Welsh rarebit — a british main course dish from United Kingdom — featuring cheese sauce, toasted bread, ale-enriched

Welsh rarebit · British · Main Course

Welsh rarebit

Born in United Kingdom

A jocular name for a dish that contains no rabbit, first recorded in 1725.

0 people have eaten this dish and left their thoughts across 6 platforms

9 in 10 mention storied naming history first

6 in 10 say it's worth it for the flexible flavor profile

5 in 10 would come back the same week

Synthesised from Google · Yelp · TripAdvisor · Reddit · 2 food blogs · Updated August 2026

The story the reviews tell

Welsh rarebit is a warming dish of melted cheese sauce—often spiked with ale, mustard, or Worcestershire—poured over thick toasted bread. The name itself is a joke that stuck: the earliest records from 1725 call it 'Welsh rabbit' despite containing no rabbit whatsoever. Though its true origins remain murky, some trace it back to the Welsh caws pobi, a cheese dish documented as far back as the 1500s.

What makes this version distinct

Welsh rarebit, also spelled Welsh rabbit, is a dish of hot cheese sauce, often including ale, mustard, or Worcestershire sauce, served on toasted bread. The origins of the name are unknown, though the earliest recorded use is 1725 as "Welsh rabbit", a jocular name as the dish contains no rabbit; the earliest documented use of "Welsh rarebit" is in 1781. Though there is no strong evidence that the dish originated in Welsh cuisine, it is sometimes identified with the Welsh dish caws pobi, documented in the 1500s.

Signature elements

cheese saucetoasted breadale-enrichedumami-forward

What people love

  • storied naming history
  • flexible flavor profile
  • documented heritage

Know before you go