Seven Dials Gourmet Cheese Shop: Belt Turns From Noon

The belt starts moving at noon on weekdays and at eleven at weekends, which is why the stools around it fill up so quickly. Pick & Cheese sits inside Seven Dials Market on Short's Gardens, London WC2H 9AT, and it is not a shop with a counter and a queue: it is a curved conveyor that carries small plates of cheese past a row of seats, and you take what looks good as it comes. Trading runs until 9.30pm Monday to Friday, until 9.30pm on Saturday, and until 8pm on Sunday.

The company calls these the world's first cheese conveyor belt restaurants, and the format is closer to a sushi bar than to a cheese counter. Plates travel a loop, each one carrying a single cheese with its own pairing and condiment, so the decision in front of you is never a whole board but one bite at a time. British and Irish cheeses are bought direct from the makers who supply the wider group, and the pairings are built to make each one taste like more than the sum of its parts.

The group behind it began with a grilled cheese sandwich operation and grew into a small fleet of cheese-focused venues, including a barge and a truck. That history explains the tone: this is a place that takes cheese seriously without treating it as a museum exhibit.

Watch two loops before you commit. The first pass tells you what is on offer; the second tells you what is running out. Start with a soft cheese and work towards the blues, because a blue eaten first will flatten everything that follows. Take the condiment on the plate even if it looks odd, since the kitchen has paired it deliberately, and leave the bread until the middle of the meal rather than filling up on it.

The belt rewards curiosity more than appetite. Six or seven plates is a proper lunch for one person, and sharing means you can try a dozen without over-ordering. If a plate you wanted passes and does not come back, ask the staff: the kitchen will often send another portion round.

Take a plate only once it has reached you rather than reaching over the glass, and put the empty plate on the shelf under the belt rather than stacking it in front of your neighbour. The belt runs one way, so the space in front of your stool is your only reach: if you are sharing, sit next to each other rather than opposite, and pass plates along instead of leaning.

Nobody will rush you, but the seats are limited and the room turns over quickly at peak times. An hour at the belt is normal; two is a long lunch. If you are unsure what something is, the staff working the room will explain it without making you feel like a beginner. Ask about the milk, the age and the maker, and you will get a straight answer, because the whole point of the format is to let a single cheese hold your attention for a minute.

Seats are booked through the group's reservation page, and parties are capped at six, so a bigger group needs to split. Book ahead for Friday and Saturday evenings, when the food hall is at its busiest and the belt becomes the warmest ticket in the building. Mid-afternoon on a Tuesday is the calmest slot of the week, with the belt still running and nobody waiting behind you.

Walk-ups are handled at the door rather than at the belt, so the queue you see is for the room rather than for a particular stool. Sunday closes two hours earlier than the rest of the week, at 8pm, and the last plates go round well before that.

Tuesday and Wednesday between two and four in the afternoon are the calmest hours: the lunch rush has gone, the evening bookings have not started, and the belt keeps turning. Saturday from eleven is the opposite, with families and shoppers arriving together and a queue forming by half past twelve. If you want the room to yourself for photographs of the belt, aim for a weekday opening at noon, when the first plates go out.

Seven Dials Market is a cluster of independent counters under one roof, and the belt sits at its centre rather than in a corner. That makes it a decent compromise for a mixed group: the cheese people get their loop, and everyone else can order from a neighbouring counter without leaving the table. Short's Gardens runs off Neal Street, so Neal's Yard and the Covent Garden piazza are both a few minutes away on foot.

Seven Dials is a junction of seven streets with a monument at its centre, and it is small enough to walk in ten minutes without a plan. Monmouth Street and Earlham Street carry most of the independent shops, Neal's Yard is a courtyard of painted shopfronts just off Short's Gardens, and Covent Garden piazza is a five-minute walk east. Do the walk before you eat rather than after, because the belt has a way of ending the afternoon.

Pick & Cheese, Seven Dials Market, Short's Gardens, London WC2H 9AT. Hours: Monday to Friday 12pm to 9.30pm; Saturday 11am to 9.30pm; Sunday 11am to 8pm. Reservations through the group's booking page; maximum party of six. Covent Garden and Leicester Square are the nearest stations, each about six minutes on foot.

No. There is no retail counter here, so nobody will wrap a wedge for you at the end of the meal. If you want cheese for the fridge, Neal's Yard Dairy's Covent Garden shop on Short's Gardens is on the same street, and its counter is built for exactly that errand.