Deli on the Grove

The vanilla slice was fresh and delicious and the new york cheesecake was even better!

I came, I saw, I conquered that banoffee cheesecake. I tell you, the sheer volume of treats they have here… Take a closer look at Deli on the Grove and you’ll come face to face with a hybrid, a beautiful and dangerous one, kind of like the creature in that scary movie Splice. Only… less frightening.
When I encountered this place for my second visit one rainy, grey weekday lunchtime following the depressiveness that is the nearby SafeStore (seriously, drag!) I witnessed a first. A Deli lunchtime. Yep, the queue was snaking, *snaking* out of the door. Those sarnies sure are popular! And no wonder when I heard orders being taken — everyone was making up their ‘wich bespoke, choosing the bread and the ingredients. When my turn came I was served by the loveliest and friendliest of young girls, and amongst all the available sweeties (Vienna almond cake, take note Andreas R, New York cheesecake, pastries, puffs, tarts and sponges as far as the eye can see) the banoffee wonder stood out for me. I had to partake. So it was wrapped expertly, gooey mess that it was (I’d have screwed that up for sure), and served up alongside my kick-​ass awake-​til-​4am black coffee. I happily whiled away half an hour picking away at my cheesecake and reading OK. Guilty. But what a lovely half an hour — my noggin was truly rested afterwards.
Anyway, clearly you want to know about the cheesecake. Disclaimer: ELH’s pet hate is refrigerator cheesecake masquerading as real cheesecake. Anyone can mix Philadelphia with icing sugar and throw it on top of some crushed Digestives. Baked, please. This didn’t disappoint. Banana check? Ripe and flavourful. Toffee sauce check? Rich and ridiculous. This cheesecake was epic, and I continued to pick away at it on the 84 bus (which stops right opposite), despite my lack of cutlery and the fact that I never eat on buses. That’s how good it was.
SafeStore boredom begone — any excuse to nip to Deli afterwards and grab a delicious salad pot, a bespoke butty or a naughty cake. And have I mentioned how awesome their coffee is?

At 8am on the drizzliest most depressing of Manchester mornings this place never failed to put a smile on my face. I started off going in here to buy some breakfast when I’d overslept or when my bread was mouldy. I would always get a deliciously fresh croissant. They are freshly baked every morning on the premises and only cost 50p each — cheaper than a slightly crisp round the edges Tesco equivalent. If you buy a coffee then a croissant comes for free (before 11am I think).
This is not a pretentious deli. It’s certainly no Barbakan. It can’t really afford to be in the location it is in (among takeaways and next to Aldi and Iceland). However, it does do very tasty sandwiches which are very popular with the office workers from nearby British Gas. The management are absolutely fantastic. The guy is always ueber-​cheerful even if it is drizzly, depressing and 8am, and the woman (his wife?) is also friendly. They often gave my housemate a free pot of soup with his sandwich at lunchtime and seem to genuinely enjoy everything about this business, which rubs off on the customers. The only negative point is that they don’t open until 8am, which meant I could only go there if I was already late for work!