Cornwall is celebrated as a top ‘foodie’ destination, boasting seasonal local produce and the freshest seafood. No matter where you find yourself in Cornwall, there’s always a brilliant place to dine or enjoy a drink.
Adding to the appeal is the fact that these culinary delights are often enjoyed against some of the most stunning landscapes in the country. While many of Cornwall’s finest dining spots have been established for years, the industry continues to evolve with an influx of new talent.
In 2024, many new and exciting cafés, restaurants and pubs opened their doors to customers. From a “quintessentially British countryside pub” which underwent a facelift to a family-run children’s play café there’s something to suit everyone’s taste.
We’ve put together a list of all the new pubs, restaurants and cafés we welcomed to Cornwall in 2024. If there’s any we’ve missed, be sure to comment them below.
Mike and Steph Mallett, of the Cornish Lunchbox, which was previously located at Prow Park Business Village at Newquay, have opened a new venue in the town’s centre. Bank Street Kitchen, located at 8 Bank Street, will be offering the same freshly baked focaccia sandwiches, salad boxes and freshly baked cakes that the Cornish Lunchbox was renowned for.
However, Mike and Steph want to add in more Italian influences, including fresh pasta and pizza, inspired by their time at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall in Watergate Bay. After over a month of renovation work to the new premises, Bank Street Kitchen officially opened its doors on December 11 – just in time for Christmas. According to their Facebook page, the restaurant will be open from 10am until 4pm Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10am until 3pm on Sundays, and it will be closed on Mondays.
Popular burger restaurant HERD opened the doors of its new eatery at 10 Princes Street in Truro on December 11. Set up in Newquay in 2023, HERD has been gathering a growing following of burger aficionados.
Offering up all manner of delicious burgers, it quickly rose in popularity with people praising its tasty grub and reasonable prices, sold from the branch on Fore Street. The chain later opened ROSA, an American-Italian offering on Tower Road, also in Newquay.
Riverside Sizzle opened on November 26 at the site of the former Hispania Tasty by Mavi and JustBe Coffee Wine Lounge on Old Ferry Road in Saltash. In addition to a new lick of paint and fresh décor, the Riverside Sizzle will boast an open kitchen at the back so you can watch the chefs prepare your food.
It serves a mixture of Asian and English food, including a variety of seafood and steak dishes. The menu offers small plates and starters including, salmon poke wonton cups, steamed half shell scallops, Thai grilled steak spicy salad, dynamite prawns, and crispy calamari. Options for main dishes also include Malaysian mixed seafood curry, charcoal grilled cheese burgers, vegetable tempura, Thai style steamed bass filled with lime and lemongrass, salmon sunset rolls, and Japanese Curry Rice.
The team behind Prawn On The Lawn and Barnaby’s in Padstow opened Little Prawn, which offers a daily changing menu of fresh small plates and cocktails. It is located in the old Barnaby’s building opposite Prawn on the Lawn on Duke Street, and has had a complete makeover which includes a new bright pink exterior. Little Prawn opens through the summer and closes in October.
The seafood bar’s current sample menu boasts a variety of small plates, including monkfish and scallop crudo, wild red prawn crudo, seared tuna, and Cornish som tam with coconut and dried shrimp. It also offers Porthilly oysters, Padstow shellfish, and a handful of snacks and sides, as well as frozen margaritas and chilled wines.
Ardor, run by renowned chef Dorian Janmaat, opened its doors in the heart of St Ives in July. The casual dining restaurant pays homage to Dorian’s love of the Mediterranean coast and Cornwall, where he spent much of his upbringing. On the bustling Fore Street, Ardor welcomes guests across an upstairs and lower restaurant, a bar area and chef’s counter.
Open for lunch and dinner, the small plates menu, inspired by tapas and mezze concepts allows guests to try a bit of everything and enjoy all of the incredible produce and authentic flavours from both Cornwall and Andalusia. Plates such as fritto misto: Calabrian chilli aioli with burnt lemon showcase the finest Cornish seafood along with Ardor’s rotisserie chicken, on show at the face of the kitchen, creating a touch of theatre for those seated at the chef’s counter.
The brainchild of Dave and Louise Mortlock, of the Molesworth Arms pub in Wadebridge, Bellini’s opened in the town in May. Described as family-friendly with an Italian influence, the restaurant is the couple’s “fresh and vibrant” new offering.
They say it boasts a menu of Italian dishes alongside a smart-casual atmosphere offering something different to their pub, which they took over in 2019. Formerly Route 39, the Morlock’s want Bellini’s to “celebrate the best of Italian and Cornish food and drink”.
Brew & Beans, located at the bottom Saltash’s Fore Street, opened its doors on Tuesday (December 17) – just in time for Christmas. Owners Habib, his wife Fawzia and his sister Rasa will be serving bubble teas with a range of syrup flavours, jelly flavours and popping Boba flavours – including green honeydew, lychee, watermelon, blueberry and kiwi.
The menu also offers a selection of milkshakes and classic teas, coffees and hot chocolate. There are ice creams, cakes and pastries available to choose from too. Brew & Beans will be open from 7:30am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday and 8:30am to 2pm on Sundays.
Native Burger opened in August on Westgate Street in Launceston and is the brainchild of a local butcher brand. It’s got a delicious-looking menu of exclusively burgers, chicken and loaded fries – from the more fiery ‘Twisted Fire Starter’,’ brimming with pepper jack cheese, jalapeño, onion and sriracha mayo to add a kick, to ‘The Workout,’ a barbeque-y beef patty with brisket, bacon crumb and more.
Working exclusively with farmers in the South West and handling only grass-fed indigenous breeds, Philip Warren Butchers meat is favoured by some of the UK’s finest chefs and restaurants, including highly accoladed ones like The Ledbury, Ikoyi and Paul Ainsworth at No6. Native Burger exclusively showcases Philip Warren meats in a concise menu featuring what seems like burger shop classics like cheeseburgers, fried chicken and loaded fries but with provenance of product paramount to the offering.
Located on Lower Lux Street in Liskeard, Teddy’s Village is a Montessori-inspired play café for children from newborns to five years old which opened in September. Montessori is a teaching method which encourages children to learn to complete everyday tasks independently from a young age, with a focus on role-play and craft activities.
As such, Teddy’s Village has a range of wooden toys and sensory activities, as well as a mini village boasting a hair salon, doctors’ surgery, café, and shop. As well as a children’s play area, the play café also sells hot drinks, soft drinks, cakes and other snacks, such as muffins and brownies, for children and their parents to enjoy. While the play café has only been open for a couple of weeks, Robyn said the feedback they have received has so far been positive.
Mega Shakes, which already has a takeaway shop in Plymouth, launched a second store in Truro in October. Promising gigantic milkshakes with super indulgent toppings and ingredients, owner Lisa Bennett said copious amounts of sugar are to be expected.
The new shop features a menu of fully customisable desserts and ‘mega’ shakes with ingredients from Hershey chocolate and Kinder Bueno to Mint Aero, Biscoff and Oreo. All shakes are just £4.99 for 700ml, or upgrade to a ‘freak shake’ for an extra £2.
Happy Piranha Café, at the top of Pydar Street in Truro, is a Tardis-like space where it is not only cool to play Dungeons & Dragons, it is encouraged. Hidden behind a tiny door and sandwiched between the Happy Piranha pop-op bubble tea café that opened for the summer and a fish and chip shop, gamers coming through the door will be met with a multi-themed gaming space arranged around several distinct rooms.
There is a medieval dungeon on the right as you walk in and a Temple of Doom Indiana Jones-esque room opposite. As you walk further into the shop, there is a Japan-inspired tea room, complete with decorations brought back from a trip to the land of the rising sun and a selection of Japanese sweets and snacks.
Ost Eatery at High Cross, next to Truro Cathedral and the Red Elephant beer cellar, has been described by owner Lou Rose as being “led by Cornish produce, offering street food flavours in a space directed by the community for the community”. Friday nights will be about guest chefs coming in and cooking food from all over the world from Korean to Lebanese or Greek.
Thursdays will be about the community and welcoming people for arts and drawing or print making classes and even learning to mend clothes while Saturdays will be about smaller menus where customers can come in for a small bite to eat and a glass of wine. Lou is also looking at film nights and ensuring Ost Eatery becomes a new focal point for the community as well as a hang out for Cornwall’s foodies.
New bar Boho 18, owned by Ren Del Val Martin and Stephen Gubb Fradgley, can be found at The Old Grammar School in Truro and will offer up all the things customers have come to know and love about Spanish-style Bodega 18 in Falmouth and Truro – but with its own unique Asian twist.
Having opened on February 5 for the first time, the Bodega 18 team says it’s like the original tapas bar’s “naughty little brother”. Stephen said people can expect “amazing cocktails” and “delicious food” at Boho 18.
The owners behind one of Cornwall’s most popular burger joints, HERD in Newquay have launched a new American-Italian-inspired restaurant, bar and golf course, which officially opened its doors earlier this month. Rosa, located at 11 Tower Road at the former Gilmore’s site, offers ‘no-fuss’ plates, innovative wines, quality beers, and proper cocktails either in a cosy indoor space or outside on the terrace.”
The spring/summer menu offers a range of classic pizzas, pastas, fries, vegan dishes, and a ‘super fun’ cocktail menu. According to the team, Rosa isn’t “by any means an authentic Italian restaurant but [they’ve] taken great pleasure in adding some Americanised takes on the genre, and made them completely [their] own.”
Rocky’s, a western grill, opened at the site of the former Frankie and Benny’s building in White River Place in St Austell, in January 2024. It offers a huge menu of steaks, burgers, ribs, nachos and more at reasonable prices.
Owner, Natalie Trueman, said it’s important that the restaurant is accessible to all and that families have somewhere to go in town that’s not “typical pub grub” – but there’s still something for everyone.
The brainchild of Charlie Hester and Callum Philp with head chef Alfie Petty in the kitchen, The Clover Club, at 19 Bank Street in Newquay, aims to be a trendy place on the town’s high street combining good food, funky cocktails and a relaxed upbeat vibe.
Head chef Alfie said he and his team have combined their experience in London hot spots and local Cornish eateries to bring the best of locally sourced ingredients with a seasonal menu which he said will give customers the opportunity to build their own three-course meal or try a bit of everything, tapas-style.
The Elephant at Port Eliot in St Germans opened its doors in March and has already proved to be hugely popular. Currently, the bar only offers an eclectic drinks menu – with a variety of real ales, cocktails, wines and spirits – but owner, Matt Camp hopes to build a bigger kitchen in the near future to start offering food and Sunday roasts.
However for those looking for a light meal while at The Elephant, The Stables café can also be accessed through an archway in the building. It is the perfect relaxed setting for breakfast, brunch, lunch or simply some delicious cake and coffee.
The Hideaway, tucked away on Kenwyn Street in Truro is a community café which opened its doors on April 23. It offers a range of light bites and sweet treats, including sweet and savoury waffles, tea, coffee, cakes and freakshakes. The menu is also coeliac-friendly.
The Hideaway also has a play room for small children, and it will be hosting a number of activities for families – such as pottery painting and stay & play sessions.
Cantina is a new bar and street food restaurant has swung open its doors in Porthleven last month. Dishes on the menu will include a soft taco trio with blackened fish, fried chicken, sweetcorn fritters, chilli slaw, and jalapeño aioli; buttermilk chicken with macaroni pancakes, American cheese and pickles; brisket donut with jalapeño mayo; and crispy coconut prawn cocktail with lime and mango hot sauce.
The King of Prussia, in Fowey, has had a huge facelift in recent months and has relaunched as a fine-dining restaurant and boutique hotel. It is now a plush six-bedroom hotel and restaurant that promises a unique and upmarket experience. Among its quirks is a “theatrical twist” to the fine-dining dishes, brought to you by head chef Scott Williams.
Featuring a diverse cocktail selection crafted by the talented mixologist, Chris Jarrett, The King offers an inviting ambience for enjoying cocktails and oysters or indulging in a meal while admiring the scenic Fowey estuary. Boasting 36 covers, The King aims to “exude an intimate yet vibrant ambience”. Later in the year, the restaurant will also open a dedicated champagne and oyster bar on the ground floor of the hotel – with further details on that to be confirmed.
The Tartan Fox in Summercourt, between Newquay and Truro, welcomed diners for the first time on June 4. It is owned by top chef, Adam Handling and will have a menu similar to its sister pub, The Loch & the Tyne in Windsor, which has a Michelin Bib Gourmand and 3 AA rosettes – but using ingredients from in and around Cornwall.
Formerly the Fox’s Revenge pub, it has been refurbished into a “stunning, quintessentially British countryside pub”, complete with roaring fireplaces and cosy snug areas. It seats 90 diners across two floors, including the bar, wine room, restaurant and two private dining rooms, with additional restaurant seating upstairs.
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