There are a couple of greengrocers on Green Lane, Ennerdale's happened to be closest to Taylors of…read moreSale butchers (http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/taylors-of-sale-sale) so I popped in here to check it out. As well as a big display of fruit outside the front, the majority of the produce can be found inside. The range is pretty impressive, the watermelons were the size of beachballs and strawberries super sweet. The whole place just felt like you're in a well used farmer's market and everything's as fresh as can be. It's not a sleek and glossy outfit mind you, but it fulfils what you need from a greengrocer's - plenty of choice, great quality and at prices more competitive than at the supermarket. It's a popular place to boot. Shop local!

I love this place, they don't try to do anything too fancy, and they're not the place to go to for…read morehighly specialised ingredients. What they do, and do excellently, is quality produce at superb prices. Every time I walk out with aching arms due to how much I've bought I'm amazed by how much cheaper than a supermarket they are. If you go towards the end of a day keep an eye out for them offering the "last in the box" at fantastic prices.

Amazed by this place…read more I haven't seen anywhere like it since my travels to Portland. It has a real community atmosphere. Everyone involved, from the growers to the staff to the people shopping, care and it really shows. It's honest. It's exactly where you want to buy your vegetables. There's soil on the fresh produce. Actual soil. No cellophane, no unnecessary packaging, no nonsense - just tasty, local food. The shelves are clearly labelled and well stocked with interesting offerings. They have your staples - potatoes, all the usual veg, cereals, spices, fruits as well as some more unusual choices when/if it's in season. Prices are reasonable and when you pay you feel like you're contributing - something you never experience in a chain supermarket. There's a play area for kids and free apples to keep them occupied - with a little compost bin for the cores. A big green thumbs up.

Unicorn is quite simply the best place ever and the eco-jewel in the crown of the noble and good…read morekingdom of Chorlton, that land of the yoga bunny, the eco-warrior and community campaign group Keep Chorlton Interesting http://keepchorltoninteresting.org/ Walking around the unusually-wide aisles of this wholefoods supermarket, it is easy to feel inspired that the times are *not* a' changing. Because they've changed. And here we find ourselves in a land flowing with everlasting organic milk and honey, and we no longer have to constantly check the label because it's all good stuff! Unicorn is a fully-fledged supermarket with the small and large trolleys to prove it, but the relaxed atmosphere and experience of the five senses being bathed in everything that is good is tangible. Starting outside the door, the Big Issue vendor deftly helped me free a trolley that was jammed, and I could feel his genuine wish to help and for my Unicorn shopping experience to be a good one. Inside. Organic seeds. Garden tools made in Wigan by a company called Bulldog. (I bought a hand fork and a 3-pronged hand cultivator, which I think will prove useful for weeding close to plants without damaging their roots.) Organic fruit and veg which is all labelled and sourced as locally as possible (e.g. Broad Beans from Gielty of Ormskirk). And plenty of choice of fruit and veg - how come supermarkets never manage to have more than a few lines of organic produce? A lovely blackboard telling what's in season and how things have been going for the farmers out in the field. Sometimes, I've seen another small blackboard outside showing how Unicorn is cheaper than Sainsbury or Tesco for the same items. This doesn't surprise me, as a good co-op is a very strong business model, without the big salaries and pressure for huge shareholder dividends of all chain supermarkets. I've not tried much from the chilled display, so I'll leave that to others to review. The dried goods are handily displayed on tiered shelves with small, medium and large sizes of each item. In the back corner, there is a lovely little play area, including a compost bin for the little eco-warriors to put their apple cores in! Every time I've visited, the play area has been very much in use, with lots of fun being had. The kids are nice to each other! The bakery and hot food takeaway is all good stuff from the best organic bakeries in the area, supplemented by some goodies baked instore. I've had great soups from here, eaten with a buttered roll or pastie, very wholesome-tasting - sweet potato or roasted red pepper, mmm! On the shelves in the middle are a many speciality ingredients which are hard to find elsewhere. From my till receipt, for example - Toasted Sesame Oil (organic), Pomegranate Syrup, Puffed Wheat (organic), Puffed Millet (organic), Polenta (organic). Even if you're not an enthusiastic cook, I would personally much rather have a breakfast cereal of Puffed Wheat with a dash of maple syrup and whatever else I fancy rather than trust the Honey Monster! Waiting at the checkout, the lady in front offered me half a organic loaf in a brown paper bag - thank you very much, madam! I always find the checkout staff and all the others very pleasant and on-the-ball - there is a maturity about this place. Unicorn is not a side-show in Chorlton it's the dominant retail model (shh - you know what I mean!) with a turnover of millions of pounds. One last thing - at the checkout, those branded plastic things that supermarkets provide to separate your shopping on the belt from the customers in front and behind are replaced by...pieces of wood! Pass on the well-worn, wooden baton and the good word about Unicorn. :-)

A bulb of garlic, a stick of ginger, a couple of onions, a bunch spring onions, a juicy red pepper,…read morea few red and green chillies, a huge bunch of fresh coriander.......£2.36? The first time I went in there and bought a similar amount of fresh veg I found it hard to conceal my delight at the price. So hard in fact that one of the brothers asked me if I had expected it to cost me more! I have never bought my veg from Morrisons since. For a relatively small store they sell a wide range of produce (about 8 different types of mushrooms, 10 different types of potatoes etc) and I have never been disappointed with the quality. OK, so I definitely wouldn't eat any of the veg without giving it a good wash first, as it is often a bit grubby and has been sitting outside on a main road all day, and the shelf life isn't as good as supermarket veg. But give me a grubby misshapen apple over a polished supermarket apple any day! The brothers themselves are friendly and hard-working. My housemates often used to chat to them, and they seem to know their regular customers really well. Inside the shop there is a well-priced selection of herbs and spices, rice, couscous and pulses as well as the not so well-priced English essentials such as boxes of PG Tips and cans of Coke. To every Chorltonite's delight the opening of a brand new Tesco Express opposite the store doesn't seem to have harmed their business in the slightest. Long live Khawaja Brothers! PS - there is even a facebook group for fans of the brothers and their shop.

Have you read this? http://www.yelp.com/weekly?editorial_id=zGMtxe-XYdLx73faQYnikw Well there's one…read morepretty serious omission, and that, my friends, is the Mini Market of the Khawaja Brothers. Whether you're concocting a katsu curry or just seeking out some seasonal salad, you can do no wrong by making a beeline for this little place because it's fresh, it changes with the seasons, it has more ethnic ingredients than you can possibly pile into your plastic bag, and perhaps given the first three the most appealing factor... it's almost obscenely inexpensive. I was introduced to this spot by a good friend who waxed lyrical about Pakistani mangoes, also known as 'honey' mangoes. These are orbs of pure deliciousness, sold in handy boxes of 6 for £4.50. They taste like they should be twice that price. Keep them in your fridge and peel them at breakfast time, you shan't be disappointed. In other bargainous news, a recent offer had me reeling with incredulity - surely they weren't selling entire crate-like boxes of tomatoes on the vine? Check my pictures. Yes indeedy they were. Also, their giant dates are just exquisite. Once inside you can get tons of dry ingredients for any kind of world cooking you can imagine, loads of types of flour, rice, pulses... the list is endless. And on top of all that there are exotic fruit drinks and Halal Haribo. Yes, it exists! I'm more than happy to make the journey to Chorlton to grab some essentials (and indulgences) from here, the service is friendly and the location can't be beaten - right near Unicorn? It's a veritable shop-local bonanza!

This branch of Marks and Spencer is classified as a Food store although it does stock some other…read moreranges. It is a small store with a cosy feel. The staff are very pleasant and professional and always willing to help. There is a small car park which can get very busy. It is easily reachable as it stands on the main A56 road. There is a good range of fresh food. The fruit and vegetables are always top quality. The shelves are well stocked. There are always some fresh flowers which are great if you need to pop in to buy a quick bunch. This is a great branch of M&S and very convenient.

I'm a fan of M&S but this place annoys me as its so damn customer unfriendly, so much so that I'm…read moreinclined to go elsewhere so I only go here if I'm stuck. First of all the car park is very small and its difficult to find a parking space and when, or if, you do its pay parking (50 pence for an hour and an hour is the maximum parking allowed - well the car park sign says an hour is free for M&S customers but this is provided a customer spends a minimum of £5 in - store, so the plain fact is that this misleads as it's not free parking at all. Disabled drivers are only free when parked in a disabled bay of which there are few - and these are not extra wide spaces. Worse still the car park is policed by some guy lumbering about in a high viz jacket. Then ya gotta have the appropriate coin to pay for a shopping trolley. Then there's the wee woman who reduces stuff as the sell by dates are up. I've observed her a few times and she is sooo slow, she starts and stops while supposedly doing the job, with more stops than starts. There's one wee pensioner I've noticed who tends to loiter I think he's waiting for the reductions to be made and it strikes me that she is deliberately stalling her work because he is about. May be wrong but why else would she stop so often just to amble about around the bakery area?!

For far too long I've been buying meat from supermarkets, due to convenience and cheaper pricing…read more Had it not been for my folks back in the Dale converting to shopping at their local butchers and me tasting the difference in quality, I'd have carried on regardless. Now living in Sale I'd been informed of Taylors by a couple of friends so left the chicken and red meat off my 'big shop list' and headed into Sale Moor one Saturday afternoon. Parking in the free car park down Warrener Street, it's just a short walk round the corner. It was full of customers inside but they have plenty of staff so it wasn't long before it was my turn. If you didn't know exactly what you wanted you might feel a slight pressure to make your mind up quickly, especially on busy days like this one. The selection on offer is mind-boggling, from choice cuts of beef and poultry to oven-ready products. They have one of the longest well-stocked display counters I've ever seen in an independent shop. I opted for four chicken breasts (which the butcher kindly diced up for me), gammon steaks and beef for a stir fry. All of this was ~£15 which is more expensive than the supermarkets, but as they only stock products from local farmers you know it's worth it. Tip: they accept payment by debit/credit card.

This is a top notch village butchery with top notch customer service so it won't surprise you to…read morehear its top notch prices. So ya pays yer money and makes yer choice. Give me this place over any supermarket butchery counter any day of the week. Just because it's a supermarket doesn't mean it's cheaper, not where quality meat is concerned and we need to think on about supporting these community places as they are part of the fabric of villages like this. The quality and the selection of local meat is superb, whether it's their great shop made proper pork & beef sausage selection around £9 a kilo, their great lamb through to fillet steaks at the upper end of £35 a kilo. It's a small butchery, 4 or 5 customers would fill it. Its popularity is best seen in the lead up to Christmas as people, including me, queue up outside for our festive meats and the free refreshments as we stand in the chill. There is some car parking at the rear too.

From a butcher to a fishmonger, and here's where I REALLY get to be a carnivore. I love seafood and…read moreyou can find it in spades here - it's worth travelling to from the city centre, believe me. Here you can find fish sustainably sourced in the form of mackerel, red mullet, line-caught bass and even sushi as well as the elusive John Dory, my favourite fish, and wild lobster and turbot. Having won an award for Best Food and Drink Outlet from the Manchester Food and Drink Festival, the fish is handpicked and purchased daily, with deliveries coming in two to three times a day. 90% of the fish is wild and the products are seasonal, meaning that you can get freshwater fish and shellfish as well as deli products, poultry and game and even vegetables, strangely enough. The value for money factor is huge here, the decor is clean and cute and it's certainly popular with the locals. Definitely one to travel for.

Nothing smells fishy in Out Of The Blue - apart from the fish of course. This is such an amazing…read morefishmonger, trying its best to supply the freshest and best quality produce possible by receiving 3 deliveries daily. There's mackerel, John Dory, red mullet and line-caught bass, plaice, salmon, freshwater fish, rare varieties of shellfish and lobster and a wonderful choice of Sushi prepared by an in-house chef. It doesn't end there - if you don't fancy fish you can also buy organic game and poultry Out of the Blue is a great deli too, selling seasonal vegetables, conserves, seasonings and even coffee and pasta, and the staff are happy to help with cooking and serving suggestions.

I have been coming here for years, though I don't live very local, they are always well stocked and…read morewill usually order my favourite apples for me! far better than the pre packed supermarket stuff. one of the proper greengrocers shops and worth the journey to get what I need even if one of the ladies is a bit terse! car park at the back of the precinct and disabled parking at the front so easy access. recommend.

I first went into this shop when I was on a mission to find fish food. Unfortunately not the yummy…read moreice cream flavour, but real fish food for our starving fishy. I'd read online that A.J. Adams was a pet shop, but sadly it did not sell fish food. In fact, it seemed to sell much more human food including a reasonable range of cheap fruit and veg. So, the next time I was wandering through Chorlton Place I decided to pop into this shop for some fruit and veg. Strangely enough a man came in and asked if they sold fish tanks. The shop assistant pulled one down off a shelf and said he'd give it to him for £10 off, as he had ordered it in for a customer who had never come back and collected it. Maybe it was a pet shop in disguise? The fruit and veg was tasty and much cheaper than in the supermarkets, but for some reason I've never really shopped here since. For fruit and veg I tend to go to freshsave (also in the precinct) or Khawarja Brothers on the Manchester Road. Oh, and I got the fish food from Quality Save, but fishy was a snob and wouldn't touch it, so I had to find a proper pet shop.

Don't you find something safe and secure about family run businesses? It must be far less stressful…read moreto be born into this world, knowing your path has been marked out for you. No confusion over choosing your options at age 14. No agony deciding what A' Levels to select. No University degree following which you have to write 200 job applications. Entering into the family business must be akin to an arranged marriage: you hopefully have a say but it is there waiting for you. It is a reliable plan which has worked out well for previous generations and it will afford you the same stability and success. Howarth's butchers is one such institution; a family run business in Urmston with a great reputation. Going there is like a trip back through time because the shop is kitted out with the look of a bygone era: huge red and white striped canopy and little carts of fruit and veg outside the door. The staff wear traditional butcher attire and will do anything for you. Howarths sell really good cuts of meat and their award winning Cumberland sausages will turn your boring bangers and mash into a designer dish. It operates a free refrigerated delivery service within a 15 mile radius and this has come in very useful for me on many occasions. A little pricier than other butchers but well worth checking out for all the carnivores out there.

If you're an epicurian who's always looking for the best ingredients, you might want to take the…read moretime to read about this historic butchers. This butchers has won multiple awards for their excellence. Their sausages in particular have been named the best in England: hazelnuts & apples and Moroccan lamb are amongst my favourites, but they are ALL good! They've got every type of beef, pork and lamb cuts you can imagine, the best chorizo I've eaten outside of Spain. Don't be put off by the location either - this place delivers free of charge so take a look at their website...I'm so excited about this find.

I love Ludo, in fact every time I'm in Chorlton my wife and myself make a habit of stopping by and…read morepicking up a few treats to stock up our kitchen cupboards. It's such a pleasure just browsing the shelves but the staff are also super friendly and knowledgable about the produce that you do feel like it's a real shopping experience (in a world of no time for customers/instant internet shopping) On this occasion we stocked up on some fine German blue cheese (recommended by the owner) and a lovely little homity pie (£2) with an incredible pastry case. We were out of coffee beans so I also picked up a bag from a local blender (Ancoats coffee - one of two local coffee beans sources they stock) and this just shows that it's a great deli with local and international produce creating a fine balance for the customer! The fresh bread is amazing but they didn't actually have any left. I've just been reliably informed by Yelper Sheila C that they'll bake it to order when you pop in. Time for me to go and jump in the car now then!

My 1st ever Yelp review is dedicated to my fave neighbourhood shop - Epicerie Ludo. A great local…read moretreasure trove of yummy treats. Have been trying my best to befriend the eponymous Ludo ever since I first went in. Good wine selection, great for gifts and self-gifting too, a fab mix of functional food and weekender treats. They'll even bake a baguette for you there and then. Doesn't get better than that does it?