51.

Oodles

Founded: 2010
Sites: 42 (41)

The family-owned Indo Chinese food brand was founded by Mohammed Umar in 2010 in Leicester, with a second opening in the city centre a few years later. The brand’s main focus is its bento boxes, where customers choose from bases including rice, noodles and chips and then add one wet and one dry sauce, but it also serves a range of wraps and chicken wings and sides such as chicken rolls and dumplings. The group has expanded to more than 40 sites over the past 15 years through franchise opportunities and says it has more than 20 sites at the development stage.

52.

Wasabi

Founded: 2003
Sites: 41 (42)

Wasabi founder Dong Hyun Kim stepped away from the sushi and bento chain in 2021, with the company having entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement in 2020 that led to nine sites in it 51-strong estate closing. Wasabi sells a range of sushi platters and individually wrapped sushi but is probably best known for the smell of its chicken katsu curry bento. It continues to ‘selectively search’ for new outposts across central London and is currently negotiating on a few potential sites in the capital. The group saw turnover increase 16.7% in the year to 30 December 2023, rising from £103.1m to £120.3m, which it attributed to ‘continued efforts of the business to drive growth’

53.

Wendy’s

Founded: 1969
Sites: 40 (20)

Wendy’s has a somewhat chequered history on these shores having retreated from the UK market twice. Previously it ran restaurants here between 1980 and 1986 and then again between 1992 to 2000. Wendy’s returned in 2021 saying at the time that it wanted to open ‘up to 400 sites’. Nearly four years on and the fast food chain continues to grow its presence across the country at a steady pace through both company-owned and franchised restaurants, as well as delivery-only kitchens.

54.

Honest Burgers

Founded: 2011
Sites: 39 (40)

Founded by Tom Barton and Phillip Eeles, the better burger business is backed by investor Active Partners and has been one of the biggest success stories in the UK burger sector in recent years in terms of roll out. It successfully crowdfunded £3m to enable it to move into the QSR space in 2023 and opened its first Honest Smash + Grab location in The City late last year.

55.

Gordon Ramsay Group

Founded: 1997
Sites: 36 (33)

The famous chef operates a varied portfolio of venues that takes in a three-Michelin-starred restaurant and fine dining hotel restaurants as well as pizza and burger bars. Alongside his individual restaurant ventures are brands Lucky Cat, which recently spread to Manchester, Bread Street Kitchen, Street Pizza and Street Burger. This year Ramsay will add another three restaurants to his portfolio in one swoop with 22 Bishopsgate. The City-based venture is home to a Lucky Cat, a Bread Street Kitchen and – most intriguingly – a 14-seat chef’s table that is an offshoot of Ramsay’s three-Michelin-starred Chelsea flagship.

56.

Cosy Club

Founded: 2010
Sites: 36 (36)

Part of the Loungers group, Cosy Club targets the more affluent towns and cities within the UK with an all-day menu as well as a strong focus on cocktails. The brand performs well in university towns with its most recent opening being in Oxford.

57.

Wildwood

Founded: 2004
Sites: 31 (45)

ASK and Zizzi founders Sam and Adam Kaye are behind this Mediterranean pizza, pasta and grill concept, which they launched after selling the businesses. Wildwood is part of Tasty and its subsidiary trading company, Took Us A Long Time Ltd (Tasty), which also owns the Dim T restaurant brand. The brothers stepped down from the board of the company in 2021. The brand is pitched squarely at its Italian high street rivals with a menu of pizzas, steaks, burgers, pasta and salads. In April 2024 Tasty announced plans to exit around 20 loss-making sites as part of a company restructuring to secure its long-term future.

58.

Ego

Founded: 1990
Sites: 31 (29)

The Mediterranean restaurant and pub business came fully into the Mitchells & Butlers fold in April 2023 when the pub group bought the remaining 60% stake in Ego Restaurants having taken a 40% stake in the business in 2018, entering a joint venture with Ego’s parent company, 3Sixty Restaurants. The brand has sites across the Midlands, the north west and Yorkshire and serves a menu that blends, Italian, Spanish, French and Greek dishes.

59.

Marco Pierre White Restaurants

Founded: 2010
Sites: 30 (30)

The famously fiery chef operates a clutch of brands under his eponymous business that include Marco’s, Mr White’s, Wheeler’s, and Bardolino that encompass steakhouses, chophouses, New York Italian restaurants and fish and chips. Black and White Hospitality is the franchising arm of Marco Pierre White’s restaurants. Last year, the group shuttered its huge Leicester Square flagship Mr White’s after a little over two years’ trading. 

60.

Rudy’s Pizza

Founded: 2015
Sites: 30 (23)

The Neapolitan pizza brand started life in Ancoats in Manchester and expanded across the north of the country and the Midlands before making its London debut in Soho in 2021. It now has a considerable presence in the capital with a total of six restaurant sites. Owned by Mission Mars, which also operates the Albert’s Schloss bierhaus brand, Rudy’s also operates at fairground game venue Fairgame in Canary Wharf.