The City Inn, Truro

Blue Scrumpy left this review about The City Inn

Whilst I wasn't expecting this pub to be open, I did promise myself that I would give it another go on my next visit to Cornwall and so I did late on a Friday evening on the way from the Lizard back to London.

Finally at the fourth time of asking, I found it open. The pub has 3 rooms, but two of them were in darkness. Only the main bar was lit, as there was only the barman with a couple of customers when I arrived. What appeared to be the landlord also appeared with his dog to continue drinking his pint (the landlord, not the dog).

In addition to the central bar which did have a little character and where they were watching the Olympics on the TV, there is a games room off to the left with a dartboard and a more formal dining room to the right. You have to pass through the games room to get to the toilets and luckily the barman switched the lights on. A large blackboard in that room displayed the latest mobile phone number of the owners.

Given the lack of any way of contacting them on their website or on social media, it almost appears that they are trying to operate a club-like system where only those in the know can possibly contact them or find out when they are open. It seems a really strange way of operating and I can see exactly why there were only 2 other paying customers present (1 of whom was a child).

The cask ale selection was nothing to write home about either. There are 4 handpulls. Doom Bar appears to be the regular beer, with other real ales rotated. Landlord & London Pride were the other beers for my visit, with the 4th stick unclipped.

At the fourth time of asking, I'm relieved to have finally managed to visit this pub. But it really wasn't worth the effort and given the current owners won't go to the effort of providing any means of contacting them and won't publicise opening times, I can't see it staying open much longer as a going concern.

Second & Third Attempts to visit (April 2023):

A few weeks after attempting to visit the City Inn, I returned on Easter Monday. Given the board outside still saying it is closed on a Monday, I wasn't expecting it to be open. Despite bank holidays often being an exception to the rule, it was still definitely closed when was passed by.

As such, I made a point of trying again the following day. Passing by during the morning, there was sign of life, in the way of fairylights being on inside the premises.

We returned after breakfast in the city centre and found that the lights were off once again and the front door was still shut and locked. This was 12:30 and within the 12-2:30 opening times still displayed on a board outside.

A note on the front door has 3 mobile numbers to contact the pub in an "emergency". I had tried calling the landline associated with the pub in advance and only got some kind of unobtainable tone. I did contemplate whether me trying to visit as many pubs in the country and continually finding this one closed was an emergency, but concluded that it didn't quite fit the description.

I'm fairly sure that this pub was open as recently as February, but it does now appear to have closed down. I will give it another go whenever I am next in Truro, but that won't be for a while and I certainly won't be making any more special journeys.

Original Visit 16/3/23:

This remains just about the only Truro pub I'd like to visit, but have still been thwarted in my attempts to visit.

Arriving here at 2:30 on a Thursday afternoon, I was expecting to find it open. However, it's extremely difficult to find any opening times for this place. Their website seems more interested in selling you accommodation. Although, by the look at it from the outside, I'm not sure why anybody would bother. Google also lists it as more of a hotel and doesn't display any opening times. Their Facebook page is also completely unhelpful. So, I assumed that Whatpub's listing of all day opening was correct.

Needless to say, a board outside the pub proudly proclaimed that the pub was only open until 2:30pm each day (3pm on a Sunday) and doesn't re-open until 5:30pm. Had I known, I would have visited earlier in the day when I passed through. After much deliberation, I decided not to stick around for 3 hours waiting for it to open.

Why on earth do pubs not display their opening times, especially during difficult economic conditions. If they use social media and have their own website, its a sunk cost. Makes no sense to me, but who am I to question.

I will return here at some point. But for now, it's a 1/10 from me.

On 13^th August 2024 - rating: 3
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