Short answer: Walk one street back from the harbour front — same pasty, noticeably better price. Go early or late to dodge the midday queue, and eat it at Bamaluz rather than the packed harbour benches.
St Ives carries a genuine premium on most food given its popularity, and pasties are no exception — here's how to get a good one without overpaying.
A reliable local bakery doing traditional pasties well — best bought early, since the more popular fillings genuinely do sell out by early afternoon in peak season.
Bakeries directly on the harbour front tend to charge more for the same product than ones a short walk into the town's back streets — worth the extra few minutes' walk if value matters.
The harbour itself is the obvious spot, but Bamaluz Beach or Man's Head give a genuinely quieter alternative away from the busiest benches.
An early or late lunch, rather than the core midday window, tends to mean better stock and a shorter queue at the bakery.
If you're visiting both towns on the same trip, St Ives' back-street bakeries tend to offer better value than Padstow's more tourist-facing options for a broadly comparable product.
St Ives' seagulls are genuinely bold around food, particularly near the harbour — eating slightly further from the busiest benches reduces the risk of losing your lunch to one.
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