Which Spoons left me over the moon?

WHEN heading out to your local Wetherspoons, you can be fairly sure what to expect in terms of cheap drinks, cheap food and a relaxed atmosphere.

And here in Manchester revellers are well served by the pub chain - as there are five Wetherspoons all to be found within walking distance of each other in the city centre.

My quest was to head out on a Manchester Wetherspoon pub crawl to see how all five venues measured up.

I was in for quite a surprise - as I swiftly discovered that not all Wetherspoons are created equal.

The biggest shock during my pub adventure was discovering that the boozers didn't all have the same prices. In fact, there was a fairly huge difference between the cheapest and most expensive round of the exact same three drinks.

I headed out with two friends on a Saturday early evening to test out the five Wetherspoons in the city centre and to give each pub a chance to shine, we ordered the exact same round in every establishment.

That was a pint of San Miguel, half a pint of Stowford Press cider and a double gin and tonic (asking for Tanqueray Ten gin).

The route for our crawl started at Piccadilly at the Wetherspoon.

We then headed down to The Printworks to check out The Seven Stars the one 'Spoons none of us had actually tried before in town and the newest of the five.

From there it was on to the first Wetherspoons that ever opened in Manchester, the huge Moon Under Water on Deansgate, established in 1995.

We then walked over to Oxford Road to check out The Paramount.

The final stop on our crawl was to The Waterhouse on Princess Street, housed in the oldest building of all the "Spoons, dating back to the 18th century.

The prices for the same round of drinks varied from £12.57 to £13.16 depending which pub we were in.

It might not sound like a massive difference, but if we were to have stayed at the most expensive pub for the whole night, then we'd have actually paid £65.80 in total, as compared to £62.85 staying at one of the three cheapest pubs on our trek.