The steaks are being raised in Manchester. A quick glance at the menus of the city's leading restaurants suggests red meat does not come cheap.
Whisky-marinated fillet of Scotch beef with horseradish sauce, watercress purée and green peppercorn sauce costs £22.50 at Lounge Ten in Tib Lane.
A slow roast aged Scottish beef fillet with braised daube, seared foie gras, Bourguignonne garnish and mash costs 45p more at Establishment, once a grand Victorian bank.
A similar fillet (from Blenheim rather than Scotland) with seared foie gras, onion rosti and fumet of cepes costs £23.50 at Obsidian, down in a basement opposite Manchester Art Gallery.
But even with a starter, dessert, preliminary drink in the bar, decent bottle of wine and generous tip, the hungriest northern gourmet at any of these three would be hard-pressed to get their bill into three figures and so rival London prices.
There is more chance of eating a tonne at Le Mont, possibly Manchester's trendiest restaurant, a place where the prices are as lofty as the tables: food is served 35m (113ft) up in the sky at the top of Urbis, a blue glass ski-slope building housing Manchester's museum of the city.
Hors d'oeuvres are all priced around £10, although you could opt for potage Yehudi Menuhin at just £6.50.
An entrecote steak (from pure-bred Galloway beef cattle) will ring up £23.95 on the credit card and a sole (grilled, pan-fried or poached) costs £6 more. Add on a plate of cheeses (including one very quiet one produced by Trappist monks) at £9.25, a pudding at £6.50, an espresso at £3.95 and you will have little change out of £100 with a good wine.
You can be certain of a major wallet blowout at Juniper, a much praised restaurant in Altrincham, 10 miles south of the city centre, where head chef Paul Kitching offers, as well as traditional set lunch and à la carte menus, something more extravagant.
"To experience Paul and his cooking at its most impromptu and creative, you may wish to sample his surprise gourmet menu, each dish being totally unique to you and your table," says a menu note.
The bill for 10 courses is but £45, but the 21-course dinner rises to £101 (without wine).
Food writers who have stayed the courses have loved it. "There is no doubting that Michelin-starred Juniper is a serious gastronomic restaurant. Paul Kitching is on more than nodding terms with genius," said Jay Rayner in the Observer.
"This is truly wonderful cooking, more exciting, stimulating and pleasurable than almost any other in the country," agreed Matthew Fort in the Guardian.
Rayner sampled 37 courses but found it all a bit too much. "And that was a shame because, hidden inside this clattering menu, was a truly stunning meal fighting to get out," he wrote.
Fort tried 20 courses and found "refinement, affinity, balance, point and counterpoint". His bill three years ago came to £142. "Rarely have I parted with so much money with so much pleasure," he added.
