Serve the food you really want to eat by signing up for our tips and recipes and never be bored by your cooking again Serve the food you really want to eat by signing up for our tips and recipes and never be bored by your cooking again If you're obsessed by good food, a visit to Delilah's is like being a kid in a sweet shop. Delilah Fine Foods, to give it its full name, has become a bit of a Nottingham institution but I've never seen it busier than it was over Easter. Perhaps the fact that it recently won UK retailer of the year at the 2025 Farm Shop and Deli Awards had something to do with the bustling trade. Whatever the reason, it's good to see an independent business with constant queues. So what makes the shop, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary, such a gem? Some might say the cafe selling delicious homemade food, others might say it's the retail side with tasty buys that you won't find anywhere else in Nottingham. For me it's both. No visit for a coffee/breakfast/lunch is complete without leaving with a bagful of goodies to eat at home and vice versa. To start our four-day Easter break from work off in style we decided to indulge in not chocolate, but cheese. As an alternative to afternoon tea, Delilah's serves afternoon cheese for two, costing £39.95. A three-tiered stand of cheesy goodness, with a pared back amount of sweet stuff, is perfect if you've got a savoury tooth. (Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC) The middle tier has all the gooey, unctuousness of cheese at its finest. It's impossible to pick a favourite out of Welsh rarebit fingers on sourdough toast, quiche with butternut squash and goat's cheese or the Emmental scones with a sweet but tangy hit from the cube of orange membrillo, a kind of quince jelly, on top. Delilah's cheese counter is home to more than 100 different varieties but three English ones are selected, each with a distinctive flavour and texture. Thomas Hoe Red Leicester is hard and nutty, Lincolnshire Poacher is a gutsy cheese made just over the border, while Baron Bigod is my personal favourite. Squidgy, silky and lavishly rich, it makes me want to slather it all over my body, let alone eat it. Heaped onto charcoal crackers, accompanied by pickle, figs in honey and celery, it nothing short of heavenly. Oh, and there's some salami too to give the taste buds a minor break from all the cheese. All that remains is the top tier with a more traditional afternoon tea staple of scone and jam with an added cheesy element coming from mascarpone, the creamy Italian cheese, in place of clotted cream. Another sweet treat is a slice of millionaire's shortbread - as well as the buttery shortbread base, a thick gooey caramel middle and chocolate topping, there's an added twist we weren't expecting... no, not cheese, but cinnamon. Dotted amongst the cakes are a number of physalis and after all the sugariness, the tart orange berries make our taste buds zing. You might think after all that grazing, that we're all 'cheesed out' by now but we couldn't leave the shop in Victoria Street without a look at the shelves. The treasure trove of food and drink is within such a stunning setting too of a high-ceiled former banking with tall arched windows. (Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC) While not cheap, there's some of the best quality you'll find, whether that's bread, chocolate, oils, biscuits, sauces, gin, wine and even Delilah's own cider with the name 'Still Decidering'. We left with Mr Filbert's Mexican sweet chilli nuts, Coolives green olives and Burrito Kitchen's original Mexican marinade - and then the best/most dangerous for the bank balance section of all (depending on how you look at it) - the cheese and charcuterie counter. Every visit we try something new and this time it's a tub of scooping gorgonzola dolce, so soft and creamy that it doesn't require a knife to slice it but a spoon, and Drunk Monk, a name that conjures up tipsy friars making a hash of separating the curds and whey, but it's because of the beer wash. The following day we made up our own sharing platter at home with those and cured meats. The 100g of spianata piccante salami for £2.89 went a long way and lasted for several days so again and again we enjoyed the spicy chilli kick. The Jamon Iberico de Bellota couldn't have been more of a contrast, but equally delicious. Priced £18.99 for 100g we had a couple of slices which came to just over £6. Made from a rare bread pig, it's considered one of the world's finest meats. The rich and gamey flavour is phenomenal thanks to lengthy curing process, which can take between two and four years. That's why it's so expensive but you'll never taste a more intriguing charcuterie. Judges at Farm Shop and Deli Awards described Delilah as “stunning" and “an inspiration to all in retail, hospitality, and service". I couldn't put it better myself.