How this guide works

Two questions: is the terrace in the sun, and what do the drinks cost? Both answers are worked out from public data, and both can be wrong. Here is how.

The sun

For each venue we picked the open pavement or terrace within 15 metres of its front. From each spot we traced the skyline in every direction, using the Environment Agency's laser survey of the city's buildings, trees and hills at one-metre detail. Then we followed the sun across the sky every ten minutes for a whole year and noted when it clears that skyline.

That tells you when sun can reach the terrace on a clear day. It can't tell you about clouds, awnings or parasols, and buildings put up since the survey are missing. "About so many hours a year" adjusts for Plymouth's usual cloud, using the Met Office's 1991 to 2020 averages for Mount Batten.

The ratings use the outdoor season, April to September between noon and 9pm. A sun trap is in the sun for at least three quarters of that time; shaded is under 15%.

The finder on the front page uses each venue's year hour by hour, averaged over each month: the sun climbs higher and stays out longer in summer, and the buildings around a terrace block it at different times as the seasons turn. Any day in a month gets that month's figures. A venue counts as in the sun when sun reaches its terrace for more than half of the hour.

The drinks and prices

Every drink comes from the venue's own website, PDF menu or ordering page, read two ways. Our automatic menu reader lists every drink with its price and checks each one word for word against the page; anything it can't match is left out. A second, careful read by hand covered 229 venues' cocktail lists, including the ones that publish no prices, the deals and happy hours they advertise, and the ones that have closed. Where both found a venue's cocktails, the fuller list is used; wine, beer and the rest come from the menu reader. Prices were last checked 22 October 2026.

We list drink names, sizes and prices, and leave the venue's descriptions on their site. The ingredient words under a cocktail ("gin, lemon and honey") are ours, picked from a fixed list, so you can search by what's in a drink. The flavour groups in "Not sure what to order?" come from those words, so treat them as a guide.

Typical prices count single cocktails only, from venues with at least three priced cocktails. Jugs, sharers, bottomless offers, doubles, serves over £30 and "cocktails" under £5 are listed but not counted. Offers are shown separately and never applied to a price. More on the figures.

Menus change, offers come and go, and prices on a website aren't always the prices at the bar. Treat everything here as a guide and check with the venue.

Our reading respects each site's robots.txt, waits at least five seconds between pages, and says who we are. Some venues ask not to be read by robots; they're listed without drinks.

What we don't use

No paid listings, no reviews and no star ratings from other websites. Venue positions come from the Food Standards Agency, OpenStreetMap or the postcode.

Privacy and cookies

If you say yes when the site asks, we use Google Analytics to count visits: which pages are read, how people arrive, roughly where they are (town level) and what device they use, plus searches made in the cocktail finder and clicks through to a venue's website. It sets first-party cookies (_ga, _ga_*) to recognise a returning browser. We don't use it for advertising: Google signals and ad personalisation are off, and we don't share the data with Google for its own purposes.

If you say no, or don't choose, nothing from Google loads and no cookies are set. You can change your mind at any time with ; withdrawing deletes the Analytics cookies.

The site also keeps two things in your browser's own storage, never sent to us: your cookie choice and the drinks you save with the heart in the cocktail finder. There are no accounts, and we hold no personal details.

Corrections and removal

Run a venue and want a price fixed, a drink added or your venue taken off the guide? Email contact@plymouthresearch.uk with the venue's name. We'll take it off at the next update and stop reading your site.

Sources and licences

Sun model: Environment Agency LIDAR Composite (© Environment Agency 2022) and Ordnance Survey OS Open Map Local (© Crown copyright and database right), Open Government Licence v3.0.
Food hygiene ratings and some venue positions: Food Standards Agency, Open Government Licence v3.0.
Postcode positions: ONS Postcode Directory via postcodes.io, Open Government Licence.

Drink responsibly

This guide lists alcohol-free drinks alongside the rest. For facts about alcohol and support, visit Drinkaware.