Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 13 and Version 12 of La Fromagerie, W1U 4EW

This is primarily a cheese shop with a large walk-in cheese room dominating the frontage, in Marylebone. However, it is also a delicatessen stocking fresh fruit and vegetables and a wide variety of dry goods, as well as a small "tasting cafe".

Breakfast/brunch is served in the morning, lunch from 12:30pm, and afternoon tea from 2:30pm. They also have an all-day food menu. Last orders for food are half an hour before closing time.

The cafe area is mostly at the back of the premises, well-lit by a skylight, and comprises a long table seating 12 people in fairly close-packed company, as well as three two-person tables along the right-hand wall. They've also opened up an area to the front of the premises, by the street. On Ewan's February 2008 visit, before the extra space was added, it was full at 12:30pm, and though space became free fairly quickly there were more people waiting, so expect to be squashed in. It also means that there's a slightly frenetic feel to the place.

The menu is available online and (unsurprisingly) favours cheese-based dishes. Meat is provided by the neighbouring charcuterie, the Ginger Pig. The centrepiece of the lunch menu is the cheese plate, which is available either small (around £7.50) or large (around £12.50). This came with five cheeses (all of which are given a full write-up on the reverse of the daily menu), and some apple and raisins for cleansing the palate. It is served with a pile of lovely fresh bread on a board, and a tray of butter. All of the cheeses (a goat's cheese, two soft cheeses, a blue cheese and a firmer, cheddar-like cheese) were, as you'd expect, robust well-flavoured and interesting, and for fans of cheese I'd strongly recommend this option.

My eating companion had the ploughman's lunch, which came with a large chunk of pork pie which was very well-received, a fresh salad, some home-made pickle and a good amount of cheese.

There is a fairly large wine-list with food-matching suggestions. For the cheese plate, they suggest the house red (around £16 for a bottle), which turned out to be really quite excellent, although it didn't quite go with all the cheeses on offer, but that's no great problem.

They also have another shop (but not cafe) in Highbury.

See also:

• Evening Standard review (by David Sexton)
• Time Out review
• Brunch Book Club review
• Debbie Does Dining review
• Londonelicious review
• Chowhound thread
• London Eating comments
• Qype comments

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