We’re Lovin’ It! The UK’s Most Popular Drive-Thrus Revealed

McDonald’s reigns supreme in the battle of UK drive-thrus seeing off the caffeinated competition of top coffee brands Costa and Starbucks as well as ‘the Colonel’ and ‘the King’, KFC and Burger King.

Pentagon Motor Group reached its ranking of our favourite drive-thrus, by using Google search data to see how many people have been looking for drive-thru options over the past year. They discovered more than 11 million searches looking for drive-thru options in the UK, and McDonald’s reigns supreme with nearly double the number of searches of its nearest competitor, Costa.

The UK’s Top 10 Most Popular Drive-Thrus

McDonald’s
Costa
Starbucks
KFC
Burger King
Krispy Kreme
Greggs
Taco Bell
Subway
Tim Hortons

McDonald’s was the first drive-thru to grace the UK, way back in 1986 and it remains the nation’s favourite, churning out Big Mac after Big Mac to delighted customers, even causing huge traffic queues after its drive-thrus reopened following the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. Most surprisingly, Greggs is beaten by US doughnut emporium Krispy Kreme, with the iconic bakers playing catch up after only opening its first drive-thru in 2017.

Drive-Thru Capitals of the UK

Watford is crowned drive-thru capital of the UK based on the number of drive-thru searches per person, closely followed by seaside resort Bournemouth with North West town Stockport in third place. Although the research covered all of the UK, only English towns and cities featured in the top 20. The first city outside of England on the list is Glasgow, in 24th place whilst the Welsh cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport are some of the least drive-thru loving places in the UK.

The UK’s Top 10 Drive-Thru Capitals

Watford
Bournemouth
Stockport
Chester
Solihull
Salford
Crawley
Bristol
Oxford
Newcastle upon Tyne

Where are the Top 5 Drive-Thru Brands Most Popular?

The research also looked at which UK town or city takes the crown as the biggest fan of each drive-thru brand, by looking at the numbers of searches adjusted for population size. Watford features heavily on the list as the biggest fan of no less than four of the top five chains – McDonald’s, Costa and KFC. Whilst Bournemouth clearly loves its Big Macs, Whoppers and bargain buckets, coming in as the second city for McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King. An honourable mention should also go to Salford, which is in the top three for six different brands – Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Greggs, Taco Bell, Subway and Tim Hortons.