The best restaurants under £20.

Bundobust is a huge beer hall serving craft ales in the heart of Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens. It also happened to win Restaurant of the Year at the 2017 Manchester Food and Drink Festival awards, thanks to its stellar menu of Indian small plates.

Lily’s Indian Vegetarian Cuisine is an unassuming restaurant in Ashton-under-Lyne that happens to serve some of the best South Indian food in the UK.

Hispi is, quite simply, a great bistro. Fifth in a growing chain of restaurants conceived by Gary Usher, the concept started with Sticky Walnut in Chester (see also Top 100), a neighbourhood operation which made its name off the back of great, simple food, quaffable wine served in beakers, and excellent quality produce. Expect chunky British dishes – such as chicken liver pate and braised featherblade – made with fresh ingredients and great results.

Passionate Keralan-Indian-Brit fusion. A great place to eat can make the back end of nowhere worth visiting – and (largely) Keralan restaurant Amma’s Canteen, on the outskirts of Chorlton, feels like a destination.

Translating as ‘three chubby friends’ (a self-effacing reference to owner Francesco Scafuri and a pair of his portly pals from back in Campania), Tre Ciccio Altrincham doesn’t look much from the outside, or even the inside, at first.

Spire, a grown-up bistro near Liverpool’s Penny Lane, is the brainchild of chef-patron and award-winning regional ‘Food Hero’ Matt Locke.

For years, Gimbals was a mesmerising neighbourhood bistro with a good reputation. Run by talented husband-and-wife team Simon and Janet Baker, the Sowerby Bridge stalwart has now closed its doors to the usual bookings, and is available for private dining and as a high-end takeaway.

Indian Tiffin Room Cheadle was one of the first local places to step away from the typical menu of the average flock wallpapered curry house and focus instead on Indian street food.

Yuzu is a neighbourhood-style Japanese restaurant offering refreshingly uncomplicated dishes served in Zen-like surroundings. You won’t find a conveyor belt of sushi here, but something altogether more traditional, such as spanking fresh sashimi.

Prashad is a Gordon Ramsey-rated thrill for anyone craving Gujarati vegetarian food. Since starring on Ramsey’s Best Restaurant show, the team have made the most of the exposure. Expansion, relocation and even a Sunday Times top 40 rated cookbook followed.

SUD Pasta is a must-visit restaurant in Manchester. Since opening their first pasta kitchen in 2015, they’ve taken the city and suburbs by storm.

With restaurants in Altrincham, Ancoats and now Sale, they’re a firm favourite amongst locals and visitors alike.