The French restaurant at Manchester’s famous Midland Hotel (where Rolls met Royce, as the story goes) has long been regarded as one of the finest places to dine in the city. It no longer serves a classic French menu, Mancunian Adam Reid has spent a decade making it his own, but it is an essential if you are working your way around the city’s best restaurants.

Modern British is the term used but this is distinctly modern Mancunian. The tasting menu goes from snacks that reinvent childhood dishes like fish pie and sausage rolls through a section of more hearty portions under the heading ‘today’s tea’ (your evening meal is tea, not dinner,

if you’re a true northerner), and ‘afters’ that feature yet more nostalgia (it’s rare for custard not to make an appearance) with modern foraging flourishes like meadowsweet or lovage. It is also one of the most glamorous places you can dine. A recent makeover replaced the formerly lime green walls with a more up to date navy blue,

making those signature spherical chandeliers seem even more other worldly, like sparkling moons on a midnight sky. This is the place for one very special date night.