Sugarvine

There are lots of benchmarks for what makes a decent restaurant. Most famed is the Michelin guide but its remit is so small that very few British restaurants make it onto the list. Not so the AA Rosette system of sorting out the culinary wheat from the chaff. Thorough, fair, and sensibly in tune with UK taste, the AA provides a highly useful guide to eating out in Manchester and area on its website. As it is geared to the motorist and/or traveller, much of the bias is towards hotels and what they offer in terms of food. But those listed are very much in the premier league when it comes to dining.

One of the most prestigious places named is the River Room at the Lowry, which famously employed Marco Pierre White as its consultant chef. This has one of the best views in the city and the design and décor is almost as worth going for as the food. It's a five-star hotel though so there is a hefty price to be paid. But there are very few places in Manchester that can offer the delights provided by executive chef David Woolf. The fare includes starters like lobster omelette or artichoke soup with truffles. Mains are similarly haute -- roast cod with petit pois, stuffed rabbit leg, roast suckling pig squab, and sundry other gourmet treats at about £15-£17 apiece. Puddings are very rich and very tempting and include treacle tart, traditional tarte tatin, and a particularly appealing crème brulee Granny Smith. Dinner here will set you back about £40 a head with wine but there is a three-course Sunday lunch on offer for just £17.75. Ideal as a taster for this exclusive place and even more ideal if you are on a budget. Vegetarians are catered for with a separate menu.

Just down the road is the four-star Copthorne Hotel, Salford Quays. This also wins praise from the AA for its crescent shaped Chandlers restaurant, which also has wonderful views over the Manchester Ship Canal basin. The menu is Modern British in style with nods towards French cuisine and choices include venison with truffle flavoured purple mash, parsnip cream and caramelised shallots. Fish and seafood are plentiful with Loch Fyne scallops and seabass featuring regularly.

Also in Salford (and a favoured haunt of Manchester United players) is the Marriott Worsley hotel where you will pay £25-£30 a head to dine in Brindleys, its elegant, split-level restaurant. This has the added bonus of being set in 200 acres of parkland, which once belonged to the Duke of Bridgwater. Signature dishes include seared tuna, samphire shrimp risotto, or a crispy calamari and light butter sauce.

The AA Rosette guide is not all hotels and it is not a surprise to find Simply Heathcotes on its list. Now well established on the restaurant scene, this spacious restaurant has lost none of its edge nor has the kitchen become complacent. Menus change seasonally and there are some amazing deals -- free house wine Monday nights, for example! Housed in a former registry office, it was recently refurbished and it shares a menu with sister establishments in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Preston. The menu of the day is a brilliant bargain -- £15.50 for three courses. Heathcote has won deserved success for his imaginative approach to British standards. Starters include celery and smoked chicken soup and wild mushroom risotto. Mains include roast lamb with thyme mash, fish in beer batter with chips and sea bream with rocket and sun-dried tomato. For afters, look no further than his famous bread and butter pudding.

If al this is a bit too traditional for you, the AA also has much praise for the ethnic fare on offer at the Yang Sing. So much merit has been heaped upon this world-class Chinese emporium on Princess Street that one almost drowns in the sea of praise. But it really is that good. A lot of superlative Cantonese food, dim sum starting at just couple of pounds for delights like prawn pancake and beef dumplings with ginger and spring onion. There are wonderful set banquets but also the more esoteric fare beloved of the Chinese community -- fish lips, ducks feet etc. If you can't quite manage going that much off menu, Chef Harry Yeung will create a special banquet. Just name your price and he will accommodate. This approach can yield fantastic dividends. Harry uses Cantonese principles to create his own dishes and the sample results could include lamb casserole with spring onions and greens, steamed lobster, or seabass. But it's a very moveable -- and always excellent -- feast.

Another Chinese AA choice is the Tai Pan, not in Chinatown but a couple of miles away in unprepossessing Upper Brook Street. A pagoda-style exterior sets the scene, while inside theatrical gold and red dragons jostle for attention with sparkling chandeliers. The menu is huge, so is the space, and there is a supermarket on site too. With very little hype, the Tai Pan has deservedly earned a reputation for top-class Cantonese food.

Back in town, the new Alias Rossetti hotel has already earned plaudits - and an AA rosette -- for Café Paradiso, its funky and eclectic Med-style restaurant. The food, like the décor, is imaginative with pasta options that are that little bit different (say, Monkfish, wild mushroom and spring onion lasagne), a signature dish of Roasted lamb rump with dauphinoise potatoes and rosemary jus, and authentic pizzas from a wood-burning oven. The private dining facilities here (pictured above) are excellent if you are planning a private party.

Some of the best of what Manchester has to offer you will find outside the city centre. About 10 miles or so north is the old mill town of Oldham (and no, it's not exactly renowned for its cuisine). But here nevertheless is the AA-praised Avant Menzies hotel. On Manchester Street only a few minutes from the M60, it also has a leisure complex, which includes fitness studios, a gym and a good-sized pool. Good stuff if you want to walk off the calories. Typical dishes include game terrine with red onion and orange chutney, red snapper on a bed of noodles, and tiramisu. Even more tucked away is the Belmore Hotel in the quiet suburban setting of Sale's Brooklands Road. Leather sofas, decorative chandeliers and antiques make for a very old-fashioned ambience. The house was built in 1875 and the hotel is family-owned. There are two places to eat -- the Classic restaurant offers French haute cuisine while Cada's is more casual and informal in approach. The Belmore has regular gourmet events and particularly if you live in south Manchester is worth seeking out.

But for the non plus ultra of AA dining in Greater Manchester with three AA rosettes - and the only restaurant to boast that elusive Michelin star - you need to travel to Altrincham and Juniper . Here chef Paul Kitching produces some of the most eclectic and interesting cooking around and Juniper is an absolute must for the adventurous gourmet. It bagged Restaurant Of the Year in the 2003 Good Food Guide and if you want the full-on Juniper experience, opt for the gourmet menu. Expect the unexpected here -- one of the dishes that won Juniper the award was Saddle of Cumbrian Hare with Foie Gras, Watercress, Yoghurt, Horlicks Powder, Sugared Cashew Nuts and Melon Syrup.