You have no right to bring your own bottle to a restaurant in Britain: it is entirely the restaurant's decision. Where it is allowed, it is usually either because the restaurant holds no alcohol licence and lets you bring wine or beer instead, or because a licensed restaurant will open your bottle for a fee called corkage.
"BYO", short for bring your own, is common in some parts of London and almost unknown in others. It is normal in many small Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Persian, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese restaurants, and rare in the West End. In smarter restaurants it is occasionally possible but usually expensive, and some refuse outright.
The words themselves are explained on our page of British food words, and the rest of the small print on the card in our guide to reading a British menu. This page is about how the arrangement works in practice: which kind of restaurant you are in, what corkage pays for, roughly what it costs, and how to ask without causing awkwardness.
Bringing a bottle, in brief
- Legal right to BYO
- None. The restaurant decides
- Where it is common
- Small unlicensed restaurants, often South Asian, Persian or Vietnamese
- Corkage, unlicensed places
- Often free or a few pounds (our estimate, November 2026)
- Corkage, licensed restaurants
- From about £10 to £50 or more a bottle (our estimate, November 2026)
- The one rule
- Ask first: when you book, or before you sit down
Unlicensed and BYO are not the same thing
In England, selling alcohol is a licensable activity under the Licensing Act 2003. A restaurant that wants to sell you a glass of wine needs a premises licence from the borough council. A restaurant without one cannot sell you any alcohol at all.
That does not mean an unlicensed restaurant will let you bring your own. There are really three kinds of unlicensed restaurant, and from the street they look identical:
- Unlicensed and welcoming BYO. They will bring glasses, open the bottle and sometimes charge a small fee for it.
- Unlicensed and not interested. They do not sell alcohol and would rather you did not drink it there, often for reasons of the owners' faith. Respect that and go elsewhere if a drink matters to you.
- Unlicensed because nobody drinks there. Some canteens and hot counters are simply not places where a drink is part of the meal. Ask; the answer may be a shrug or a no.
Licensed restaurants are a separate case again. They sell wine themselves, so a bottle you bring is a bottle they do not sell. Some allow it for a fee, some allow it only on certain nights, and many simply say no.
The London streets where BYO is part of the meal
BYO in London is strongest where small family-run restaurants serve communities that do not drink much themselves. These are the names that come up most often. Treat each one as a reason to ask, not as a promise: licences change hands, and restaurants on the same street often run opposite policies.
- Brick Lane and the streets around Whitechapel. The Bangladeshi curry houses of Brick Lane and the Punjabi grill houses a few streets south have long been associated with BYO, and some still invite it; others on the same pavement are fully licensed. Our guide to Brick Lane and London's curry scene covers the area.
- Drummond Street, behind Euston station. A short street of South Indian vegetarian restaurants and sweet shops. Some do not sell alcohol; some of those allow you to bring it. See where to eat near Euston.
- Kingsland Road in Shoreditch and Hackney. Several of the Vietnamese restaurants are unlicensed and allow BYO, with off-licences on the same road; our guide to Vietnamese food on Kingsland Road has more.
- Tooting and the outer high streets. Many of the Sri Lankan, Tamil and Pakistani family restaurants are unlicensed. Our pages on Sri Lankan food and Pakistani food describe the pattern.
Persian restaurants in west and north London are mixed: some licensed, some BYO with corkage, some alcohol-free, as our guide to Persian food in London explains. The common thread on every one of these streets is the same: telephone, or ask at the door before you sit down.
What corkage actually pays for
Corkage is the fee a restaurant charges for serving wine it did not sell you. The name comes from drawing the cork, but the charge covers rather more than that: the glasses, washing and polishing them, a bucket or a decanter if you want one, a member of staff pouring, and above all the margin the restaurant would have made if you had ordered from its list.
That last part explains why the fee varies so much. An unlicensed café loses nothing when you bring a bottle, because it had nothing to sell you, so its charge, if any, covers glasses and washing. A licensed restaurant with a serious wine list loses a sale, and sets its corkage high enough that bringing your own only makes sense for a bottle you could not buy there.
What corkage costs in London
Corkage is not published centrally and changes from restaurant to restaurant, so the figures below are our estimate of the usual range, not a price list. Always ask the restaurant for its own figure.
| Kind of restaurant | Typical corkage (our estimate, November 2026) | How it is usually charged |
|---|---|---|
| Unlicensed café or family restaurant | Free to about £3 | Per person or per bottle |
| Licensed neighbourhood restaurant | About £10 to £20 | Per 75cl bottle |
| Upmarket restaurant with a long wine list | About £25 to £50, sometimes more | Per bottle, often higher at dinner than at lunch |
| Wine shop with tables | A fixed fee on top of the shop price | Per bottle bought in the shop |
For a sense of the top end, one well-regarded south London restaurant mentioned in our guide to London wine bars publishes a corkage of £25 a bottle at lunch and £50 at dinner. At that level corkage is a way of letting regulars bring a special bottle, not a way of saving money.
For a couple, the arithmetic is simple. At an unlicensed curry house, a bottle bought at a supermarket on the way plus a few pounds of corkage costs a fraction of what the same evening would cost with drinks from a licensed restaurant's list. At a licensed restaurant charging £20 corkage, bringing an ordinary bottle saves little or nothing.
Free-corkage nights are the cheapest way to drink well at a licensed restaurant. Some licensed restaurants waive or cut their corkage on one quiet night, often early in the week, to fill the room. They advertise it on their own pages and change it without notice, so we cannot list them; if a neighbourhood restaurant you like does this, the night is usually printed beside its opening hours.
How to ask, and what to ask
The single rule is to settle it before the bottle comes out of the bag. A telephone call or a line in the booking note avoids the one genuinely awkward moment, which is being told no at the table. Ask three things:
- "Do you allow bring your own?" If the answer is no, the conversation is over, politely.
- "Is there a corkage charge, and is it per bottle or per person?" The two can come to very different totals for a group.
- "Is there a limit?" Some restaurants allow one bottle per two people, some only wine, some exclude spirits entirely.
If you are booking online, our page on how London restaurant bookings work explains where to put a request like this so that it reaches someone who can answer it.
Manners that keep the arrangement alive
BYO depends on goodwill, and a few habits make a restaurant glad to keep offering it. These are editorial suggestions, not rules anyone will enforce.
- Bring a sensible amount. Around a bottle of wine for every two people, or a few bottles of beer each, is the normal scale. A crate for a table of four is not.
- At a licensed restaurant, do not bring a wine that is on its list. Bringing the same bottle they sell is the one move that reads as rude.
- Order properly. The restaurant is giving up drinks revenue; spend it on the food. Buying soft drinks, tea or a dessert is a fair return.
- Think about the service charge. If the bill carries one, ask whether it is calculated on the corkage as well. If there is no service charge, a tip that reflects the wine service is fair. Our guide to tipping in London explains how service charges work.
- Take the rest home. The bottle you brought is yours.
Buying the bottle on the way
On most BYO streets there is an off-licence, a shop licensed to sell alcohol to take away, within a few doors, and restaurant staff will usually point you to the nearest one. A supermarket is cheaper and has a wider range; our guide to London supermarkets explains the chains and their small-format branches. White wine, rosé and beer need chilling, so buy them cold or ask the restaurant whether they can put them in the fridge.
Shops can only sell alcohol during the hours on their own licence, so a late booking may leave you with fewer options than you expect. Carrying a bottle through the streets to a restaurant is unremarkable, but an officer can ask you to stop drinking in a public place, as our page on alcohol laws in London explains, along with the age rules for anyone under 18 at the table.
If nobody in your group drinks, or you would like to skip it for an evening, our guide to drinking without alcohol covers what London pours instead.
Frequently asked questions
Is BYO allowed in London restaurants?
Only if the restaurant agrees. There is no right to bring your own in Britain. It is common in small unlicensed restaurants, especially South Asian, Persian and Vietnamese ones, and occasionally allowed in licensed restaurants for a corkage fee. Telephone ahead or ask at the door first.
What is a typical corkage fee in London?
Our estimate in November 2026 is free to about £3 at an unlicensed café or family restaurant, about £10 to £20 a bottle at a licensed neighbourhood restaurant, and £25 to £50 or more at an upmarket one. Restaurants set their own figures, so always ask.
What does unlicensed mean on a London restaurant?
It means the restaurant holds no licence to sell alcohol, so it cannot sell you a drink. It does not automatically mean you may bring your own: some unlicensed restaurants welcome it, some charge a small fee, and some would rather nobody drank on the premises.
Is it rude to bring your own wine to a British restaurant?
Not where the restaurant has said yes. It is normal and welcome in many unlicensed places. At a licensed restaurant it is polite to ask in advance, to pay the corkage without fuss and to avoid bringing a wine the restaurant already sells.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk - Licensing Act 2003, section 1: licensable activities (checked November 2026)
- GOV.UK - Alcohol licensing (checked November 2026)
- GOV.UK - Premises licence (England and Wales) (checked November 2026)
- GOV.UK - Alcohol and young people (checked November 2026)