Christmas Greengrocers & Cheese Shops

British supermarkets have improved beyond measure when it comes to meat, cheese and international essentials in recent years, but they don't always deliver when it comes to greens. Giant, glossy, identical strains, flawless and flavourless, dominate the shelves, and the organic sections are seldom better. Wilting herbs and dying vegetables are pre-chopped and packaged, ensuring they cease to be edible within a couple of days of purchase (disastrous over the festive season), while fruit is habitually and hopelessly underripe. Markets - especially farmers' markets - are the best place to find really tasty veg, but there are also an increasing number of shops sourcing interesting varieties from small producers, with flavours that remind you just how your satsumas, roast potatoes and sprouts ought to taste.

Daylesford Organic Pimlico

44B Pimlico Road, SW1W 8LP
Lady Carole Bamford's Daylesford Organic is an impressive organic superstore, with a café attached. You could do all your Christmas food shopping here, and be sure of getting great puds, meat and cheese from happy, healthy animals, and even pick up a few beautifully-presented gifts on the way. The true highlight, however, is in the fruit and vegetables section, where seasonal produce comes straight from their kitchen garden. It's here that you'll find the kind of earthy, amusingly-shaped veg that EU regulations and squeamish supermarkets came close to eliminating from UK tables, and that makes you realise that most people live their whole life without finding out what a real potato tastes like. The shop is running special lengthened Christmas hours (see below).

Daylesford Organic Pimlico - Information

Andreas Georghiou and Co

35 Turnham Green Terrace, London, W4 1RG
You can get your entire Christmas sorted on Turnham Green Terrace if you're careful, with a world-class butcher, fishmonger and deli (alongside brilliant gift shops, a proper traditional toy shop and a master-chocolatier) just up the road. Still the stand-out must be this miraculous, organic greengrocer, whose dedication to the finest-tasting produce will revolutionise your sprouts, roasties and chestnut stuffing. The shop underwent a refurbishment last year and has emerged looking better than ever. With an emphasis on minimising packaging and low carbon footprints Andreas and his team can also help keep Christmas guilt-free.

Andreas Georghiou and Co - Information

The Natural Kitchen

77-78 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5JX & 15-17 New Street Square, Fetter Lane, EC4A 3AP
Hand-planted organic vegetables from Sunnyfields Farm arrive at The Natural Kitchen every morning, to be sold to the well-heeled residents of Marylebone - and to plenty of other people who are more than happy to travel for food of this quality. They specialise in British, seasonal veg - in other words just the kind of thing you'll want to put on the Christmas table. The spacious shop is also a delight and includes a gift area, and there's a cafe upstairs and butcher's shop within the store. They also hold regular events where you can talk to chefs and suppliers about why the food tastes so good, and how you should prepare it. Following the success of the Marylebone branch, there is now a Natural Kitchen shop in New Street Square in the City.

The Natural Kitchen, Marylebone - Information
The Natural Kitchen, Fetter Lane - Information

Cheese Shops

Christmas and New Year have traditionally been the time for British cheeses: smooth, stinking blocks of stilton at the centre of the table, or matured cheddar, almost strong enough to burn your mouth, eaten in thick wedges with chutney and oatcakes. Though these matured cheeses are particularly suitable over the bank holidays, when they can be wrapped and refrigerated without loosing their flavour and texture, soft cheeses are also becoming increasingly popular, with English goats cheeses, and the semi-liquid French winter cheese, Vacherin, a perfect end to a rich roast. All of the delicatessens previously mentioned in this article have a chiller cabinet of cheese, but if you want huge choice, and specialist advice, you're best advised to try one of London's increasing number of specialist fromageries as listed below...

La Fromagerie

2 Moxon Street, W1U 4EW
If you want to break out of your cheddar comfort-zone, but are bewildered by the choice available (and by the tendency of French cheeses to suddenly collapse into a foul-smelling goo that taints everything in your fridge), then you head to Patricia Michelson's La Fromagerie, where try-before-you-buy is the rule and the bustling cafe serves up all kinds of products from the shop. They have regular cheese tasting events throughout the year with special 'meet the producer' evenings. But no matter when you visit, the expert staff at La Fromagerie are happy to advise you on how to construct the perfect cheeseboard to follow any meal, and the wines to go with it. There are branches in Marylebone (details below) and in Highbury.

La Fromagerie - Information
La Fromagerie, Highbury - Information

Neal's Yard Dairy Covent Garden

17 Shorts Gardens, WC2H 9UP
This most charming of central London cheese shops no longer has its own dairy on-site, though it is still particularly noted for the type of young, soft cheeses it used to make. There's also an impressive range of mature cheese, from their own dairy in Kent and micro-producers throughout Britain. For something a little different, they're offering a quite exceptional stilton-like British cheese, called Stichelton, as the perfect thing to accompany a glass of port after dinner. A tradition Stilton - in season at this time of year - also comes recommended and available at a discounted rate when you bulk buy a quarter of a kilo or above. Details below are for the branch in Covent Garden - which has the advantage of being right at the heart of London's best gift-shopping area. There's also a branch in Borough Market.

Neal's Yard Dairy Covent Garden - Information
Neal's Yard Dairy Borough Market - Information

Cheese at Leadenhall

4-5 Leadenhall Market, EC3V 1LR
The smelliest spot in Leadenhall Market is this delightful fromagerie, where around 100 varieties of cheese jostle for space with wine, biscuits and harassed City traders under strict orders from their wives to bring a Vacherin back to Hampshire for Christmas Day. As well as various cheese and wine tours, you can book Fondue Parties in the cafe where you'll sample the hot molten cheesy goo while quaffing down some fine wines. Leadenhall Market is well worth dropping in on if you're in the City during the festive season, as it also contains a fantastic fish stall (H S Linwood), and lots of formal wear and accessories shops to buy presents for the man in your life.

Cheese at Leadenhall - Information

La Cave a Fromage

24-25 Cromwell Place, London, SW7 2LD
In true French style, this chic farmhouse cheese shop piles its wares high and stinking, with no fridges, or glass barriers to stop customers getting in for a sniff. Ripeness is the key here - owners Eric Charriaux and Amnon Paldi own a wholesale business supplying cheese to restaurants (Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons and Tom Aitkens among them) so they have the facilities to mature all their cheeses (more than 200 varieties), ensuring they hit the shop floor at the perfect moment. The emphasis is on French cheese, as you'd expect given the name and location, but there are plenty of British and European alternatives on offer, as well as cured meats and fresh bread. Cheese and wine tasting events can also be arranged.

More info: La Cave a Fromage Map, Prices, Opening Times and Nearest Tube