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Cornwall · Food & Drink · Truro

Where to eat in Truro.

Cornwall's only city has a food scene to match its status — more varied, more ambitious, and more consistently reliable than anywhere else in the county.

Photograph — Oast House Archive / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Truro · Mid Cornwall

Truro is a city in size and civic confidence but Cornish in character — a cathedral town of Georgian streets and independent businesses that has developed a food culture which draws on both its regional identity and its role as the county's economic centre. The restaurants here serve a discerning local population of professionals, academics, and food-literate visitors, which raises the standard across every category. Tabb's is the headline, but the depth of quality below it is considerable.

The city's food geography centres on Lemon Street, the cathedral quarter, and the streets running down to the Truro River — a compact area in which excellent eating is available at every price point. The market at Lemon Quay is one of the best in Cornwall, providing the supply chain for several of the better restaurants. On a Saturday morning, with the market in full flow and the cathedral over everything, Truro makes a convincing case for being taken seriously as a food destination in its own right.

Tabb's

Nigel Tabb's long-running restaurant on Kenwyn Street is Truro's finest — a calm, accomplished dining room that has maintained its standards over years of changing fashions without apparent effort. The cooking is modern British with a firm Cornish foundation: Fal oysters with sherry vinaigrette, Cornish duck breast with heritage beetroot and orange, aged sirloin from local beef with bone marrow. The wine list is serious; the service is experienced and warm. The best restaurant in the city.

Best for

Truro's finest restaurant — modern British with Cornish provenance

The Alverton Hotel Restaurant

A Victorian manor house on the outskirts of Truro, converted into a hotel with a restaurant that takes its sourcing as seriously as any in the city. The kitchen focuses on Cornwall: Cornish beef from named farms, vegetables from kitchen gardens and local growers, fish from Falmouth and the Fal. The dining room is handsome and the Sunday lunch — a traditional roast with generous Cornish provenance — is the best in the area.

Best for

Hotel Sunday lunch and special occasions

Bustopher Jones

A wine bar and restaurant on Frances Street that has been a fixture in Truro's social life for longer than most residents can remember. Bustopher Jones takes its wine seriously — the list is among the most interesting in the county, with natural wine and interesting Cornish bottles alongside an ambitious European selection. The food is bistro-confident: charcuterie boards, seasonal small plates, a daily fish dish from Falmouth. The best wine bar in Cornwall.

Best for

Best wine bar in Cornwall — natural wine and small plates

The Lemon Tree

A day café and restaurant on Lemon Street that anchors the area's independent food scene with reliable, well-sourced cooking from breakfast through to dinner. The menu takes its cue from the Lemon Quay market below: seasonal vegetables, local fish, Cornish cheese boards. The breakfast service is the most popular in the city centre; the dinner operation is more ambitious than the lunchtime offering suggests. Friendly, unpretentious, and consistently good.

Best for

City centre breakfast and seasonal lunch

Fal River Deli

An excellent deli and café in the cathedral quarter that supplies Truro's discerning food shoppers with local cheeses, Cornish charcuterie, artisan bread, and some of the best coffee in the city. The lunchtime sandwiches are made to order; the prepared foods counter changes with the season. A necessary stop for anyone self-catering in the area or assembling a picnic for the Fal valley.

Best for

Cornish cheese, deli counter, and city-centre coffee

Wig and Pen

The most reliable pub kitchen in Truro — a city-centre pub that serves the cathedral quarter's lawyers and council workers with food that takes its sourcing seriously despite the lunchtime pace. The fish of the day is local; the Cornish pasty is hand-crimped; the ales on tap rotate through the Cornish craft brewery circuit. The kind of pub that a city centre needs and rarely has.

Best for

Reliable city centre pub lunch

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