Cheese.
Just saying it makes everyone smile.
And London’s gone whey overboard for the stuff – there are restaurants serving boozy fondue; cheesemongers packed to the rafters with locally-made cheese; pop-ups offering bottomless raclette; tasting nights; cheese & wine pairing workshops; and not one but three restaurants entirely dedicated to cheese.
So we’ve curated a list of the very best places to buy and eat cheese in London. All for your perusal. Enjoy.
CHEESE RESTAURANTS
Kappacasein | Borough
With the help of a traditional 600 litre copper vat bought over from France, these guys have been hand-crafting cheese (Bermondsey Hard Pressed, Bermondsey Frier, and Ricotta) since 2008. They’ve got two cheese shops – one in Bermondsey’s Spa Terminus market where every Saturday morning you can head down, have a natter with the cheesemongers, nibble on some tasters, and potentially take something home for tea; and one in Borough Market where Thursday-Saturday you’ll find them serving up legendary toasties & raclettes that are just on another level.
Details: 1 Voyager Industrial Estate, SE16 4RP | Borough Market, 1 Stoney Street, SE1 9AA
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La Fromagerie | Marylebone, Bloomsbury, Highbury
France, Italy, Britain, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, Holland, and Germany are just a few of the countries suppling cheese to La Fromagerie. From the point it arrives on their doorstep it’s quickly whisked away to be tended to by little yellow elves in hats (their in-house cheese connoisseurs) until it’s reached its peak deliciousness. Then it’s upstairs to be ogled by you through the windows of their mighty cheese room, sold in slabs for home, or to melted into soufflés, raclette and fondue and served up in the restaurant here.
Details: 52 Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1N 3LL | Marylebone: 2-6 Moxon Street, W1U 4EW | Highbury: 30 Highbury Park, N5 2AA
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‘Flette | Dulwich & Herne Hill
‘Flette is a roving market stall that serves just one dish, and does it extremely well. Frenchman Jean-Pierre mans three enormous pans of bubbling tartiflette (an outrageous combination of onion, bacon, potatoes, white wine, herbs & molten Reblochon cheese), which you can either wolf down on the spot or take home to reheat later. You’ll usually find him at North Cross Road market on Saturdays, and Herne Hill market on Sundays – you can check his instagram for updates. But don’t worry, if the stall’s there, you’ll smell it before you see it.
Details: Saturdays: North Cross Road, SE22 9DQ | Sundays: Railton Road, SE24 0JN
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Cheese at Leadenhall | The City
Tucked away in Leadenhall Market is this cheesemonger-slash-restaurant-slash-bar. It’s all headed up by a particularly knowledgeable woman named Sue Cloke who, prior to 12 years running her own business, carved a career in the smelly stuff at both Harvey Nichols and Paxton & Whitfield. You can pop in for a quick bite and a glass of something well-matched, or book in for a full-on cheese (and optional wine) tasting, where you’ll learn a little bit about how different cheeses are made, and more importantly, get to eat it.
Details: 4-5 Leadenhall Market, EC3V 1LR
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Morty and Bobs | King’s Cross, Kensal Rise
Sure, Morty & Bob’s isn’t exclusively a cheese restaurant. Open from breakfast through to dinner, they have dozens of other dishes like cheeseburgers and brunch buns adorably vying for your attention. But you’re here for the cheese toasties: get them loaded with onions, mushroom & truffle, or spicy ‘Nduja – and more melted cheese than you could reasonably expect two slices of bread to contain.
Details: 49 Coal Drops Yard, N1C 4DQ | Westfield Food Court, Ariel Way, W12 7GE | 118 College Road, NW10 5HD
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Champagne + Fromage | Greenwich, Covent Garden, Brixton
Shop & restaurant, it does exactly what it says on the tin: great Champagne and over fifty different types of French cheese. You can drop in and take away, or make an evening of it with the likes of bespoke cheese boards curated to your taste, baked camembert with figs and thyme, or non-cheese in the form of charcuterie boards and duck confit. Champagne + Fromage Covent Garden also runs regular tasting nights, during which you’ll try five different regional cheeses paired up with grower champagnes, all topped off with tartines & cured meats.
Details: 34 Greenwich, Church Street, SE10 9BL | 22 Wellington Street, WC2E 7DD | Unit 10-11, Brixton Village, SW9 8PR
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The Cheese Bar | Camden
The starters are cheese, the mains are cheese, the desserts are cheese. A lot of it’s melted, all of it’s delicious, and there are plenty of equally enjoyable drinks – both soft and alcoholic – to wash it all down. The Cheese Bar started out as a toastie truck run by Matthew Carver, whose passion for curds knows no bounds: he now also runs a cheesemongers on Columbia Road (Funk), a restaurant sending all-you-can-eat British cheese around on a conveyor belt (Pick & Cheese at KERB Seven Dials), and a floating cheese restaurant moored up on the canal in Paddington (inevitably named ‘The Cheese Barge‘).
Throughout winter The Cheese Bar has fondue nights every Thursday, serving up bubbling pots of delicious, molten cheese. Each month, a different guest chef is invited to put their own twist on it: this year, the line-up features Carl Clarke and David Wolanksi from Chick’N’Sours (December), Decatur’s Tom Browne (January 2024), Tom Mathews and Sian Evans from Chatsworth Bakehouse in February, and Koya’s Shuko Odo in March.
Details: Camden Market, North London, NW1 8AH | Sheldon Square, Paddington, W2 6HY
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St Moritz | Soho
As the oldest Swiss restaurant in London – having opened in 1974 – they know their fondue. You’ll be able to choose from a selection of pots, from the Fondue Neuchateloise (fresh crusty bread with gruyere & emmental cheese) to Fondue Bourguignonne (cubes of prime beef in hot oil, cooked to your liking, and enjoyed with a selection of sauces). And to finish, you can enjoy a pot of their finest melted Swiss chocolate, in which you can dip a variety of fresh fruits at your leisure.
Details: 161 Wardour Street, W1F 8WJ
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Le Vieux Comptoir | Marylebone
The French do many things right. Two of which are wine and cheese. And Le Vieux Comptoir do both of those exceptionally well. It’s a wine shop-cum-deli-cum-restaurant in the centre of Marylebone, which will make you feel like you’ve strolled into a continental village gem. It’s all lit by candlelight, and alongside cheese boards and traditional fondue savoyarde, they offer all-you-can-eat raclette.
Details: 26-28 Moxon Street, W1U 4EU
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Gloria | Shoreditch
If you’re reading this article, we’re going to take a punt and assume that eating a bowl of cacio e pepe that’s been mixed up, tableside, in a giant wheel of Pecorino cheese features quite highly on your bucket list.
Details: 54-56 Great Eastern Street, EC2A 3QR
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Lady of the Grapes | Covent Garden
Lady of the Grapes is also a countess of the cheese. This cosy Covent Garden wine bar allows you to build your own cheeseboard with hand-picked artisanal French cheeses, from burgundy-washed soft cheeses to crumbly blues and chilli-peppered sheep’s cheese. Perfect if you fancy something a little different, and you can apply that logic to the wines, too – at least 80% of them come from female winemakers.
Details: 16 Maiden Lane, WC2E 7NJ
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Fire & Fromage | Southbank
Jimmy Garcia’s often called the ‘pop-up king’. And you don’t get a name like that without knowing what the people want. So JG’s back for another year with his pop-up on the Southbank serving boozy hot chocolates, mulled cider and bottomless raclette, which you can enjoy huddled around a little riverside fire-pit with toast-your-own s’mores for afters.
Details: Outside the Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
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Chalet Suisse at Somerset House | Strand
Jamie Lau
Overlooking the glittering mayhem of Somerset House’s winter ice rink, you’ll find the pop-up Chalet Suisse. It’s a relaxed, cosy space where you and a few pals can indulge in fondue made with a secret blend of Swiss cheeses (with the option to zhuzh it up with mushrooms or truffle); a baked wheel of Vacherin Mont d’Or for two; or if you don’t want to share at all, a bowl of your all-time favourite, Älpermagronen (mac & cheese with apple and mushroom).
Details: Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA
CHEESE SHOPS & MARKETS
Chiswick Cheese Market | Chiswick
Yep, it’s basically the Columbia Road of cheese. On the third Sunday of every month, over two dozen stalls set up on Chiswick High Road to hawk their wares (made anywhere from West London, to Cornwall, to Italy), alongside all the bread, crackers, chutney & charcuterie you could dream of. And as the market grows, there’s an increasing number of tastings, classes and events to get involved with, too.
Details: 197-199 Old Market Place, Chiswick High Rd, London W4 2DR | Third Sunday of every month
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Paxton & Whitfield | St James’s
Hard cheese, soft cheese, blue cheese, they’ve got it all. Or so thought Queen Victoria when she appointed them her official cheesemonger in 1850 (yes, they’ve been going that long). Winston Churchill wouldn’t get his curds from anywhere else. And now you can buy it online or in one of their two London-based shops.
Details: 93 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6JE | 22 Cale Street, SW3 3QU
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Buchanans Cheesemonger | Paddington
Rhuaridh Buchanan – the brains behind Buchanans – passed up the opportunity to work with legendary triple Michelin-Star wining chef Thomas Keller in New York in order to train as an affineur (essentially, a cheese guru) at world-class cheesemongers Paxton and Whitfield. That’s a pretty big commitment to cheese. And it speaks for the passion and with that the quality of the cheeses you’ll find at his own Paddington-based shop, where over 100 European and British cheeses are matured on-site and hand-picked for the shop counter each day.
Details: 5A Porchester Place, W2 2BS
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Neal’s Yard Dairy | Covent Garden, Borough, Islington, Bermondsey
As well as the famed Covent Garden and Borough Market shops (where there’s a liberal sampling policy), you can thankfully now buy Neal’s Yard cheeses on the tinternet, or – for a mere £47 a month – set yourself up with cheese subscription where you’ll be delivered approximately 1.2kg of the most seasonal cheese every month for a year. Neal’s Yard Dairy also runs classes teaching you everything from the tradition of British farmhouse cheese-making, to cheese pairings, and crafting the best cheese board. But the best part? Sometimes they let you try on the outfit.
Details: 17 Shorts Gardens, WC2H 9AT | 8 Park St, SE1 9AB | 107 Essex Road, N1 2SL | Arch 10, Apollo Business Park, Lucey Way, SE16 3UF
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Rippon Cheese | Pimlico
The shelves of this quaint Pimlico curd-haven are lined with 500 different types of cheese from across Europe – that’s a different cheese every day for one year and 135 days, to be exact. And? They make cheese wedding cakes.
Details: 26 Upper Tachbrook St, Pimlico, SW1V 1SW
If you like cheese… there’s a good chance you might like these wine bars, too