While we all try to tighten our belts right now, the good old Sunday roast is a treat many of us still look forward to of a weekend. And we reckon we've found one of the region's cheapest full Sunday roasts - for £5.50 for a massive portion with meats and all the roast dinner trimmings.
Over at Dorvy's Diner in Cadishead the bargainous home-made meals have been devoured by residents here for 18 years. And the cafe's Sunday roasts are so popular with a price point of £4.50 for small or £5.50 for large that they've sold out by 1pm.
And it's not hard to see why. There can't be many cafes or restaurants selling a Sunday roast this large - with FOUR of your five a day piled on there and TWO Yorkshire puddings for good measure.
Read more : The best Sunday roasts in and around Manchester
The giant version of the roast will set you back £5.50, and if getting the whole lot down is a struggle then the helpful staff here will provide you with a takeaway tray to take it home. Indeed, their takeaway versions of the roast are another reason they're so popular - with staff delivering them to residents in the local area.
But they also do a "small" version for £4.50 with just the one Yorkshire pud. There's the option of roast chicken or roast beef but you have to be quick as the diner starts to finish up service on Sundays by 1pm so most people get in early doors or pre-order.
When we arrived at 12.30, they'd run out of a full portion of beef so we did a double of half beef/half chicken on one plate, with a full chicken roast on the other. Both portions were slathered in a rich gravy and I was staggered to find just how many vegetables had been piled on - there was cabbage, carrots, cauliflower AND peas - as well as both boiled potatoes and four roasties.
Dorvy's opens throughout the week and is famed for it's hot all-day cooked breakfasts and daily changing specials like chilli, chicken tikka masala with rice and chips, ploughman's lunch and mixed grill - all priced at around the £5 to £5.25 mark each day. You can get a fry-up for £4.10 or a big brunch for £5.60, while breakfast barms start at £3 for a bacon barm.
Karen Mellor, 66, has run Dorvy's Diner for the past 18 years at the Liverpool Road site which has a retro diner fit out. She said the Sunday roasts have always proved popular particularly to elderly residents in the area many of whom they deliver to.
But Karen, like so many business owners right now, has been struggling to keep prices so low with the huge increase in both energy prices and foods. Until the start of this year the Sunday roast was just £5 - but she's had to put the price up to £5.50 but says most customers have been understanding.
Karen said: "Everything has doubled in price - eggs have gone from £15 a case to £30 just as an example, so yes I've had to add a little bit onto the prices. I'm not blowing my own trumpet but people come to me not because they want neon lights and to pay £3 for a coffee they can go to the Trafford Centre for that.
"They can come here and have a cooked breakfast for £4.10 and a latte for £1.70."
Customers do indeed love it here - we watched as young and old queued out of the door to collect orders on the Sunday we visited. And the MEN was first alerted to the bargainous meals by people commenting on our article about supermarket roast dinners last year saying we'd be "better off going to Dorvy's".
Karen says they take regular pre-orders for many of their hot home-made dishes - including the Sunday roasts which generally sell-out every week. Despite the struggles with costs, Karen loves what she does and has no plans to retire.
She laughs: "I might be bored if I retire so you just carry on don't you? I do all the main cooking and I do enjoy it. The rising costs? It is what it is really. You just do your best to keep on going."
Dorvy's Diner, Liverpool Road, Irlam, Cadishead, opens 6am to 2pm weekdays and until 1pm on Sundays.
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