England’s 62 worst foods have been named and shamed

British food can get a bad rap. In spite of having some truly incredible restaurants, our food scene often gets reduced down to being bland, beige and a little bit weird. While that’s far from the truth, there are several dishes we can blame for giving English food its poor reputation. 

The worst culprit of them all? Jellied eels. That’s according to TasteAtlas’s list of the 62 worst English foods. Based on roughly 600,000 responses from the site’s readers, jellied eels had an overall rating of just 2.1 percent. 

Made by boiling chopped eels with herbs and leaving them cool down and produce their own gelatin (hence the ‘jellied’), TasteAtlas describes the dish as ‘delicate and soft, and while some may say it’s unpleasant, [the eels’] flavor is unique - mild, slightly salty, like pickled herring, but without the unusual “fishy” scent’. Delightful. 

In January, jellied eels was also ranked the seventh worst dish in the world by TasteAtlas. But Time Out food editor Leonie Cooper said at the time: ‘The fact that oysters are considered a delicacy but jellied eels are branded ludicrously rank, inedible or worse seems unfair to us.

‘Though both are sloppy and reminiscent of gulping down a mouthful of seawater, oysters seem to have left eels behind. We call for a rebrand and justice for jellied eels in 2025.’

Moving on, the second most despised English food on the list is yeasty, sticky and intensely salty Marmite. Following in third place is perhaps the more surprising entry of cucumber sandwiches, which have a overall rating of 2.9 percent. 

Further down the list are some more eyebrow-raising entries. Christmas pudding landed fourth place, Britain’s beloved bangers and mash is ranked the 41st worst, while the classic Victoria sponge placed 54th. 

The full 62 worst dishes in England, according to TasteAtlas

1. Jellied eels
2. Marmite
3. Cucumber sandwich
4. Christmas pudding
5. Saveloy
6. Pease pudding
7. Devils on horseback
8. Newmarket sausage
9. Phall
10. Hog’s pudding
11. Faggots
12. Hard sauce
13. Pie barm
14. Scouse
15. Cherries jubilee
16. Fruit fool
17. Manchester tart
18. Fidget pie
19. Egg sandwich
20. Bread and butter pudding
21. Brandy snaps
22. Barm cake
23. Summer pudding
24. Bath bun
25. British burrito
26. Lardy cake
27. Madeira cake
28. Peach melba
29. Bakewell flapjack
30. Pollock fish and chips
31. Kentish huffkins
32. Apple sauce
33. Scotch eggs
34. Cauliflower cheese
35. Steak and kidney pie
36. Coronation chicken
37. Jam roly-poly
38. Mulligatawny
39. Saffron cake
40. Cornish saffron buns
41. Bangers and mash
42. Steak and kidney pudding
43. Potted shrimps
44. Tutti Frutti ice cream
45. English muffin
46. Trifle
47. Cornish pasty
48. Pie and mash
49. Bubble and squeak
50. Lancashire hotpot
51. Lincolnshire sausage
52. BLT Sandwich
53. Shepherd’s pie
54. Victoria sponge
55. Toad in the hole
56. Traditional Cumberland sausage
57. Eggy bread
58. Bakewell pudding
59. Parmo
60. Grasmere gingerbread
61. Cornish fairing
62. Fat rascal

See the full TasteAtlas ranking of England’s worst dishes here. Despite all that, English cuisine was named one of the best in the world in TasteAtlas’ most recent guide.

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