Cheese lovers, listen up.

Wander through the pretty shopping streets around Seven Dials (an ideal extension to a Covent Garden visit) and sooner or later you’ll catch a whiff of the calories on sale at Neal’s Yard Dairy. The dairy originally made its own cheeses, but the focus is now on sourcing them, which it does from around 40 different small-scale producers up and down the UK and Ireland. Neal’s Yard Dairy visits these farms and dairies regularly, and once the cheese arrives in London it’s matured until it’s in perfect shape to be sold in one of three London shops.

The results are delicious. I usually dive head-first into the English varieties—don’t miss the Wensleydale—but there are British-made takes on overseas classics too, as well as a small but thoughtfully chosen range of other dairy products and appropriate accompaniments.

Behind the counter you’ll find enthusiastic staff oozing cheese-related advice and ready to offer unsolicited (but always utterly welcome) slithers of whichever products you care to try, and if that’s not enough, Neal’s Yard Dairy offers regular cheese-tasting events too.