Food & Drink

The Wigan cafe with pancakes so good it has queues down the street

10/10 would queue for banoffee French toast.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 20th September 2024

Mayhap Coffee in Wigan is clearly doing something right – walk past on any given weekend and you’re likely to see a polite line up people waiting outside its doors.

They’re queueing up for what’s become one of Greater Manchester’s very best brunches and coffee spots.

Tucked down a quiet street in Tyldesley, Mayhap Coffee is a proper indie that’s become a firm favourite with the local community since opening two years ago.

Rain or shine (and it’s usually rain in Wigan), locals make the pilgrimage to Chapel Street for their fix of pancakes, coffees and brunch dishes.

As it’s walk-in only, you’ve got to really commit to get a seat in this cosy spot – but it is always, always worth the effort.

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Hero dishes here include their huge pancake stacks, which are always lauded as some of the best in Greater Manchester, and their tower French toasts, including the monthly specials.

As time’s gone on, the Mayhap Coffee French toast has taken the shape of tiramisu, apple pie, and even Easter egg.

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But you know what never goes out of style? Banoffee fudge French toast, that’s what. This is a literal cube of delicious brioche wearing a wizard’s hat of mascarpone on top.

Another star of the show is the humble beans on toast, elevated here with their own baked beans recipe, lashings of two different cheeses, and a fried egg on top if that’s what you fancy.

There’s also an nduja scramble, where this spicy, melty sausage is cooked in with fluffy eggs before being loaded onto toasted farmhouse bread and topped with feta and spring onion.

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Mayhap takes its coffee seriously and really knows its stuff, with a team who are more than happy to explain exactly what and why is going into your morning brew.

Its charming exterior is all thanks to a designated High Street Heritage Action Zone, which has seen several shop fronts in the area brought back to their glory days.

The sash windows at Mayhap Coffee now look almost exactly as they would have in 1895.

Shame those Victorians never got to experience the delights of a Mini Egg pancake stack, though…

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Featured image: The Manc Group