Hungry, no plans to cook, and a phone full of delivery apps that all look identical. The honest question is which Portsmouth takeaway is actually worth the order, so we worked through the city’s best by the measures that count: review scores and how many people left them, the food itself, portion size and what you hand over at the counter.
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This turned out to be a deep field, far deeper than a neat list of six, so we have gone to ten and still left strong names out. The ranking starts with the best and works down. For single cuisines we go deeper elsewhere, so if you already know what you fancy, our curry houses rating, the chippies round-up, Portsmouth’s Chinese kitchens and the city’s pizzerias each drill into one type of kitchen. The list below is the all-rounder, for nights when nobody at the table can agree on what they want.
1. UMAMI Street Food, Elm Grove
Nothing else in the city pulls the review numbers UMAMI does: several thousand of them, sitting just shy of five stars. The draw is a short, confident menu of smash burgers and loaded fries done properly, patties crisp at the edges, fries buried under whatever the special happens to be that week. Expect around £8 to £10 for a burger and a side.
It is a takeaway first, so the real win is consistency: order it on a wet Tuesday and it lands the same as it does on a Friday night. The only catch is its own popularity, since peak-time waits stretch out on the apps. Order a little early and it is the surest bet on this list.
2. Anatolia Turkish Kitchen, Cosham
Up in Cosham, Anatolia is the charcoal-grill answer to the kebab question. The shish and mixed grills come off real coals rather than a vertical spit, and the portions are the kind that leave you negotiating with the foil tray the next morning. A mixed grill runs roughly £9 to £13, fair for the sheer weight of it.
It reads as a sit-down restaurant that happens to do a roaring takeaway trade, and the food travels well. If you are north of the city and tired of the usual doner, this is the upgrade.
3. Royal Bengal, Palmerston Road
A Southsea fixture with close to 1,500 reviews behind it, Royal Bengal is the curry house locals name without hesitation. The chef’s specials are where it shines, the kitchen happy to pitch heat and spice to how you actually like it rather than the menu default. A curry with rice sits around £9 to £12, and the doors open from half four every day.
Delivery timings on the third-party apps can wobble when it is busy, so for the full experience order direct. If curry is the whole reason you reached for your phone, our curry houses rating goes deeper into that field.
4. Urban Southsea Kebab, Palmerston Road
Urban keeps it tight: shawarma, wraps and the stuff you actually want at the end of a night, made fresh rather than reheated under a lamp. Reviewers rate it near-perfect, and a loaded wrap comes in around £7 to £9. On Palmerston Road it is handy for the Southsea crowd.
It will not reinvent the kebab, and it does not try to. What it does is the classic, done cleanly, every single time.
5. Rico’s 17, Albert Road
Albert Road’s Rico’s 17 is the wildcard here, a fast-food shop that quietly turns out some of the best chips in the city, cooked to order and properly golden. The burgers and the fish earn the same praise, and prices stay honest at roughly £8 to £10 for fish and chips. One thing to note before you plan around it: it is closed on Sundays.
If chips and a battered something is the exact craving, you may want the specialists instead, and our chippies round-up pits the dedicated fish bars against each other.
6. Doner One, Commercial Road
A Commercial Road stalwart with a big stack of reviews, Doner One does exactly what the name promises and does it well. The meat sits a cut above the late-night norm, the portions are generous, and the price stays friendly at about £7 to £9.
Our editors have a soft spot for the place, and are honest about why.
“It is the one we actually order from when nobody is watching and the diet is off the clock,” admits one of the Portsmouth And team.
Reliable, cheap and open when you need it, which is most of the point of a doner in the first place.
7. Passion by Siddiqa’s Kitchen, Elm Grove
Something different on Elm Grove: Passion by Siddiqa’s Kitchen is Pakistani home cooking, much of it made from scratch to order by Siddiqa herself. Nihari, haleem, lamb biryani and karahi are the dishes to chase, with fresh naan alongside. A main lands around £9 to £12, and the kitchen is closed on Tuesdays.
This is the order for a night when you want a proper cooked meal rather than fast food, and the warmth of the place carries through even on a delivery. Go in with a little patience, since scratch cooking is never instant.
8. SoBe Burger, Commercial Road
SoBe flies the smashburger flag on Commercial Road, with crisp-edged patties and the melty-cheese finish the style is built on. Around £8 to £10 gets you a loaded burger, and the reviews are solid rather than spectacular.
It is a dependable craving-filler more than a destination, which on the right night is exactly what you are after.
9. Yam Kebabz, Albert Road
Cheapest on the list and proud of it, Yam Kebabz on Albert Road has a cult following for its red doner, lamb and chicken, in fresh bread for around £6 to £8. It runs late, to two in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays, and closes on Mondays.
Reviewers mention the staff throwing in extras almost as often as they mention the food, which tells you the sort of place it is. For a cheap, late, genuinely good kebab, little in the city beats it.
10. Cluck & Crisp, North End
Rounding out the ten, Cluck & Crisp in North End is the fried-chicken specialist, boxes of wings and tenders with a crunch that holds up on the journey home. A box sits around £7 to £9.
It is a one-trick shop in the best sense, and if fried chicken is the exact thing you want, it does it better than the big chains nearby.
The ten, side by side
And the whole shortlist in one view, with the damage to your wallet:
| # | Takeaway | Area | Known for | Typical price | Score (out of 10) |
| 1 | UMAMI Street Food | Elm Grove | Smash burgers, loaded fries | £8-10 | 9.4 |
| 2 | Anatolia Turkish Kitchen | Cosham | Charcoal shish, mixed grills | £9-13 | 9.2 |
| 3 | Royal Bengal | Palmerston Rd | Indian curry house | £9-12 | 9.0 |
| 4 | Urban Southsea Kebab | Palmerston Rd | Shawarma, wraps | £7-9 | 8.8 |
| 5 | Rico’s 17 | Albert Rd | Fish and chips, burgers | £8-10 | 8.6 |
| 6 | Doner One | Commercial Rd | Doner kebabs | £7-9 | 8.4 |
| 7 | Passion by Siddiqa’s Kitchen | Elm Grove | Pakistani home cooking | £9-12 | 8.2 |
| 8 | SoBe Burger | Commercial Rd | Smashburgers | £8-10 | 7.9 |
| 9 | Yam Kebabz | Albert Rd | Red doner, late night | £6-8 | 7.6 |
| 10 | Cluck & Crisp | North End | Fried chicken boxes | £7-9 | 7.3 |
So what should land on your doorstep?
For the safest order in the city, UMAMI earns its lead on the sheer weight of happy customers. For a proper grill it is Anatolia, for curry Royal Bengal, and for a cheap late-night fix Yam Kebabz is hard to argue with. The honest truth of a field this deep is that the gap between third and tenth is slim, so your postcode will often decide the winner on the night.
Prices move, menus change and hours shift, so check before you order, especially around the Sunday and Monday closures flagged above.
How we scored the city’s takeaways
The order is not a popularity contest alone. We weighted five things: review scores and how many people left them, which carried about a third of the total; the food itself on taste and portion; value for what you actually pay; consistency across repeat orders; and service, including speed and how well the food survives the trip home. Every venue was checked as open and trading at the time of writing. We leaned on public review platforms and our own orders rather than any paid placement, and no takeaway here paid a penny to appear.
