Cheese and wine go together like bread and butter and Cheese at Leadenhall, a cheese shop with a cafe and wine bar, is the best place to go in The City for the finest of both.

The Venue
Leadenhall Market in The City is an enclosed market with specialist shops and stalls, where you can find most things you might need in a weekly shop, from butchery to flowers, leather goods to pens, tailoring to jewellery and more, as well as market stalls for all kinds of foods and drink. Originally the market, which dates from the fourteenth century, sold meat, game and poultry and now it attracts floods of visitors and local City workers during the week. Cheese at Leadenhall is just one of many specialist food outlets and there are no prizes for guessing that the speciality here is cheese, with over one hundred British and European varieties that would keep you nibbling from now till Christmas.

The Atmosphere
Basically Cheese at Leadenhall is a shop full of cheese, with a few stools for customers to perch on while they enjoy a quick snack and a glass of good wine. The main cafe side of the operation is outside, weather permitting, with tables and chairs among the throng of passing punters and market traders. It’s a great ambience in which to enjoy a meal and a drink. As the whole market is under cover it doesn’t matter about the weather, although it could be draughty in the middle of winter.

The best atmosphere can be enjoyed around lunchtime when the place is really buzzing. The Cafe at Cheese opens weekdays from noon to 2.30pm and there is usually not an empty seat to be had. The atmosphere is one of people enjoying themselves, the food, the drink and the general activity going on around them. The shop itself is open from 9am to 5pm during the week, with late opening on Thursday and Friday until 8pm.

The Food
Although the meals served in the Cafe at Cheese are described as light, they can also be fairly substantial. You won’t find meat and three veg on the menu but you will find some really tasty snacks and dishes that, almost invariably, involve cheese in some way. The menu is divided into tastes, starters and light options, mains, platters and desserts. You could start with olives, balsamic vinegar and mixed breads or parmesan and cheddar cheese straws (both £1.95). The homemade cheese straws are the chef’s speciality and they’re excellent, with an intense cheese flavour, the kind of more-ish snack that you could carry on eating all day. During cooler months, try the seasonal soup of the day (£4.50) which is always fresh. The tomato and basil is utterly delicious, packed with flavour, served in an enormous bowl with chunks of good, well-sourced bread.

You could have an omelette (£7.95 - £8.95) as a starter but in fact you would probably not want anything else – in fact, it’s so big that it could feed two. They are all made with three eggs, are a wonderful deep yellow colour and perfectly cooked. The cheese omelette is particularly good, although you could have a plain one, or add some ham or mushrooms or all three. Each one is served with a good garnish of salad leaves. Other light options include the croque monsieur (£8.95 - £9.95, depending on the filling), a toasted Cheddar cheese sandwich with Alderton ham and bechamel sauce, or hot paninis (£7.95) filled with combinations like chorizo and Cheddar, Milano salami and Gruyere, goat’s cheese and roasted peppers, ham and Mozzarella or ham with raclette and tomato.

Popular in the winter, raclette is basically melted Swiss cheese which is heated to bubbling point, then scraped off and served over new potatoes with ham, salami and cornichons. It’s also one of the main courses (£8.95 - £11.95). You can also have an open sandwich of rare roast beef (£10.95) on toasted granary bread with Portobello mushrooms, roasted tomatoes with hot horseradish sauce, tuna Nicoise or pasta with vegetables.

What is good as a main course is one of the three platters (£10.95), with a choice of five cheeses and chutney, or ham, speck, beef, salami, chorizo and olives, or a mixture of both cheese and meat with three cheeses, three meats, chutney and olives. All come with that lovely fresh bread. The mixed platter is a real plateful of fresh ingredients – succulent Alderton ham plus beautifully rare slices of beef and Milano salami with three portions of excellent cheese, chutney and olives, a real ploughman’s lunch and no mistake. One thing is for sure: you can’t beat good cold fare and this is some of the best.

There’s more cheese on the pudding menu with a demi-platter (£5.95). Otherwise there are proper desserts (£3.95) of baked rhubarb cheesecake (what else?), apple tart tatin or chocolate hazelnut torte, which is everything it should be, moist, nutty and oh so chocolatey. Only the cheesecake disappoints, as there’s not very much rhubarb and the cake is made of Philadelphia creamcheese and has no biscuit base, which makes it rather too damp. Cheese at Leadenhall is a good place to hold a party, for which there are special platters (£10.95) and a canape menu (£15). Regular wine and cheese tastings are arranged and you can book a mini tour in which you and your guests can get to learn about various different types of cheese.

The Drink
There are sixteen whites and seventeen reds, some available by the glass from £5.95. The reds range in price from £19.50 a bottle for the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 to £39.50 for Luis Canas’ Rioja Reserva 2001. There is also a list of a dozen fine red wines at £41.50 to £175. The whites start at about £19.50 for a Torrontes from Argentina, rising to £69 for a 2004 Puligny Montrachet. A glass of the white Cheverny Sauvignon blanc goes very well with the tomato and basil soup and the cheese omelette, while the red Chateau Argadens Bordeaux Superieur 2004 Cabernet/Merlot is a great accompaniment to the meat and cheese platter. There are a few rose wines on the list plus some sparklers, dessert wines, ports and cognacs too.

The Last Word
It is very easy to enjoy yourself at Cheese at Leadenhall where you can find some of the best cheese in the world kept in tip top condition, complemented by a well-chosen wine list. This is good, simple food and very hard to beat – a real success story on a plate and in a glass.

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