I.J. Mellis Cheesemonger

This room was the company's maturing cellar first and a shop second: Glasgow held and aged the cheese for every Mellis branch until demand turned it into a store of its own in 1995 (venue).

Why go

Iain Mellis had spent almost 15 years in the British cheese industry before he opened his first shop, on Edinburgh's Victoria Street in 1993, and Glasgow followed two years later. His son Rory, now a director, puts the edge down to where the cheese sleeps: "With Dad's background in dairy science, we certainly have the edge on other retailers to take cheeses further and keep them stored at the best possible condition at our maturing rooms in Leith" (Speciality Food Magazine). The house definition of farmhouse cheese is milk from a single herd rather than several, which is the whole reason a wheel here tastes of somewhere. The Glasgow shop has been refurbished and now carries its own charcuterie room, so the meat is sliced in front of you rather than pulled from a pack.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Scottish counter first. Time Out sends people for "tangy Isle of Mull Cheddar", then Mimolette and Tomme de Savoie from the European side ref. Add oatcakes and a chutney and you have a board you can eat on a bench in Kelvingrove Park. Ask for charcuterie cut to order while you are there.
• Avoid: walking in wanting lunch. There is no cafe, and the eight seats through the back belong to the Cheese Lab tastings. Say how many people you are feeding and let them cut to it, since everything comes off the wheel.

What locals & experts say

• Time Out Glasgow (2015): "One of the best cheesemongers in the whole of the UK." Eleven years old, so read it as the standing reputation rather than this week's stock. ref
• Rosalind Erskine (Scotsman Food and Drink, 17 May 2022), reporting the Cheese Lab opening at the back of this branch: six cheeses a session, discussed for "taste, smell and texture" with the producers' stories attached. Area manager Kari Paul: "After the success of our weekly cheese tastings in Edinburgh, we are delighted to bring this popular event to Glasgow." ref
• Rory Mellis (Speciality Food Magazine), on how the Glasgow shop came to exist: "After two years he opened his next store in the west end of Glasgow and was joined by my mum, Karen." ref
• Food hygiene, checked: Pass, inspected 14 October 2025. ref

Good to know

• Sites: six Mellis shops. Edinburgh has three (Victoria Street, Stockbridge, Morningside), plus St Andrews, London's Crouch End since late 2024, and this row is Glasgow, 492 Great Western Road. The Cheese Lounge wine bar is the Morningside shop, not this one.
• Hours: 9am to 6:30pm Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm Sunday. Provisions stop, not an evening plan.
• Tastings: the Cheese Lab seats eight through the back, every second Wednesday after the shop shuts, as of the 2022 report. Confirm before you plan around it.
• On the Kelvin Walkway route: the shop sits on the Great Western Road stretch at Kelvinbridge, across the road from Roots, Fruits & Flowers at 455-457 and four doors from Cottonrake's bakery arm at 497. Coming off the river path at Kelvinbridge, cheese, vegetables and a pastry are all within a hundred yards of each other, which is why this stop and Roots were added to the corpus at all.
• Provenance: added by curation for the Kelvin Walkway route, not from Jeff's own saved list.

Jeff's take (his words)

• Route, dictated July 2026: "walk the Kelvin Walkway down to Byres Road, get a coffee at Perch & Rest, stop at Roots and Fruits for some vegetables, get a pastry at Cottonrake, some cheese at I.J. Mellis, then continue down through Kelvingrove Park." He said "Melis" and the shop is the reading of it recorded in plan 001, still to be confirmed with him, so take this as his route rather than his verdict on the counter.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — This room was the company's maturing cellar before it was a shop, which is why the Glasgow counter has the depth it does, and the family still matures its cheese in Leith rather than buying it ready to sell. Time Out called it one of the best cheesemongers in the UK and sends people for Isle of Mull Cheddar, Mimolette and Tomme de Savoie. There is a charcuterie room where they slice meat to order and an eight-seat tasting space through the back. For a cook it is the provisioning stop on the Great Western Road stretch, forty paces from a greengrocer and a bakery, and hygiene is a current Pass from October 2025.