Cuisipro Palm Grater €34.50 Highs: This US-made, ergonomically designed grater has a warranty which lasts for a full quarter of a century, so if it falls apart any time between now and early 2033 you should be able to get yourself a new one.

It has a neat plastic storage compartment which sits underneath the very sharp blades and neatly catches the grated cheese, reducing the mess considerably and removing the need for a chopping board. The rubber strip along the base makes it non-slip and the storage container will come in handy in case you grate too much.

Lows: The base is not airtight, however, so cheese, once grated, will have a limited life. It seems like a high price to pay for what is basically an ordinary cheese grater atop a plastic box. It also seemed a little too likely to grate Pricewatch's fingers, and getting the lid off was ever so slightly difficult.

Verdict: A bit pricey

Star rating: **

Masterclass Cheese Grater

€27.50

Highs: This rotary grater is a nice little device which will appeal to the gadget lovers out there. It is clearly very well made and looks set to have a long life of grating ahead of it. The blades are very sharp, yet, given its barrel-shaped design, it is all but impossible to cut yourself using it. It cuts through cheeses such as cheddar like butter, and grating big mountains of softer cheeses is pretty effortless.

Lows: It did struggle slightly with harder cheeses such as Parmesan, however. It will take up a substantial amount of space in your cupboard and some people might find it unnecessarily fiddly. While, like all the other devices we tried, it is dishwasher safe, actually fitting all the oddly shaped bits and pieces into said dishwasher might take Rubik's cube-solving skills.

Verdict: Clunkily efficient

Star rating: ***

Tefal multi-purpose grater

€15.95

Highs: This dinky machine looks more like a pepper grinder than a cheese grater. It is genuinely multi-purpose and is very easy to use once the cheese (or chocolate or nutmeg or whatever) is pushed into the barrel and turned furiously. Using this at a dinner party means people have to grate their own and don't get to stick their grubby paws in the pre-grated stuff.

Lows: There is a significant amount of assembling and disassembling involved here and grating even a small bit of cheese takes a fair bit of effort. The barrel is on the small side so it will require frequent refilling. All these problems are minor compared with the squeaking. When we used this it sounded like a mischief of mice was bearing down on our cheese.

Verdict: Loud and funky

Star rating: ***

Oxo Good Grip Grater

€9.95

Highs: This is the simplest grater we found and the cheapest, too. It is a product that does exactly what it was designed to do without any fuss. It requires no assembly and no instructions and is up and grating in seconds. It has a nice, non-slip rubber handle, which is what you might expect, although the "non-slip feet" which keep it steady at the base, were a welcome surprise. It grates hard cheese into very fine little slivers without any difficulty at all.

Lows: It's not grate (sorry) for softer cheeses, however. It is not really the sort of grater you'd pass round a table, and you'd be well advised to use it with caution as vigorous grating can easily lead to a bloody accident.

Verdict: Nice and simple

Star rating: ****

Culinaire 3-Drum Food Mill

€15.95

Highs: This grates, shreds and slices and can be used for cheese, vegetables and nuts, the manufacturers assured us, making it potentially the most versatile of the options we came across. It was also one of the cheapest. You simply put the food to be grated into the small barrel, press down and turn the handle, and it comes out through the centre of the device. It has three different grating drums which are easy to put on and take off, is simple to use and is dishwasher safe.

Lows: It is a little bulky and quite ugly looking - while it certainly works very well, it looks cheap. We can also imagine the extra grating barrels not being used frequently (or at all) and eventually making their way into that cupboard where useless kitchen implements go to die.

Verdict: Versatile but ugly

Star rating: ***