Recently there has been a lot of discussion around the great North, South divide in England. Politicians tell us the recession is over, we are in recovery, get back out and spend spend spend. As a Londoner and a student with no real financial commitments, to me this seems a fair assumption. Yet away from London people are feeling slightly different the Northern property market remains way behind its southern counterpart, last September prices in the North were 7% lower than they had been in 2007. My extremely longwinded point is that up north, people in general have less disposable income, they eat out less and restaurants are fewer and farther between. In fact, Manchester, despite being England’s third largest city still has no michelin starred restaurants while London boasts over 40.

Coming from London I have learn’t to be quite choosy about food, there are at least 50 restaurants within a…