While the name refers to a dairy the accent in this Covent Garden shop is on cheeses.

Situated in the heart of Covent Garden, this small shop provides an outlet for British and Irish farmhouse cheese. It's quite an experience visiting the shop and you are equally likely to see the place as smell it.

As you enter, the olfactory senses face the prospect of overloading. You'll also see huge whole cheeses stacked up one on top of the other. Neal's Yard Dairy stocks all kinds of cheeses from the classics such as Cheddar, Cheshire, Double Gloucester and Stilton to the lesser known Lincolnshire Poachery, Blue Ragstone goat's cheese or the Spenwood sheep's cheese.

The staff are friendly and welcoming and generously dole out a wide range of samples to taste. However, for someone not an expert on the huge range of cheeses the tasting can be a bit confusing - only a true connoisseur can really pick out the subtle variations in the cheeses. The shop encourages new independent producers and publishes a useful cheese list.

In addition, apart from cheeses there are some homemade jams and honeys also for sale as well as butter and cream. Again the accent is on farmhouse or homemade produce. There is also a small section with delicious green and black olives and sun-dried tomatoes.

Rumour has it that Delia Smith buys her cheese here.

Neal's Yard Dairy also export to several European countries and have recently had a cooking programme filmed on their premises. If you are a cheese lover then this is a must visit place. Even if you aren't its worth the effort.

A quite unique shop with an old world charm.