Jacket potato
What it really means
A large baked potato served in its skin ("jacket") with fillings like cheese, baked beans or tuna. A cheap, filling lunch in cafés and campus food halls.
Context, tips & common mistakes
The jacket potato — a large baked potato, skin on, split and loaded — is Britain's honest budget lunch: cafés, market stalls and workplace canteens serve them with a menu of fillings where beans and cheese is the canonical order, tuna mayo the close second, and chilli or coleslaw the expansions. 'Jacket' is the skin; Americans call the same thing a baked potato and miss the poetry.
It earns its place in newcomer life twice over: eating out, it is reliably the cheapest filling hot option on any menu that offers it; at home, it is the student staple par excellence — microwave then oven (or just microwave in a hurry), add whatever the fridge holds. 'Butter with that?' is the standard counter question; the answer is yes.