Where We Go in Truro: A Non-Comprehensive Guide for What to Do in Cornwall’s Capital City

Unlike some larger cities, where things to do are thrown at you around every corner, on first impressions, Truro might not seem like it has much going on. However, in Cornwall (and life in general), the good bits aren’t always in-your-face. Luckily, we’re local, so have already done some searching for you. 

Here’s by no means a comprehensive list of places to go - just some of our regular haunts, plus a few ideas, so that you can have a trouble free trip to Truro.

Breakfast, Lunch and Coffee

Our personal favourites for grabbing a light bite or a coffee are Flourish, Bread & Butter and our neighbour, Lily’s.

Flourish

Tucked away down a side street off King Street, we’re big fans of Flourish’s haloumi bagels and goats cheese toasties, they make great cakes too (perfectly moist in our opinion!). We’ve been there too many times for lunch already.

Bread & Butter

When we’re in the mood for a morning pastry or some light bites, bread and butter on River street is a regular stop. We love their pancake stacks and their miso, lentil and  mushroom rolls too! If you’re in town looking for breakfast or brunch, try here.

Lily’s

Lily’s of Truro by Punk Thai is our friendly neighbourhood café on Pydar Street. Serving smoothies, breakfast, lunch and more. They also have some pretty sweet Thai food too. Check out our Pydar pals!

Piranha Pop Up

Of course, if you’re looking for takeaway tea, fresh ground coffee, bubble tea or milkshakes made from proper Cornish ice cream, why not pay our sister venture Piranha Pop Up a visit too!

Food, Dinner & Drinks

There’s a few places we like to eat our dinner at in Truro. Here they are in no particular order

Food

Kathmandu Palace 

Being vegetarians, we’re big curry fans at Happy Piranha and Truro is fortunate to have some great offers in that sense. Kathmandu palace on Old Bridge Street is one we go to as much as we can justify an excuse to. Serving your usual Indian favourites alongside some fantastic Nepalese curries, we can’t get enough of it. They’re a lovely bunch too! We recommend the Kathmandu aloo, paneer shashlik and the makhni.

The Ganges

The Ganges on St Clement Street is our OG curry house. We grew up eating curry here. It really hasn’t changed much and that’s why we love it. When we fancy a sag paneer we go here and we always have to have their aloo chaat puri too, we’ve never had one quite like it anywhere else. Their Tarka dhal is to die for - dip a big wad of naan in it and enjoy the garlic-y goodness.

Chorley’s

If you’re on old bridge street, right opposite Kathmandu palace is Chorley’s. Serving simple yet sumptuous and homely South African food, we love a visit here for a Bee Sting burger and corn fritters (once I ate ten) - we can’t get enough of the sauce that comes with them.

Mai Thai

If you’re looking for Thai Food, Muay Thai on Kenwyn street is our go to. As well as the flavours, they’ve also managed to capture that certain Thailand feel, with their quirky décor (lots of motivational signs) and friendly staff. Just sit back, order a Singha beer, relax and wait for your food. It’s not a fancy Thai restaurant, it’s a good honest one.

Food and Drink

The Heron Inn

If it’s a sunny day, there’s fewer better places to sit outside and have a drink at nearby than the Heron Inn at Malpas. While parking can sometimes be a bit tricky and you may hear some locals call it a 'tourist trap', we’ve never had a problem and if it is a tourist trap it’s because it’s good. Good pub food, especially if you like fish and stunning estuary views make this a strong recommendation on a sunny day from us. If eating,  we’d advise booking to be safe during peak season (try and get an outside table too).

The Rising Sun

An award winning dining pub (and rightly so), you can find The Rising Sun on Mitchell Hill. With top quality food and a cosy atmosphere, go here if you want good dining. If you’re a fish or meat eater you’re in for a treat, but we enjoy the risotto too. We go here for special occasions or when we’re feeling a little luxury.

The Wig and Pen

The Wig and Pen reopened on Frances Street in 2022 and we’re happy it did. Just a couple of minutes walk behind our store, we love to pop here for a beer. With good food (we particularly like some of their starters and lite bites as vegetarians….mmm truffle oil chips) and a nice atmosphere, it’s a solid gastro pub.

Bao Bites

If you’re looking for some Asian inspired lite bites for lunch or a snack, our mate Will at Bao Bites on Quay St has you sorted. Serving bao buns sandwiches and bubble waffles, he has boba tea too. Colourful, laid back and tasty, Bao Bites makes for a change from the usual sandwich for lunch.

Beer & Cocktails

We’ve already covered a couple of places we like to have a drink at above, but these two places are probably our most regular haunts right now for some liquid refreshment..

The Old Print Works (Goodh Brewing Co.)

The Goodh Brewing Co. Taproom at the Old Print Works is not only super convenient as it’s literally out our back door (Tucked away out of sight in The Leats), it’s also the perfect place for kicking back with an artisan Cornish brewed beer. Serving both taster trays (we love these) and pints, you can pick up some lite bites here too. We recommend the mojo fries. They see us there so much it’s almost embarrassing.

UPDATE: They've moved! You can now find them at the Skinner's Brewery on Newham Road.

The Old Ale House

The Old Ale House on Quay Street is probably the best place to go to for live music in Truro.

With a decent selection of ales and a cosy atmosphere, it's a regular choice for us - even when town is feeling a bit down, the old ale house is always alive.

Red Elephant Beer Cellar & Tasting Room

Located right next to Truro Cathedral, you can find a wide selection of interesting beers - both both bottled and on tap - to peruse and enjoy at Red Elephant whilst taking in a great view too.

The White Hart

The White Hart on New Bridge Street is a local, good value, honest, proper pub. It's apparently one of the oldest around here too. If we want a no nonsense beer or ale at a decent price, we go here. 

If you want to do some cheesy disco dancing on the weekend, they've got that covered too.

Lawrance's

Lawrance's do cocktails and cakes. Enough said. Do you like cakes? Do you like cocktails? Do you like eating cake while drinking cocktails? If the answer is yes, go to Lawrance's.

On the Rocks

Next door to The White Hart is on the Rocks, your friendly neighbourhood drink smiths. If you’re already full up on cake and want a cocktail, go here!

Entertainment

If you’re not eating or drinking sometimes Truro may seem a little bit lacklustre, but there’s more than enough to keep you busy for a couple of days if visiting.

The usual suspects

As well as a bowling alley (Truro Bowl) and cinema (The Plaza), some of the more obvious places to visit on a trip to town are:

Truro Cathedral

For such a little city, Truro has a rather nice cathedral which is well worth a look at with its impressive Gothic architecture. If you're looking for somewhere to sit with your sandwich you can pop around the back to the green and admire the spires while you munch away. 

The Hall for Cornwall

The Hall for Cornwall is the largest events venue in the region and if you're looking for a bit of theatre or culture, why not book yourself in for a show. In 2021 it was reopened after some extensive renovation making now a great time to visit.

Royal Cornwall Museum

Truro’s local museum. If you’re looking for a bit of history, from the Egyptians to something more local, it’s here. It’s not quite the Natural History Museum, but we’re in Truro remember. Unfortunately its funding has been cut off by the council, so now more than ever might be a good time to support it.

A walk along the estuary

If you’re just in want of some fresh air, the estuary in Truro offers pretty scenery close to the city. You can take a walk to Malpas and stop off at the Heron Inn along the way, or pop down to St Clement and walk along the estuary which is great for dogs too.

Shopping

You’ll find some of the usual big chain stores in Truro but there’s some great independent ones too. We won’t reel off every one but, once you’ve visited us in our Aladdin's cave of pop culture things, quirky home décor, board games and more at Happy Piranha, pop by and say hi to the Garden Geeks jungle next door too.

In people’s palace, just around the corner, you can find Enjoy Clothing for some vintage clothes rummaging and if you're geeks like us, you might want to pop into Harry’s Toy chest on Victoria Square to see what collectable goodies he has in store too.

Something different

Axe Throwing with the Celtic Tossers

Hidden away in a shed-sized building on Tabernacle Street, Celtic Tossers is probably one of the cosiest axe throwing venues around. With just three lanes, you can book it out with a few friends and have an hour's fun pretending to be Vikings. We’ve been here several times and the friendly staff and sharp axes mean the hour’s have flown by (or been thrown by…badum…tsss) in no time.

Virtual reality experiences at Player Ready

Lurking on the outskirts of Truro On Charles Street, you can wander into virtual worlds for some gaming, VR escape rooms, zombie experiences and racing at Player Ready. For gaming fans or those just wanting to give VR a whirl, there’s a few fun options to choose from.

Escape Rooms at Eureka 

If you haven't tried one before we recommend an escape room as something different to do and if you’re an escape room addict here’s one more to tick off your list while you’re down.

You can find Eureka Escape Rooms on Lemon Street. When we went, they had two 1940's war era themed rooms; 'Don't Panic' and 'Life after Death'. Let's just say we cut it pretty close to the wire and only just made it out alive!

The Piranha Project

It’s not quite ready as of yet, but we’re also working on something of our own. You can follow our update blog about our Piranha Project where we’re renovating the building next door to our shop. The Piranha project will be a pop culture themed café, with space for gaming and clubs and communities to commune!

There's stuff to do in Truro

If you hear the phrase ‘there’s nothing to do in Truro’, we hope we’ve shown you that that’s not entirely true. All it takes is a little bit of looking, which hopefully we’ve made easier for you. 

Yeh Truro isn’t a big, bustling city, but there’s plenty of places to fill an evening or even a day or two and some hidden gems and character hiding around the corner too.

So come say hi to our diddy city, Capital of Cornwall and our little world!

• Visiting Cornwall? Here's a few other ideas of things to do once you've visited Truro.