The Mouse Trap

It seems like you really do have to love cheese ,
I like a small amount usually after the meal with coffee ‚
They are very genuine here they like to give you plenty I m not so sure if I could come in here every day or even every week but never the less its a great venue ‚
I like the surrounding and the friendliness they give out here long may it continue
The reason for my three stars is cause the wait today was a bit long ‚
I had some trouble trying to make myself heard over the banter going on around me. Really not my sort of place at all .
I’m sorry to spoil it for those who do like a lot of cheese on your butty,

I have a serious love affair with cheese and can eat tons of it so this was right up my street. The café basically serves coffees and all sorts of cheese platter combinations. I popped in here to catch up with an old school friend and we only wanted a light snack, so I got the ‘nibble’ cheese platter which was around £6.95 if I remember correctly and comes with a coffee or tea. The big platters are around £12 so I didn’t expect to get much cheese– I had a choice of three from the deli counter. Went for a French Brie, creamy blue Brie and this incredible horseradish cheese, which is really tasty if you like horseradish. They brought loads– for just over £6 it was an amazing deal and plenty for one person. The platter came with a stack of crackers, chutney, grapes– it was a steal! My friend Holly had the coffee and cake option.
It was insanely good value for money! The décor is a bit simple and basic but the staff are fantastic and the cheese top notch. I believe they have a BYOB system so you can bring your own wine to have with the cheese!

Where to begin? This place is a bona fide hidden gem in the market town of Ramsbottom.
A café exclusively selling cheese alongside its coffee, they stay open in the evenings for turophiles (i.e. cheese lovers — I had to look that up). It’s also BYO so you’re free to choose whatever tipple you desire to accompany your slates, not plates, of dairy goodness.
Tables are only available if you pre-​book. When we arrived we saw on the chalkboard that they were now taking bookings for March 2015, so that told us just how popular they are.
Seating was plentiful, yet the café was only about three quarters full when we were there — we assumed it was because they only do one cover per night. If it was in Manchester city centre you’d probably have an hour slot and that was it, but they have a much more relaxed attitude here, the same goes for the prices.
«I’m sorry? £15 each for a party of four? But we had ELEVEN different cheeses, with unlimited crackers, bread, grapes, olives and chutneys — plus you brought us a hot drink to end the night. AND two of the group had desserts!»
We would happily have paid twice that amount.
Add to this the fact that the father and son team are quite possibly the friendliest, most accommodating hosts I’ve ever come across. It felt like we were guests in their house, not their workplace.
Their standard ‘menu’ lists an impressive 36 varieties from the UK and Europe. There’s also a set of four specials that changes regularly. We ended up choosing all the specials and then seven from the menu (typically five cheeses between two people would be sufficient and that comes to £10.95 per person).
Tip: All the cheeses are available to buy for you to fill your face at home.

Cheese is one of my very favourite things in life, so imagine my delight upon discovering not only a cheese shop I’d never heard of but also that they run regular cheese and wine nights — heaven!
Pretty much as soon as this discovery was made a few of us made a booking onto one of the aforementioned cheese and wine nights, or at least tried to. Due to their popularity the soonest date we could get was 4 months away. Clearly there are a lot of other cheese loving people out there. However before I knew it the time had arrived and off we set for Ramsbottom.
The way the cheese nights work is that you can arrive any time from around 7.30pm and rather it being a led tasting as we’d initially thought, it’s really just a fun and informal evening to try loads of different cheeses and enjoy a night out with friends in a slightly different setting. It’s also BYO so you’re welcome to bring your own wine and beer, with an array of soft drinks on sale.
The ‘menu’ consists of 30 regular cheeses the shop stocks plus 5 specials that change on a weekly basis. The normal rule of thumb is that each couple can choose 5 cheeses between then, although as there was 5 of us we were allowed to choose 13 and I can tell you now this was not an easy decision!
Choices made we were soon brought over several slates piled high with a variety of crackers, bread, chutney, olives and grapes as well as the stars of the show. The lovely man who looked after us all evening guided us through each cheese and then assured us that if any of the accompaniments were to run out he’d be happy to replace them.
I can safely say that all the cheeses we tried we utterly delicious, with a couple of the ones we chose from the specials reigning supreme. The portions were also really generous and alongside the accompaniments I was absolutely stuffed at the end.
At £9.95 this is an absolute steal and if they’d charged us double I probably wouldn’t have blinked (did I mention they threw in a hot drink at the end?). It was a really fun, relaxed night and the guy who looked after us was an absolute delight. We’ve already booked our next visit and I can’t wait!

Cheese heaven & a complete bargain!
When Fiddlers Dram sang ‘Didn’t we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor’ I think they meant to say ‘the Mouse Trap’ instead. Its like someone reached into my dreams and built my idea of the perfect place then put it within my reach.
A short drive past Bury (much closer than we thought) is Ramsbottom, home of the Mouse Trap. This small establishment is basically a cheese café serving 36 regular cheeses and with 3 specials that change weekly. The interior is cute, rustic and perfectly matches the business concept. It’s the little touches that make it special, like the knitted mice that are for sale at the front and the flannels to dry your hands on in the toilets.
There were 5 of us booked in for their regular BYOB night. This is generally a cheese platter between 2 people but they happily offered to do a large group option for all 5 of us to share. We were allowed 13 cheeses and the platter came with unlimited breads, butter, grapes, crackers, chutneys and olives.
We had brought a bottle of fizz with us and then also ordered soft drinks from the menu. The selection of cheeses was overwhelming but with the help of our friendly and knowledgable waiter we were able to choose our top 13. We went for all 3 of the specials and another 10 from the standard menu.
We worked around the cheese board together slicing each cheese into 5 and comparing notes on the flavour. The waiter replenished our grapes and chutneys as we needed them and brought over tap water for us.
I enjoyed this so much, every cheese was at least tasty, most were delicious and a fair few were exceptional. I purchased an extra portion of my favourite to bring home. We ended the evening with a choice of hot drinks and my chai tea was perfect. This cost £9.95 per head which is a fantastic price for the amount you get.
They are very booked up for the BYOB evenings so if you fancy this experience get on the phone to them ASAP!

The cheese evenings (every Friday and some Thursdays) are excellent value at £9.95 per person including coffee and a choice of cheese plus crackers, butter, grapes and chutney. Warning: must plan and book well in advance, they get booked up for months in advance!