During recent years, the popularity and appeal of a bottomless brunch offering has grown substantially, and shows no signs of slowing down, especially among students on restricted budgets who are keen to enjoy their favourite brunch dishes with friends, with the added bonus of free-flowing alcohol.
But which cities and towns heavily populated with students offer the best overall options for bottomless brunching?
The Bottomless Brunch Student Report from the UK’s leading bottomless brunch platform bottomlessbrunch.com takes a seed list of 15 of the top 40 locations with the largest student population in the UK. Each venue offering a bottomless brunch option has then been ranked according to ten different factors to find an average city score, determining the best student locations for bottomless brunches.
The search for the best city in the UK to enjoy a bottomless brunch is officially over, as Sheffield, Manchester, and Liverpool proudly take their titles as the cities offering ‘the very best bottomless brunches to University students’. But exactly what makes these cities so desirable to brunch-loving youngsters?
Topping the table as the number one student city for a bottomless brunch in the UK is Sheffield, also known as ‘The Steel City’, with an impressive score of 76.43/110.
The city boasts a number of brunch venues that cater for everyone, including plenty of vegan and vegetarian options, choices of alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks, and a range of price options that are affordable to even the tightest of student budgets.
According to Tripadvisor reviews, Sheffield’s best-rated brunch spots include Terrace Goods (5/5), Saw Grinders Union (4.5/5), and Cubana Tapas (4.5/ 5).
Students can also benefit from a number of convenient brunch venues located between 0.8 and 1.1 miles away from the University of Sheffield campus – no more than a 20-minute walk away for those looking to save money on transport costs.
Following closely behind, as the second best city to enjoy a boozy brunch in the UK is the bustling student city of Manchester, with a score of 62.02 out of 110.
Known for its iconic football clubs and famous music scene, the city now also takes the crown as a great bottomless brunching location for its estimated 96,200 students, with Point Blank (5/5) and The Bay Horse Tavern (4.5/5) the highest rated on Tripadvisor.
The highly-rated brunch spots in Manchester offer an extensive range of vegan and veggie options, a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available, all at an affordable price – perfect for brunch-loving students.
Taking final place in the top three is the city famously known as the home of The Beatles, Liverpool, with a score of 59.50/110.
The city features a range of highly-rated bottomless brunch venues that scored an impressive 4.5/5 on Tripadvisor, including The Tempest, Ma Boyle’s Alehouse & Eatery, East River, Castle Street Townhouse and Albert’s Schenke.
Whether it’s vegan or vegetarian dishes, taking advantage of unlimited tipples, or a sober bottomless brunch, students can find a brunch venue as close as 0.8 miles away from the University of Liverpool’s main campus for the perfect post-lecture lunch!
Bargain-hunting students living in Portsmouth, Brighton, and Leeds should class themselves lucky, as they live in some of the most bottomless brunch accessible student cities in the UK. With the main university campuses for each of the city’s biggest universities located just a short stroll away from endless brunch venues, there’s no better place to be located for a leisurely, and affordable, midday brunch.
Portsmouth takes the victory as the best city for students to enjoy a bottomless brunch, with an unbeatable score of 10 out of 10.
The University of Portsmouth is situated in a bottomless brunch hotspot, meaning students wanting to visit popular brunch venues like Monty’s Southsea- located just 0.3 miles away- can walk there in just 7 minutes.
The city’s brunch locations also offer up an extensive list of drink options on their bottomless brunch deals, with Scarlet Tap, Drift, and Pitgliano offering 10 alcoholic and non-alcoholic choices – perfect for any prosecco-hating students or teetotallers.
From a beautiful beach to an even better brunch game, Brighton secures itself as the second best city for brunch-loving students to live in, with a score of 9.29 /10.
Brighton-based students can enjoy a swift transition from lecture theatre to bottomless brunching all within a 5-minute walk, as the nearest brunch venue sits just 0.2 miles away from the University of Brighton’s main campus HQ.
Brighton is also home to some great venues like The Mesmerist, which offers bottomless brunch deals for as little as £23.00 per person.
The vibrant and buzzing university city of Leeds takes the title as the third best destination for students to enjoy a bottomless brunch, with an overall score of 8.57/10.
The Yorkshire city boasts a variety of brunch spots that surround the University of Leeds campus, with students being able to walk to a venue in as little as 0.3 miles.
Students can also benefit from more boozy brunching opportunities in Leeds too, as certain locations don’t just limit their bottomless options to weekends, meaning flexible students can enjoy unlimited tipples up to six days a week at Hoist House, or three days a week at Cuckoo.
The battle of the best city for a plant-based bottomless brunch is officially over, as the UK’s top cities leading the way for vegan menus are emerging as Sheffield, Birmingham, and London.
The city with the best vegan brunch options has been revealed as Sheffield, securing itself in first place with a score of 10/10.
Vegan students in Sheffield can enjoy everything from a plant-based full English to the brunch classic smashed avocado on toast, alongside their bottomless beverages at a variety of locations across the city.
Spots with the largest vegan offering on their menu include V or V that has 80% of their entire menu catered exclusively to vegans, with Forum following just behind at 77.78%.
Midlands-based vegan students living in Birmingham can take advantage of living in the second-best location for plant-based brunch options, with a score of 9.29/10.
Bottomless brunch offerings that cater to plant-based diets can be found at a variety of venues just 0.6 -1.8 miles walking distance away from their university campus.
Brunch destination Urban boasts a menu offering 60% plant-based options, with delicious dishes like Shakshuka with harissa Tofu, while The Birmingham Stable has 45.45% of their pizza menu vegan-friendly, offering vegan such toppings as the ‘Argy Bhaji’ the vegan ‘Proper Margherita’.
London ranks as the third most accommodating city for those living a plant-based lifestyle to enjoy a bottomless brunch, with a score of 8.57 out of 10.
Vegan students can enjoy a variety of tasty dishes at Day and Night, with a menu that’s 41.67% plant-based with small plates like hummus with toasted sourdough and padron peppers on offer. Pizza Pilgrims is another vegan-friendly spot, with a menu that has 40% plant-based pizza options.
Many brunch spots in London also cater to students with varying schedules, bringing bottomless brunching to weekdays and available 7-days-a-week at locations like Tropix and Map Maison.
Michele Cuccovillo, Co-Founder of the UK’s leading bottomless brunch platform bottomlessbrunch.com, discusses why they are a great option for university students:
Factored into their budget:
Bottomless brunches are a great way for students to socialise and enjoy eating and drinking out with friends, all within their budget. That’s because most bottomless brunches are paid for in advance and once there everything is included in the cost, that is unless they choose to add anything additional.
Caters to different diets:
The versatile nature of brunch means that there are usually lots of dishes on offer catering to vegetarian, plant-based or gluten-free diets. Alternatively, most brunch dishes have elements that can be swapped and changed to suit specific dietary requirements.
Suited to their schedules:
When first arriving at university, many students struggle to balance their social life and educational commitments, often attending nights out and missing morning lectures. Bottomless brunch allows them to attend their early morning starts, whilst still getting to enjoy the social side of university with friends during lecture-free days and afternoons.
Whether you are looking for a bottomless brunch on a weekend or a weekday, bottomlessbrunch.com has got you covered. The team of bottomless brunch experts and enthusiasts have rounded up the best bottomless brunches around the country so that friends and families can discover and book the best places to get their fill of unlimited booze, bottomless prosecco, or delicious brunch dishes.
The website allows you to browse around and make your booking in locations such as London, Shoreditch, Covent Garden, Clapham, Soho, London Bridge, Brixton, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool. You can also read reviews about each venue and saves time when searching for a bottomless brunch venue to suit everyone’s needs.
Methodology and sources:
Taking 136 bottomless brunches from the 15 of the 40 top locations with the largest student population we ranked each bottomless brunch venue out of 10 factors to find an average city score and determine the best student location for bottomless brunches.
The following factors each scored 11 with a total of 110 points: Number of brunch spots, number of menu items, number of drinks, vegan and vegetarian offerings, non-alcoholic drinks, price, distance to university, reviews, availability, and Instagram followers.
Each factor was ranked by normalisation scoring to assign each a score between zero and ten.
*If TripAdvisor was unavailable, google reviews were used
**Average price used when venues have add on packages
***Menu items include add on packages
****Vegan items were noted separately to vegetarian unless customisable
*****Number of brunch spots include non-bottomless brunches
Sources: Instagram | Venue websites | TripAdvisor | Google Maps | Instagram | Facebook | bottomlessbrunch.com
