Wally's Delicatessen

Wally's traces its origin to Ignatz Salamon, a Polish-born shopkeeper who fled Nazi persecution — first in Poland, then from a Vienna ghetto — and reached Britain in 1939 after enlisting in the British Army and arranging for his wife and three children to follow. Ignatz ran a general store in Cardiff until his death in 1963, when his sons Wally (Walter) and Otto took over; Wally later set up a dedicated delicatessen under his own name in the city's Victorian Royal Arcade, where the current shop has traded since 1981. It is now run by Steven Salamon, Ignatz's grandson, who has described heritage as central to the business while keeping an eye on current food trends. The shop stocks continental cheeses, cured meats and preserves alongside goods sourced from far beyond Europe — Polish sausages, Canadian hot sauce, Greek honey, South African chutney — reflecting the family's own history of displacement and resettlement. Upstairs, a Viennese-style Kaffeehaus serves cakes and espresso as a direct nod to the Salamons' Central European roots. The business has been featured in trade press as one of Britain's best delis, credited for both the depth of its stock and for staying a genuine family operation across three generations in the same arcade.