Several years ago, I started doing something called “Takeaway Thursday”. It’s a simple enough premise – get a different takeaway meal every Thursday evening from the local area. Several years and several houses (and one lockdown) later, I decided I should reinstate this tradition in order to bring some regularity to my week (and so that I didn’t have to cook).
While I intended to write about my Takeaway Thursday experience from last week (which I may or may not use in next week’s post), I started to make a list of all the places within a 10 minute walk which do food (either restaurant or takeaway):
| Have I ever been there? | Restaurant status? | Takeaway/Delivery status? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Chinese (the only Chinese now since the other one closed) | Yes | Closed | |
| The dodgy Indian (it’s got new management now so it may have improved) | Yes (but not since the new management) | Closed | |
| The classic Indian (it doesn’t look like it’s been refurbished since the 90s) | Yes | Closed | Yes |
| The posh Indian (used to be across the road but is now where the posh Chinese was) | Yes | Closed | Yes |
| The expensive fish and chip shop | Yes | Closed | |
| The fish and chip shop restaurant | Yes | Closed | Yes |
| The station kebab shop | Yes | Yes | |
| The normal kebab shop (only reopened recently after it’s recent four month refurbishment – I was starting to worry, even though their poster clearly said “we will be back, do not worry, we will feed you”) | Yes (but not since it was refurbished) | Yes | |
| The fried chicken takeaway | Yes | Yes | |
| The Mediterranean restaurant (I always forget this has always done takeaway) | Yes | Closed | Yes |
| The Thai restaurant | No | Closed | Yes |
| The noodle bar | No | Closed | Yes |
| The Indian at the other end of the high street | No | Closed | No (I think it was doing before though) |
| The restaurant around the corner that possibly specialises in burgers | No | Closed | Yes |
| The steak restaurant | No | Closed | Yes |
| The Italian place on the hill | No | Closed | Not yet, but starting at the weekend |
| The pizza place up the hill | No | Closed | Yes |
| The other Italian place on the hill | Yes | Closed | No |
| The Italian chain restaurant | Yes | Closed | No |
| The Italian chain restaurant | Yes | Closed | No |
| The Italian chain restaurant | No | Closed | No |
| The spicy chicken restaurant | Yes | Closed | No |
| The large pub on the corner | Yes | Closed | No |
| The old heritage pub | Yes | Closed | No |
| The cheap chain pub | Yes | Closed | No |
| The Mediterranean restaurant that also likes to think it’s a bar/night club | Yes | Closed | No |
| The hipster place on the corner | Yes | Closed | No |
| The Spanish tapas place (I thought it was more of a cafe, but it is open until late evening) | No | Closed | No |
| The place up the steps that used to be a police station | No | Closed | No |
| The Italian chain restaurant round the corner | No | Closed | No |
| The restaurant that I can’t remember next to the Italian chain restaurant round the corner | No | Closed | No |
| The place that used to be the French restaurant | No | Closed | No |
| The American diner | No | Closed | No |
| The chain bar that does for 2-for-1 cocktails at all times | No | Closed | No |
| The Irish pub opposite the station | No | Closed | No |
| The other Irish pub opposite the station | No | Closed | No |
| The burger place upstairs from the night club | No | Closed | No |
| The seafood place on the wrong side of the tracks | No | Closed | Possibly |
| The dessert place | No | Closed | Yes |
| The dessert place across the road from the dessert place | No | Closed | Yes |
I’ve almost certainly missed somewhere off the list, and I’ve not included any cafes that might still do takeaway during the day. I’ve also not included the three pubs that I’ve never been to, but also don’t do food.
So what did I learn from this:
- There’s a lot of places to get food from within a very short distance from my house.
- There’s a lot more places that are still doing takeaway/delivery than I expected.
- I’ve got plenty of new places to try out during the lockdown.
- I’ve got plenty of new places to go to when things are open again.