Pickle’s A Big Dill? UK Obsession Grows 18.5% But The Nation Is Divided

The UK has a new obsession, and it’s increasingly turning up in your cocktail. New data from DesignMyNight, the UK’s leading hospitality discovery and booking platform, reveals that pickle-related food and drink orders across venues have surged 18.5% year-on-year – rising from 30,537 to 36,190 orders- confirming what TikTok has been telling us for months: the pickle era is here.
From bar snack to cultural moment
What started as a niche corner of food TikTok has collided head-on with pub culture, and the numbers don’t lie. Across menus from gastropubs to cocktail bars, pickled everything is having its moment.
Fried pickles are the new in snack. Fried Pickle orders are up 58.3% (295 to 467), while Pickled Onion Rings – a distinctly British twist on the trend – have rocketed 75.6%, from 3,427 to 6,018 orders. For anyone who thought this was a flash-in-the-pan American import, that’s a big, hard-to-argue-with number. Battered Pickled Onion Rings went even further, surging 178.5%.
Pickle shots: the stat that will make your eyes water
If one number captures the sheer audacity of the UK’s pickle moment, it’s this: the Buffalo Trace Pickleback – a shot of bourbon chased with pickle brine – is up 1,279%, from just 33 orders to 455. Yes, really.
And venues aren’t just riding an existing wave – they’re actively building on it. The Absolut Tabasco Pickle Bloody Mary is a brand-new menu entrant that racked up 4,294 orders in its first year alone, signalling that bartenders across the country are leaning in hard.
Not everyone got the memo
Of course, the UK wouldn’t be Britain without a counter-movement. DesignMyNight and Access EPoS Evo data reveals a parallel surge in customers actively requesting the removal of pickles from their orders. “No Pickles” as a menu request is up 67%, with related removal notes.
It’s the great pickle divide: for every person ordering a pickleback shot, there’s someone at the next table asking the kitchen to keep that gherkin well away from their burger.
Katie Kirwan, Head of Brand and B2C at DesignMyNight comments, ‘As a pickle lover myself, I’m thrilled but not at all surprised by this data. What’s interesting is this isn’t just a novelty bar snack trend, pickle is creeping into restaurant orders at a growing rate. At the same time, we’re seeing a real divide: for every bar, restaurant or venue putting pickles on the menu, there’s a growing number of customers actively asking for them to be left off. The UK has officially become a nation of pickle lovers and pickle haters, and I’m firmly in the former camp.’