Open a Turkish restaurant in South East
Thinking of opening a Turkish restaurant in South East? We compare all 64 councils in the region on one table. The region has 447 Turkish restaurants in total, with roughly 72,002 monthly searches across councils with known volume. 61% of the 329 rated Turkish restaurants here hold a 5-star food hygiene rating. On demand score, the three best-placed councils are Oxford (driven by search demand), Buckinghamshire (driven by search demand), Brighton and Hove (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.
The South East is the largest region by council count and the most uneven for Turkish food. Brighton and Hove, Portsmouth and Oxford behave like small cities with a real cluster each, while Buckinghamshire and much of Kent and Surrey rely on kebab takeaways in market towns. Search demand follows the London commuter lines: towns within forty minutes of Waterloo or Marylebone search for Turkish restaurants at rates close to outer London, but the supply is a fraction of it. The strongest pattern in the data is the coastal strip from Bournemouth round to Brighton, where student and tourist demand keeps grills busy year round. Inland, the gap is almost always a family restaurant rather than another takeaway, because takeaways are already there and the search phrases lean towards "restaurant" and "breakfast" rather than "kebab".
Turkish Restaurants UK Editorial Team — updated 2026-09-04
Every council in South East
| # | Council | Demand score | Verdict | Turkish restaurants | Monthly searches | Residents/restaurant | Hygiene-5 share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Oxford | 89 | underserved | 5 | 2,230 | 20,255 | 75% |
| 02 | Buckinghamshire | 84 | underserved | 25 | 7,540 | 19,753 | 65% |
| 03 | Brighton and Hove | 80 | underserved | 21 | 4,840 | 11,546 | 58% |
| 04 | South Oxfordshire | 80 | underserved | 2 | 1,102 | 29,817 | 67% |
| 05 | Thanet | 78 | underserved | 7 | 1,953 | 14,058 | 100% |
| 06 | East Hampshire | 75 | underserved | 3 | 1,685 | 20,958 | 100% |
| 07 | Portsmouth | 74 | underserved | 15 | 3,230 | 11,555 | 36% |
| 08 | Reading | 73 | underserved | 11 | 2,200 | 12,444 | 17% |
| 09 | Wealden | 73 | underserved | 6 | 2,699 | 17,794 | 75% |
| 10 | Test Valley | 73 | underserved | 4 | 1,748 | 18,642 | 50% |
| 11 | Waverley | 72 | underserved | 0 | 1,058 | 42,745 | — |
| 12 | Vale of White Horse | 71 | underserved | 1 | 1,027 | 34,727 | — |
| 13 | Cherwell | 71 | underserved | 5 | 1,190 | 20,127 | 50% |
| 14 | Swale | 71 | underserved | 8 | 2,107 | 13,789 | 67% |
| 15 | Southampton | 71 | underserved | 16 | 2,240 | 13,101 | 57% |
| 16 | Dartford | 70 | underserved | 4 | 1,090 | 16,679 | 33% |
| 17 | Windsor and Maidenhead | 68 | balanced | 8 | 1,440 | 13,954 | 40% |
| 18 | Chichester | 68 | balanced | 2 | 810 | 24,814 | 50% |
| 19 | Maidstone | 66 | balanced | 5 | 1,040 | 21,973 | 50% |
| 20 | Mid Sussex | 66 | balanced | 5 | 1,108 | 19,070 | 67% |
| 21 | Elmbridge | 65 | balanced | 6 | 1,145 | 15,417 | 60% |
| 22 | Gravesham | 65 | balanced | 7 | 1,485 | 10,690 | 86% |
| 23 | Hart | 62 | balanced | 3 | 1,332 | 16,568 | — |
| 24 | Medway | 61 | balanced | 17 | — | 13,989 | 75% |
| 25 | New Forest | 61 | balanced | 13 | 2,355 | 10,987 | 50% |
| 26 | Eastbourne | 60 | balanced | 7 | 1,140 | 10,169 | 83% |
| 27 | Isle of Wight | 60 | balanced | 3 | 920 | 23,410 | — |
| 28 | Rother | 59 | balanced | 5 | 1,569 | 11,640 | 67% |
| 29 | Rushmoor | 59 | balanced | 7 | 1,337 | 9,975 | 60% |
| 30 | Arun | 58 | balanced | 8 | 1,197 | 14,990 | 57% |
| 31 | Tunbridge Wells | 57 | balanced | 11 | 1,602 | 8,237 | 75% |
| 32 | Spelthorne | 56 | balanced | 4 | 850 | 14,709 | 33% |
| 33 | Basingstoke and Deane | 55 | balanced | 6 | 580 | 20,572 | 33% |
| 34 | West Oxfordshire | 54 | balanced | 3 | 844 | 19,040 | 100% |
| 35 | Runnymede | 54 | balanced | 3 | 727 | 14,680 | 100% |
| 36 | Havant | 54 | balanced | 4 | 850 | 17,743 | 67% |
| 37 | Winchester | 53 | balanced | 2 | 570 | 25,489 | 50% |
| 38 | Guildford | 53 | balanced | 10 | 1,170 | 11,050 | 43% |
| 39 | Surrey Heath | 51 | balanced | 5 | 747 | 11,307 | 100% |
| 40 | Gosport | 47 | balanced | 2 | 480 | 16,390 | 100% |
| 41 | Wokingham | 46 | balanced | 4 | 380 | 25,357 | 50% |
| 42 | Worthing | 45 | balanced | 7 | 660 | 11,133 | 56% |
| 43 | Milton Keynes | 42 | balanced | 24 | 800 | 10,632 | 63% |
| 44 | Slough | 42 | balanced | 6 | 480 | 17,611 | 80% |
| 45 | Canterbury | 40 | balanced | 8 | 490 | 14,312 | 50% |
| 46 | Mole Valley | 40 | saturated | 7 | 721 | 8,739 | 100% |
| 47 | Crawley | 38 | saturated | 10 | 640 | 9,115 | 80% |
| 48 | Adur | 37 | saturated | 2 | 469 | 12,908 | 100% |
| 49 | Tonbridge and Malling | 36 | saturated | 3 | 160 | 22,033 | 100% |
| 50 | Eastleigh | 36 | saturated | 3 | 320 | 22,741 | 100% |
| 51 | Tandridge | 35 | saturated | 7 | 725 | 8,788 | 100% |
| 52 | Ashford | 34 | saturated | 6 | 440 | 14,750 | 71% |
| 53 | Folkestone and Hythe | 30 | saturated | 9 | 420 | 9,146 | 57% |
| 54 | Lewes | 28 | saturated | 1 | 170 | 24,976 | 100% |
| 55 | Horsham | 28 | saturated | 5 | 180 | 18,347 | 100% |
| 56 | Woking | 26 | saturated | 4 | 190 | 14,850 | — |
| 57 | Reigate and Banstead | 25 | saturated | 10 | 240 | 11,603 | 57% |
| 58 | Sevenoaks | 23 | saturated | 8 | 280 | 10,956 | 60% |
| 59 | Fareham | 23 | saturated | 7 | 370 | 11,452 | 100% |
| 60 | Epsom and Ewell | 23 | saturated | 7 | 200 | 8,093 | 43% |
| 61 | Dover | 22 | saturated | 8 | 340 | 10,583 | 50% |
| 62 | West Berkshire | 19 | saturated | 8 | 0 | 14,677 | 40% |
| 63 | Hastings | 17 | saturated | 10 | 90 | 6,999 | 50% |
| 64 | Bracknell Forest | 16 | saturated | 4 | 0 | 17,801 | — |
Where the clusters are
Across South East, Turkish restaurants cluster most heavily in these postcode districts: BN1 (17), MK9 (9), RH10 (9), ME7 (8), SL4 (7).