I J Mellis

It’s hard not to love this place because… Cheese. And I mean serious cheese. Like, cheese you can’t get anywhere else. Mega cheese. Smelly cheese. Creamy cheese. Crumbly cheese. Cheese cheese.
They also have things like fabulous, locally made real bread, crackers, and sometimes local fruit. Basically things that go well with cheese.
Probably don’t come here if you don’t like cheese.

Headed here to pick up some cheese for a small dinner party per recommendation of another Unilocaler! Lovely little shop. The guys working there were very friendly and let me try the cheeses before I bought. I don’t really know much about cheese (but I want to learn!) so they gave me some good suggestions too. I got a tremendous Isle of Mull cheddar and I can’t wait to go back to get more. Also, the onion marmalade is scrumptious. Buy this for a dinner party and everyone will love you!

Best service in town. Personable. Remember their customers. Work fast as they can. Great prices and advices. Basic excellent good service with super product — unusual thesedays!!! Thanks!!!

Nice cheese, shame about the service.
Maybe it was an off day but when I recently went in the service was very disappointing. First we had to wait 3 minutes for anyone to even show face, then we were finally handled by someone who was lacking basic customer service skills and came across as being pretty arrogant.
I wasn’t expecting that and I don’t expect to go back, I far prefer the selection down the road, and more importantly, the non arrogance.

Brilliant store (if you can handle the smell). What a choice of cheese! Would strongly recommend.

Cheese! And plenty of it. They are the de facto place for cheeses in Scotland, with a fantastic selection of cheeses from Scotland, the rest of Britain and mainland Europe. They also sell Au Gourmand’s bread — the best bread in this country.

Oh I love cheese. I love all cheese, even the stuff you’re not supposed to like. The stuff they make as a challenge, assuming everyone will hate it then some how it catches on. You know, like deal or no deal. And communism. I love all that stuff.
Now I’ve been in some good cheese shops in my time. Some great ones actually. But none of them (expect maybe one if Coutances in France, but that might be a bit of a trek) come remotely close to this place. It’s got every cheese under the sun. And it stinks in there, in a wonderful way.
The staff really know what they’re talking about. Really friendly, really helpful, they’ll let you try anything before you buy it. And they often sample some of the more interesting stuff anyway. They also sell other middle class things, like olives and artisan breads. Obviously, being a specialist and extensively stocked you’ll pay more than in the supermarket. Quite a bit more. But it’s worth every penny.

I was very impressed by Clark’s, another cheese store located in Bruntsfield. However, Mellis, which is just a few minutes away in Morningside is probably the cheeselovers heaven.
It’s one of many Mellis stores in Edinburgh, the most famous one being located in Old Town, but certainly doesn’t disappoint. Dutch, Italian, Spanish, French and of course Scottish cheese can be bought here, but it’s more than just a cheese shop; all sorts of bread, antipasto and olives can be bought as well as eggs, ham and even baking ingredients of the more wholesome variety.
Naturally, it isn’t cheap, but definitely a fair price for good cheese, and fresh food. If I keep discovering places like this in addition to Valvona and Crolla, I may just stop going to the supermarkets altogether. or at least until I can’t afford to anymore.

Anster
Connage Crowdie
Criffel
Cromarty
Dunsyre Blue
Grimbister Farm
Lanark Blue
Loch Arthur Cheddar
Lochnagar
St Duthus
& Strathdon Blue
If you’re looking to take home some Scottish cheese, this I.J. Mellis is a great starting place. The staff are friendly and knowledgable and happy to recommend cheeses to suit each customer’s palette and tastebuds. More importantly, they’re happy to dish out free samples!
Based in Morningside, this branch also stocks a cracking selection of fresh bread, fruit and veg, ham, fish, salami, oat crackers, olives, chutneys, olive oil, vinegar, honey, jam and coffee. In fact, if I lived in the area and had a bigger disposable income, I’d probably do most of my shopping here!

I absolutely love cheese. I like all kinds of cheese but my favourites have to be good old stilton, brie and I also like a bit of wensleydale. Whenever it comes to getting a dessert with a meal I’m always torn whether to go for a sweet or a cheese board. As I’m more of a savoury than a sweet kind of gal I usually go for the cheese board. Mmm…
I.J Mellis stocks every kind of cheese you can imagine and it’s always of the highest quality, no stringy old cheese strings in here.
If you’re unsure where it is, just take a wander down Morningside Road and you’ll smell it and then just follow wherever your nose takes you. Cheese-​tastic.

I don’t consider myself a fussy eater, and as a fairly gluttonous specimen I’ll devour pretty much anything put in front of me as long as it doesn’t involve ketchup, visible custard, coleslaw, or aspic jelly. I greedily tear the last shreds of chicken from the bone, have no problem consuming gristle, cartilage or shell, and once when I found my box of raspberries covered in tiny little bugs, I did what any good hunter-​gatherer would, and scoffed each one of them, including the six-​legged hangers-​on.
Somehow or other though, I just can’t enjoy blue cheese, no matter how hard I try. It actually does both smell and taste like vomit, and contributes greatly to the stomach-​churning fumes that keep this foodie firmly out of I J Mellis 9 times out of 10.
A plasticky, dye coloured Red Leicester does for me, but you can’t argue with this lot’s track record.

An old dusty exterior shouldn’t detract your senses from being tingled when you wander past this place. Indeed its a cheese-​mongers, and yes that entails a waft of pungent cheesy smells as you walk by, but take a closer look inside and the welcoming staff will offer you samples, inform you about the origins of the cheeses, and point you in the direction of the best flavours.
They source some of their Italian cheeses from a local East Lothian dairy farm resulting in some truly fine mozzarella, an interesting Scamorza (a kind of delicate and smoky hard cheese), and copiously piled slabs of Parmesan. Aside from cheese, you’ll likely spot an array of cured meats. Having a nosy around the place I was quickly offered a slice of Coppa (a type of Salami/​Chorizo). Its salty, dense flavour was intense and demanded another taste, of which I was duly offered. The price of such delights, however, was daunting with plenty of prices in the double figures. Nonetheless you can pick up a modest portion as something of an indulgent treat.

In deepest, darkest Morningside there exists a wonderful branch of the renowned Edinburgh based cheesemonger, Iain Mellis. I’ve already reviewed the original branch in Victoria Street and this one is just as lovely and just as much of a turophile’s fantasy. It stocks a large variety of obscure and tasty cheeses, but in addition, it also sells ‘general provisions’ (this is the 1940’s housewife in me coming out…) like bread and fruit and veg. The staff here know their stuff and will happily guide you in the right direction and help you try things along the way. Probably best to give it a miss if you’re on a diet.

If you can withstand the smell from this place, it’s definitely worth venturing inside to sample some of their delicious cheese. On a recent wander along Morningside Road, my friend and I decided to pop in for a look around. The handsome man behind the counter was more than happy to advise us on our choice of cheese and allowed us to sample some of them too.
I finally settled on some taleggio cheese, on the recommendation of the charming cheesemonger, which was very delicious indeed. The cheese was pretty good too.

I love cheese, and consequently love this shop! They have so many different cheeses available that it truly boggles the mind! You can buy your standard fare cheeses here, but they offer cheeses from every corner of the globe, so it’s worth trying out some new tastes, you’re sure to find several that you like! The staff are brilliant, really knowledgeable and a big bonus, as previous reviewer mentioned, is that you can try before you buy, and this alone puts Mellis cheesemongers streets ahead of any other. Word of warning, you can smell the cheese from the street, which I love, but if you’re not keen on smelly cheeses, it’s not the best place for you!

If you like cheese, you will love IJ Mellis. There are three branches of this cheesemonger in Edinburgh and it sells a massive selection of speciality cheeses from around the world. The staff are very helpful and let you sample wee bits of the cheese you are interested in so it’s great to be able to try before you buy.
They have recently started selling a range of olives too, which I think can only be a good thing!