Cheapest Sunday roast in Manchester

The cost of a Sunday roast in Manchester has crept up faster than almost any other pub menu item - partly because beef and lamb prices have risen, partly because the better roast pubs have figured out they can charge restaurant prices for a really good plate. The upper end is now £22–£28 at Ancoats and NQ destination pubs. The lower end, thankfully, is still very much alive.

Wetherspoons remains the unbeatable floor at around £8–£10 for a full plate including a drink. It's not gourmet - the gravy comes from a packet and the meat is sliced thin - but for under a tenner including a pint, it's hard to argue with. The Salisbury near Oxford Road, The Paramount on Oxford Street and The Moon Under Water on Deansgate are the three city-centre Spoons most worth your time on a Sunday.

Just above Spoons pricing - £12–£15 a plate - sits the sweet spot of Manchester's roast scene. Community boozers in Chorlton, Withington, Levenshulme and Stockport that take Sunday seriously, do their own gravy and Yorkshires, and won't make you book three weeks in advance. The Beech in Chorlton, the Magnet in Stockport, the Plough in Heaton Moor all live in this bracket and all do a properly good plate.

Two universal tips: book by Thursday for anywhere above the Spoons tier - Sunday tables vanish by Friday morning. And go for the second sitting (usually 2pm onwards) rather than the first - the kitchen has its rhythm by then and you're less likely to wait 40 minutes for food.