To ask what British people have for dinner usually

I love a suet crust/pudding with a roast dinner yummy

not ever had tatty hash- does it come with gravel for the suet to soak up?

Are you looking for recipes for classic British dishes? Or trying to get ideas for what you could make for an evening meal.

British people don't just eat British classics the whole time. In fact very few eat classics most of the time.

Yes was coming on to say that too.
Other recipe pages of well known uk telly chefs - Delia smith, Jamie Oliver, nigella Lawson, Nigel slater?

Typical weeknight meals for us with teens -

Pasta (lots of types, eg spag carbonara, various tomato/veg/tinned fish / sausage type combos). Either dried pasta or fresh tortellini.
Quiche / pie, veg and new potatoes
Fish, veg and brown rice (fish baked in oven with herbs / lemon / spice paste, veg generally steamed or lightly boiled, or a salad)
Baked potatoes and salad and various toppings
Curry and rice (veg or meat or fish)
Stir fry with noodles or rice
Omelette chips/potatoes and salad/veg
Maybe pizza and salad
Sausage and mash and baked beans
Spanish omelette

Those are all things we can do v quickly after work / school. At the weekend if we have more time, we might do a “nicer” version of some of the above, or other things:

Sometimes a roast (maybe monthly?)
Risotto
Fish and chips
Ramen bowls
Toad in the hole
Middle eastern type lamb or chicken things with interesting rice
Thai seafood curry
Spanish type chorizo / meat / chickpeas / peppers casserole
Beef casserole
Chicken and spring veg casserole
Gammon, cauliflower cheese, chips, salad
Traybake - veg, gnocchi, chicken thighs or feta
Baked eggs with veg
Shakshuka
Lasagne
Fish pie
Paella
Make a pie of some sort
Kedgeree
Cheese and biscuits

These are all “main meals” and we usually have them in the evening, though sometimes at the weekend we’d have main meal at lunchtime. Lunches would be soup, salad, sandwiches etc.

I eat food from everywhere, but classic "British" dinners for me would be:

Shepherd's/Cottage Pie
Fish Pie
An actual pie pie with a pastry crust
Roast dinner
Fish and chips (but from the chippy really)
Something like bubble and squeak
Corned beef hash (bit of an acquired taste I think, corned beef)
Something like a pork and cider stew/casserole
A beef stew with dumplings
Toad in the hole
Ham, egg and chips

I wouldn't want to live on this stuff all the time, but most of it is pretty nice as long as it's seasoned properly etc.

I'm British and have just batch cooked a vegetable dhal with madras spices. I will somehave it with white rice and ice cream for afters.

Breakfast: between 07:00-08:00 on a weekday, between 09:00-10:00 on the weekend slice of toast, peanut butter and banana / porridge / cereal / fruit and yogurt on a weekend may have pastries, or bacon I never do a full fry up but would eat it if we went out for breakfast

lunch: between 12 - 14:00 soup, houmous and veg or pitta, sandwich, possibly with a bag of crisps, piece of fruit.

Dinner between 16:00 and 18:00 here no particular 'british dish' really although I do love sausage, mash and onion gravy and DDs favourite is Korma

Snacks / dessert normally fruit / fruit and yogurt midweek and then a pudding with custard in the winter on the weekend.

Supper 7pm if we had an early dinner or been out to a sport - very light meal, peanut butter on apple slices, a slice of toast and beans, cereal

I don’t think there is a typical ‘British’ dinner! Due to our culture, we have a history of embracing pretty much every cuisine!! Traditionally there are similarities to Germany (sausages, slow roast meats), and Spain (fried fish/seafood in a light batter, a love of cured pork, eggs, and fried potatoes). These days (based on my friends/family and popular recipes in newspapers/tv shows), most Brits like a varied cuisine.

There is also not really a consensus on timings either. Most eat lunch between 1200-1500 and dinner 1700-2200.

Lunchtime varies for us depending on work or if we are out and about at the weekend. Weeknights we eat around 2100 (children asleep in bed and we can relax), weekends we often go out and merge lunch and dinner and eat around 1600, maybe some cheese around 2100 if we are still peckish.

Popular meals in our household are:
Sushi
Steak and watercress salad
Paella or similar one pot rice dish
Indonesian rice dishes
Various stir fries of differing cuisines
Thai curries
Pho
Vietnamese curry

Fry up (We normally have this for either lunch or dinner)

Steak and kidney pudding with mash and veg

Roast dinner

Battered fish, chips and mushy peas

Tatty hash with a suet crust with red cabbage

Sausages, mash and onion gravy

Toad in the hole

Ploughman's lunch

Desserts: spotted dick, rhubarb and custard, apple pie,

sunday roast dinner
minday bubble and squeak with cold meat from roast
tewsday mince meat meal, cottage pie with beef mince or Shepard’s pie with lamb mince.
Wednesday chicken casserole or curry
thursday beans on toast or ham, egg and chips
Friday fish and chips

A typical British dinner would be Indian curry, Mexican chilli con carne, Italian spaghetti bolognese, Asian stir fry, occasional Turkish kebab and British bangers and mash. Simple!

We usually eat between 7.30 and 8.30.

We usually have pasta, chilli and rice, or curry, so not exactly British! And a roast at the weekend. I like vegetarian cottage pie, but my child doesn't like mashed potato so I usually don't bother.

I don't usually eat till about 8pm and it's things like
Burgers chips and peas
Sausage and mash
Chicken thighs with mash and broccoli
Spaghetti bolognese
Chilli
Homemade soup
Ramen
Cottage pie
Fish and salad
The odd ready meal with veg

One thing to understand in case this thread is confusing is that we have different names for our evening meal dependent on where you live. In general people in south of England call their evening meal 'dinner' but midlands and north are more likely to call it 'tea' (although I think posh people in the midlands/north may also say dinner! )

All sorts! We use a mixture of recipes taken from Gousto, BBC good food, Tesco and a lot from TikTok these days. We have our hot dinner (from the South) after we get home from work around 6-7pm and cook together normally, though hubby tends to take the lead.

This week we had:

• Fish cakes with sweet potato wedges
• Cottage pie but with Moroccan seasonings to change it up
• Crispy prawn tacos
• Meatballs
• Basa fillets cooked in a tamarind sauce with egg fried rice & veggies

Tonight I'm cooking 'pizza' style loaded fries with a garlic sauce that I saw on Instagram :)

I would say traditional British meals are things like...

Toad in the hole (aka sausages in Yorkshire pudding)
Sausage and mash
Pie and chips
Hotpot
Shepherd's pie

I would guess most people eat from a range of world cuisines now, rather than just "British" meals... curry, stir fry, enchiladas, burritos, risotto, paella, pizza, pasta, noodles, burgers...

We generally eat around 5pm (kids are 4 and 7 and I work locally. Pre-kids, I commuted home from London so I would say 7pm was more usual)

Sausage and mash with gravy
Pork chop with veg and gravy
Curry - usually chicken, sometimes lamb
Pasta - every sort imaginable
Meat Pies with veg
Shepherds Pie/Cottage Pie/Lasagna/Moussaka
Fajitas
Chilli and rice
Beef stew
Chicken casserole
Chicken or fish traybakes
Salmon and veg
Fish and chips
Stir Fry
Risotto

What @midgetastic says.

I've worked in countries where it was opposite.

Also before I was about age 7 and sometimes with other under 7 year olds I know, including my DD, the main meal is at lunch time with a sandwich or something light main early in the evening before we bedtime.

Jamie Oliver's website will give you a good insight. We eat a very varied diet these days.

I think in 2024, British people eat, and cook, a fairly wide variety of food. I do agree that the main meal is usually (not always) the evening meal, served any time between about 5:30-8pm depending on families, logistics, work, children etc.

Most people I know cook at least versions of foods from other cultures and countries on a fairly regular basis - curries (thai and Indian style) in particular, mexican (tacos, fajitas etc), Asian style noodle/rice dishes plus lots of dishes with European flavours/ingredients that might not be "traditionally" british - pasta, pizza being good examples but the rise of pesto as a staple, the variety of vinegars in many people's cupboards etc are all a sign of this.

Growing up, we ate pasta and pizza but otherwise a lot of our food was a lot more "traditional" british - things topped with mashed potato and/or served in creamy/cheesy sauces. Grilled/fried meat with veg and potatoes on the side. Simple casseroles and stews.

DH gets breakfast - usually boiled egg with Parma ham, cheese, a combination of 3 - 4 fruits like berries, melon, figs, grapes; and toast. Once a week, he does me a full cooked breakfast. We normally have sandwiches or soup for lunch between 1 - 2 pm. I mainly cook dinner for between 7 - 8 pm:

1. mince + 25% lentils - shepherds pie, spaghetti bolognaise or chilli con carne, keema curry
2. lamb chops with potatoes and 2 veg, or lamb shish kebab
3. chicken - fajitas, chicken curry, chicken shish kebab, chicken tikka, chicken stuffed with ham and cheese, chicken ramen, chicken with cashew nuts
4. prawns - korma or Thai red/green curry, paella (with chicken too), in egg fried rice
5. steak with chips/jacket potatoes with 2 veg or salad, beef in green peppers and black bean sauce, Chinese broccoli, steak ramen
6. pork - Italian with fennel and peppers, Korean pork kebabs, or in a mushroom sauce
7. sausages in cassoulet, pasta bake or with onion gravy and mashed potatoes
8. roast beef/lamb/chicken
9. salmon - with broccoli and pasta, or a salad bowl with brown rice and raw veg, fish cakes, kedgeree
10. tuna steak - salad Nicoise

Apart from using curry pastes for the base of curries, I cook from scratch. We don’t eat UPF or deep fried food as much as possible - except fish and chips from the chip shop about once a fortnight. We try not to eat processed meat, except sausages and naked bacon occasionally. Left to myself, I’d eat Chinese/Thai/Malaysian food all the time; but DH objects! He likes English/French/Italian/Greek food better!

We usually have our "tea" between 5 and 6pm and have things like this:
Fish, chips and beans
Cottage pie, with kale and Yorkshire puddings
Spaghetti bolognese
Chilli con carne
Pie, chips and peas
Sausage, mash, peas and Yorkshire puddings
Jacket potatoes
Bacon-wrapped Chicken breast with new potatoes and Tenderstem broccoli
Salmon with new potatoes and Tenderstem broccoli
Curry and chips
Sausage, chips and beans

I hope this helps 😁

For breakfasts, we have a selection of cereals, bagels, fruit and boiled eggs.

At weekends we tend to do a Full Turkish Style breakfast.

Lunches are sandwiches, fruit, vegetable sticks and crisps etc (lunch box) or Pasta in a thermos or soup.

Dinner tends to be chicken, pasta and salad or JP with bean and cheese etc.

We have lunch (or dinner) around 12-2 and then tea about 6.
Tea tends to be the bigger meal if we eat it at home while dinner is soup or a sandwich or similar. If I go out for lunch/dinner I tend to make that my main meal and have a snack later.
Posh Southern friends of ours don't have tea they have supper, which to us is a snack before bed such as cereal or toast. Both us Northeners and the Southerners go out for Dinner as you only eat supper at home it seems.
God, its complicated