agree to hear from you, send them the link (SMS and email marketing, Plus and Pro).

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 Southwark location page for every takeaway and restaurant figure in the council area, or all UK locations.

A worked example for a Southwark Middle Eastern restaurant

Treat this as an illustration, not a measurement for Southwark. No published average order value exists for Southwark Middle Eastern restaurants and shawarma shops, so we assume £25, the default in our commission calculator, and a round 20 orders a week. Swap in your own figures.

Move 20 weekly orders (roughly 87 a month at £25, £2,175 of sales) from Just Eat to your own Chefzi link and the maths is this. On Just Eat's published partner rates (read 12 November 2026, details), 14% with your own drivers and 30% when it delivers, plus VAT, you would pay £365 at 14% (£305 plus £61 VAT) or £783 at 30% (£652 plus £130 VAT).

With Chefzi the 87 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 stays yours: Chefzi has no courier integrations, so you use your own drivers. There is no kiosk and no CRM, and a pre-order lead time applies to the whole location rather than to a single dish. Orders that still arrive through Just Eat, Deliveroo or Uber Eats keep paying those apps' commission; Chefzi's job is to help you move regulars to your own page.

Sources

• Food Standards Agency, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme open data API (api.ratings.food.gov.uk), authority Southwark, 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.
• Chefzi facts and pricing, chefzi.co.uk, read 13 November 2026.