Has Lille become the capital of quick bites? Between the new burger chains, the kebabs and sandwich shops, it's hard not to notice the place fast food occupies in Lille's landscape. And a new barometer dedicated to Lille's restaurants has just put some numbers to this impression.
48% of Lille's restaurants are fast food establishments
Published in early October by the independent site LILLE.restaurant, this first barometer is based on 857 establishments registered in Lille, Hellemmes and Lomme. And the result is quite telling: 48% of the listed addresses fall into the fast food category, according to their business classification. A fairly broad category that includes everything from burgers to kebabs, sandwich shops or takeout pizzas. On the specialty front, burgers lead the way with 84 establishments, followed by pizzerias (79) and French cuisine restaurants (78). Kebab shops account for 54 addresses, the same as estaminets
and restaurants serving Northern cuisine listed. You could say the match between burger and welsh is pretty close.In Fives, nearly 8 out of 10 restaurants are affected
But the figures become even more striking when you look at it neighborhood by neighborhood. According to this benchmark, 79% of restaurants listed in Fives fall into the fast food category. A proportion that also reaches 70% in Moulins and 61% in Wazemmes. Conversely, Old Town Lille shows only 23% fast food, with an offer more focused on traditional restaurants, estaminets and French cuisine. In Lille city center, the proportion stands at 45%. Quite marked differences that reveal two different ways of eating in the city: on one side, quick meals and takeaways; on the other, restaurants where you take more time to settle in.
But Lille remains a city of independent restaurants
And contContrary to what one might think, fast food doesn't necessarily mean big international chains. The barometer reveals that only 7% of the establishments surveyed belong to identified chains, that's 64 addresses out of 857. Lille's dining scene remains largely made up of independent establishments. Another interesting figure: 67% of restaurants with known hours are open on Sundays, compared to 77% on Mondays. That's enough to dispel the idea that it would be impossible to find a table early in the week.
A snapshot of Lille's dining scene that raises questions
Be careful though: these results come from a private study conducted using a local directory, cross-referenced notably with data from INSEE's SIRENE directory, OpenStreetMap and Google Maps. They therefore don't constitute an exhaustive official census of all Lille restaurants. And above all, this first barometer doesn't allow us to conclude that there's been a recent increase in fast food. Still, the finding is interesting: nearly one addressOne out of two among the restaurants studied belongs to this category. So, is Lille becoming the city of burgers and kebabs, or does it still have enough room for its good old traditional dining tables ? The debate is open.