A mere five-minute walk from York Minster, but beyond the city walls and the crowds, you will find this dairy-obsessed delicatessen. In its hidden garden and back-room cafe, AKA the Speakcheesey (!), you can linger over high-grade platters of British and European cheese and charcuterie. At weekends, visitors can enjoy pizzas featuring combinations such as green peppers, red onion, Scottish venison salami and Doddington Dairy cheese.

Love Cheese is an independent, family-run cheese shop and café nestled just outside the historic city walls of York. Passionate about bringing people together over exceptional food, Love Cheese offers a curated selection of artisan cheeses from across the UK and Europe, alongside locally sourced accompaniments, wines, and deli delights. Whether you’re a seasoned cheese connoisseur or just beginning your journey into the world of fromage, their knowledgeable team is always ready to help you discover something new and delicious.

Opened summer 2022, diagonally opposite York Minster, this stylish, cosy wine shop and bistro has rapidly established itself as one of the city’s best places to eat and drink. The warm service is well-drilled, the cooking pin-sharp. Sharing plates such as a duck fat pavé topped with punchy, funky black garlic aioli and deeply savoury Old Winchester cheese, mix classical technique and contemporary influences with great confidence.

On Gillygate Love Cheese sells cheese from Yorkshire and across the UK, with a few continental varieties, as well as artisan bread. You can create a curry as good as the one in your favourite restaurant with a pack of flavourings from Rafi’s Spicebox on Goodramgate. The first traditional butcher’s shop to open in York in many years, Appleton’s sells delicious pork pies, cured hams and patés from its home on Lendal.

Locals Harry and Phoebe Baines have sourced cheeses from near and far to create an award-winning counter. The selection covers continental as well as British cheeses but this is your chance to taste some of the county’s best, and most unusual, varieties (try the Ribblesdale smoked goat’s cheese, Botton Creamery cheddars or intense Yorkshire blue). There’s also a small café on site.

Love Cheese have lots of different cheese and wine tasting sessions. They even have ‘Bubbles and Brie’ which sounds utterly wonderful to me – two of my favourite things paired together!. “If you are ever in York feel free to pop in and see us, we’re based on Gillygate, only a stones throw from the historic Minster.

Love Cheese - A cheesemonger which also serves a delicious array of cheese platters (and wine, if desired) for lunch. When I've been there I have always asked them to surprise me and they have selected a delicious array of cheeses for me, always well explained and with a suggested order of consumption.

This Gillygate fromagerie offers cheese subscriptions, cheese hampers, cheese selections, cheese gift boxes, cheese vouchers… you can’t go wrong here. Wine, beer and spirits add to the appealing gift options too. This is the gift that keeps on giving for any celebration.

Now for the final pick, Love Cheese is for all the cheese lovers out there. Located just outside of the city walls step into a cosy and comforting setting, where you can sample a charming cheese board paired with incredible wines.

This restaurant is also on Gillygate just outside the city walls and is the perfect place for cheese lovers. At the back of the shop there is a small cafe which leads out into a ‘secret’ garden during the summer.

At number 16 Love Cheese is a fine cheese emporium with a cheese-based café at the back. There’s more cheese at Aly’s at number 81 Gillygate. Aly is a Turkish baker specialising in Basque cheesecakes.

Sells the best artisan cheeses from Yorkshire, the UK and Europe as well as carefully selected wines. You can also order your cheese and wine online!

Love Cheese (love-cheese.co.uk) tells you all you need to know while Café Number 8 (www.cafeno8.co.uk) is worth booking for dinner.

A cheese-lovers paradise if you’re looking for cheese-themed beer gardens in York. 16 Gillygate, York YO31 7EQ – 01904 622967