Dire customer service. Extremely rude (Greek) owner - openly reprimands staff (very poor…read moremanagement practice/unprofessional). Coffees - average. Sandwiches served on stale bread. Will take our business elsewhere in the future - lots of alternatives close by...

Thank you to Sophie C for pointing out this Bury branch of Katsouris was here first, before the…read moreDeansgate branch - something that could easily be overlooked with the number of reviews for the Manchester City Centre branch. When I arrived here at noon on a market day during the week, the place was jumping! Not to worry, as I then fitted in a tour of the Bury Markets before returning to Katsouris for a late lunch. I really like this place. As in, if I were to put together the market of my dreams, there would likely be room for a Katsouris on the periphery - whereas there is not really much from the rest of Bury Market that would make the cut. (OK, maybe a few places, but some serious cherry-picking would have to be done by me!) Katsouris Bury is a little bit stylish but not intimidating in the least. Staff are mainly young - as in 20s and 30s - and the service has a brisk and professional feel to it although still with a smile on the face! There is a separate deli counter to go and a café serving similar food to the Deansgate branch - three soups of the day (with probably two vegetarian choices) filled hot or cold ciabatta, an informal carvery and Barbakan baked good such as pastries, mince pies and cheesecake for dessert. No sign of the self-service mezze station which features at the Deansgate branch, though. Until I receive local insider knowledge to the contrary, I am writing Bury of as a bit of a no-go area for vegetarians on any sort of healthy diet, although nearby Whitefield does look more promising. Whereas the vegetarian choice at Katsouris is more than enough. I enjoyed a lunch of a decent-sized bowl of carrot and coriander soup with Barbakan bread (under £3 to sit in), half a Zorba the Greek toasted ciabatta (filled with halloumi and homemade tapenade) and an apple danish. In this, I feel I have identified my ideal meal combo from Katsouris, but rotating the soup and dessert choices to keep it interesting - I've yet to try the Barbakan Polish cheescake, for example. The outdoor seating area is huge, whereas seating and space indoors is limited and mainly at wall counters, which could prove problematic on days when sitting outside is not an option. For the adventurous vegetarian, there are definitely plenty of culinary diamonds in the rough to be found in Bury Market, if you have the appetite for the hunt. But Katsouris is far and away your safest bet if you are in a hurry!

Well, whaddya know? Didsbury pulls it off again. This time with a wonderful little deli on Lawping…read moreLane. If there's one thing that gets me excited, it's a well-stocked deli counter of cheeses, meats, olives, pates and pickles from around the globe. Well, Fusion goes one step further, offering a marvellous array of conserves, condiments, drinks, cakes and last but not least, breads. In fact it's the bakery here that I'm particulary taken by; you can get local organic breads, flavoured ciabatta, Polish rye, cheesecakes, french fruit tarts, fudge cakes, mousse cakes...the list goes on and on! Did I mention the selection of 50 teas and fresh coffee beans? No? Come on! What more convincing do you need!

Fusion Deli may very well be the best delicatessen in the foodie paradise of West Didsbury, which…read moreis really quite an accolade! This is a generously-sized store (owner-managed, I would think) full of lovingly sourced speciality produce, lush sandwiches, mezze boxes, speciality breads and cakes - see Angela B's review for more - a huge display fridge runs the length of the store. As with near neighbours Inman's and West Didsbury in general, the vibe and customer service is super-nice and helpful in an unpressured way, with plenty of space for your average free-range human being to move around. Not tried them, but I take this as a barometer of where Fusion Deli want to be - they sell Garcia's corn chips, which come in blue and white corn varieties. That's a premium organic brand, and probably as good a bag of tortilla chips as you can buy in Manchester if you are trying to raise your Mexican cooking to the next level. I'm not local to the 'burb, and I'm not a big deli shopper as I have other more convenient places to buy my dry goods and get them home, such as the Suma truck. But if you are a foodie living in West Didsbury, I would suggest popping in from time-to-time for some goodies, and especially the senior staff here are bound to have some useful foodie advice on how to pull meals together. West Didsbury is great as there is so much on offer within the crossing roads of Lapwing Lane and Burton Road. For example, you could pick up a magazine at Inman's, deli shop at Fusion, enjoy a soup-sandwich-chips lunch deal at Greens. (See my photos of Greens deal boards under their entry.) All on foot, and still be done within an hour and a half. Or any of a hundred and one other fab permutations.

A recently opened deli from the owners of Penelope's Kitchen and the coffee and cocktail bar Love…read moreConquers All (which are also in MediaCityUK). Their other eateries are somewhat tucked away and tend to attract the media types from the surrounding buildings, whereas the Deli is catering to the lunch crowd of workers and visitors alike. It's a light, bright and large space with a plentiful amount of seating adjacent to the building's reception area. There are full height windows looking out on to the piazza too (alas, it is a sea of concrete out there). The offerings are mainly sandwiches and pasta pots (I had a 'BBQ Bean Dream' panini and it was very good). They also have a range of snacks and drinks as well as slices of cake which looked tempting. I'm glad I tried a bite to eat here, but I doubt I'll be a regular dine-in customer as it feels more like a grab and go kind of place, lacking the character of LCA which is a short walk away.

Clarke's Richmond Deli is a really decent sandwich and salad take-away. They sell a wide range of…read moredifferent sandwiches from standard barms, panini's to baguettes. Their menu's offer delicious combinations of fillings so there is usually something that suits everyone's taste. The food is all of a healthy nature and even their burgers are great quality. I ordered a burger (freshly cooked in a couple of minutes) with raw onions and mayonnaise for just £2 which was served in a large plain white bun; that definitely filled me and I would go back again whenever I'm in need of a convenient lunch. Since they boast such a wide variety of ingredients such as various pre-cooked meats, sliced salads and other condiments, the choice is really yours. In addition, they sell jacket potatoes which sound mouth-watering and tempting (especially on a cold day)! Clarke's Richmond Deli is much better than your average sandwich bar. Plus, the lovely aromas that are emitted make you want to go even more.

Big. Big butties. Big potatoes. Just big pieces of meat and non of this namby pamby modern lark…read morejust big food so get it down yer neck! If that could be a motto or brand slogan for a deli - sorry butty shop! - then that might be a good one for Clarke's. It seems to denegrate them some what but this succint description of a fine sandwich emporium is meant entirely in the best possible way. There seems to be little mucking about with things like rocket - which I hate, it is horrible no matter how many chefs and foodies use it these days, it's a weed! - Clarke's serve good, some might say traditional sandwiches, in a straightforward manner like roast beef, ham - just ham nowt fancy done to it - and various chickens - coronation and tikka basically - and all at very cheap prices - usually below £3 - for a good size butty.

Barbakan is an excellent deli, with some astonishingly low prices (a large and sumptuous looking…read morepork pie was less than £3). There's lots to look at and a nice outdoor eating area where on Saturday morning they were cooking up several varieties of sausage, plus lamb burger. I had a delicious bratwurst and was particularly delighted by the wide range of condiments. Excited already for my next visit!

Fresh bagels w cream cheese and gherkins Norlander rye bread…read morewith caraway seeds Margarita olive bread Sunblush tomatoes Creamy Goats cheese Gooey Taleggio Pecorrino Kalamata olives Seranno ham Smoked salmon Potato salad Fresh coffee & Traditional Polish cheesecake In a word: YuMMMMMMMy.

Cold food and even colder service, complete with a scowl. Upon ordering a 'sunnyside up' egg, the…read morefront desk responded with "the options are fried scrambled or poached"- proceeding to give me a cold, solid and dry fried egg, which was returned, much to the ridicule of the kitchen staff, who then told me "sunny side to us means flipped".... I don't think so. Has potential, but needs a service over-haul with an education on the basics. But decent coffee.

Confession: I love good delis. I absolutely can't get enough of them. Local produce, unique…read morepreserves, unusual store-cupboard stand-bys to peruse, but more than that, the best delis are the ones where you can both browse and munch. And North Star really lives up to its name by being a great spot not only to mooch around the shelves but to have a hunk of cake, a great cup of coffee and hone in on some of the most reliable wifi I've had the joy of experiencing. I popped in here with my mum before a quick trip to Khawaja Brothers and Morrison's, and boy were we glad we did. Slabs of amazing homemade cake, incredible salads of puy lentils, Mediterranean veg, sundried tomatoes, big wedges of vegetarian lasagne, giant salmon fishcakes... the choices here are endless. And all served with a warm smile and with the option of kick-ass coffee and Teapigs tea. Yes, they had me at Teapigs tea. And amazing greetings cards, randomly. The decor is really relaxing, the outside space plentiful, and despite being on one of the busies roads in South Manchester and near a petrol station it manages to maintain an ambience of calm. We indulged in the banana and coconut cake and Victoria sponge, and both were mindblowing. The coconut icing on the banana cake should be sold by the spoonful and the Victoria sandwich had fresh strawberries in the buttercream topping and utterly delicious jam in the middle. Oh and the cake dough didn't even harbour a hint of dryness. The prices are reasonable too, and that wifi I mentioned didn't falter once - even while I was outside on the patio. This is one star worthy of handprints in cement. It can even wear sunglasses indoors if it wishes. Basically in my book, it's so cool that it can do no wrong.

Due to my own laziness, I hadn't gone food shopping and as I was working from home one day decided…read moreto wander down to Delicia for some lunch as I'd never tried their wares since moving here. Though their deli is pretty small, they do offer a decent range of sandwich fillings, New York-style bagels, jacket potatoes, salads and I'm sure I even saw 'burgers' written on the chalkboard - I'll need to go back and confirm that. Opting for a chicken and bacon Vienna with salad (plus a hearty-looking flapjack) I got to chatting to the owner who said they'd been there about seven years - so I took that as meaning they must be decent, otherwise they wouldn't get the regular custom. Though it looks like an odd location to be based, adjacent to one of the busiest main roads in south Manchester with little parking, there are a fair few workplaces and office workers in the vicinity. Now that I know they're good (the sandwich was really fresh and tasty), I'll be one of their returning customers for sure - it's a great excuse to work from home more often ;)

Deli Fonseca is one of the few places that makes me wish I was loaded…read more A fab independent deli in Liverpool's business district, it's packed floor to ceiling with all kinds of mouthwatering goodies. The gigantic counter displays a myriad of delicious cheeses, hams, olives, pates, anti-pasti and salads whilst the nearby baskets display fresh sticks and loaves of bread. To top it off, they have dozens of wooden shelves groaning with all kinds of lovely store cupboard treats from organic granola, cereals and cookies to oat cakes, chutneys, olive oils, vinegars, sauces and spices. Now, where did I put that darn lottery ticket?

This review is for the upstairs restaurant area - and sadly it is not a good one. One Saturday…read morelunchtime, I popped in for a light lunch. Nothing complicated - in the end, I ordered a Greek salad and a plate of Serrano ham rather than the pricier mains on the blackboards. I'm not sure how two really basic things could be so disappointing. I think it's because on the surface, this looks like a place that prides itself on sourcing and attention to detail. On the specials during my visit were such items as hand foraged local samphire, Cumbrian lamb and Pink's award winning sausages. So why was the Greek salad about 50% raw onion? Why did it feature those mealy crunchy supermarket basics tomatoes, cold from the fridge? Even the black olives mentioned on the menu were green. And they clearly did have black olives in the kitchen, because my four slices of Serrano ham (almost £6) came topped with a single olive. They boasted it was "20 month aged" - most of it had clearly been in their fridge, as it featured a faint tang of refrigerator and managed to be unpleasantly rubbery. Not sure how Serrano ham can even go rubbery but there you go. If you've boasting of excellent ingredients then it's unacceptable for the basics to fail so badly. I wouldn't bother returning.