Open a Turkish restaurant in North East
Thinking of opening a Turkish restaurant in North East? We compare all 12 councils in the region on one table. The region has 51 Turkish restaurants in total, with roughly 7,440 monthly searches across councils with known volume. 57% of the 37 rated Turkish restaurants here hold a 5-star food hygiene rating. On demand score, the three best-placed councils are County Durham (driven by population per restaurant), Newcastle upon Tyne (driven by search demand), Northumberland (driven by search demand). The table below ranks every council by score, restaurants, searches and residents per restaurant, so you can see which councils are least saturated.
Newcastle is the North East's only cluster, most of it along the Westgate Road and Elswick corridor in NE4 and in the city centre, and hygiene ratings there are noticeably below the national average. Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Durham have very few Turkish restaurants and modest but real search demand; several councils in the region show fewer than three restaurants against populations well above a hundred thousand. Turkish food in the region competes with a strong existing kebab-takeaway trade, so the openings that work tend to be grills that make the sit-down case with quality rather than price.
Turkish Restaurants UK Editorial Team — updated 2026-09-04
Every council in North East
| # | Council | Demand score | Verdict | Turkish restaurants | Monthly searches | Residents/restaurant | Hygiene-5 share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | County Durham | 84 | underserved | 5 | — | 65,258 | 80% |
| 02 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 80 | underserved | 16 | 3,380 | 15,796 | 40% |
| 03 | Northumberland | 68 | balanced | 5 | 1,060 | 40,071 | 100% |
| 04 | Middlesbrough | 58 | balanced | 1 | 530 | 35,981 | 100% |
| 05 | North Tyneside | 46 | balanced | 5 | 390 | 26,121 | 60% |
| 06 | Darlington | 45 | balanced | 0 | 320 | 35,936 | — |
| 07 | Gateshead | 43 | balanced | 3 | 320 | 32,692 | — |
| 08 | Sunderland | 37 | saturated | 6 | 440 | 30,464 | 67% |
| 09 | Stockton-on-Tees | 34 | saturated | 4 | 330 | 28,083 | 100% |
| 10 | South Tyneside | 32 | saturated | 4 | 390 | 21,111 | — |
| 11 | Hartlepool | 27 | saturated | 0 | 150 | 30,780 | — |
| 12 | Redcar and Cleveland | 21 | saturated | 2 | 130 | 27,306 | 33% |
Where the clusters are
Across North East, Turkish restaurants cluster most heavily in these postcode districts: NE4 (8), NE10 (4), DH1 (3), NE1 (3), NE26 (3).