Cafes on campus

Enjoy your break in one of our award-winning campus cafes
Drake's Cafe
We offer sustainable, locally-sourced fresh food and drink in ten cafes across the city-centre campus  and the north campus, including John Bull Cafe. Students can also find a number of food and drink outlets in the Students' Union.
We pride ourselves on offering a variety of affordable delicious food and drink options, whether you fancy a hearty breakfast, a healthy salad, a pizza with the finest toppings, the choice is yours as we have a variety of themed food options in each cafe. 
We are committed to providing a sustainable food culture at the University. We have held a three star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association for multiple years which reflects our company achievements to sustainable sourcing, reducing disposable packaging, reducing meat intake and much more. Explore our sustainable food culture that supports local, sustainable and Fairtrade produce and suppliers.
The University is also dedicated to achieving Fairtrade Accreditation . This commitment involves advocating for fair prices, improving working conditions, promoting local sustainability, and ensuring fairtrade terms for farmers and workers in our procurement processes and supplier partnerships.
 

Summer opening times

Babbage Bytes Cafe: closed from 23 May, reopens 15 September 2025

The Container: 08:30–17:00, from 23 June 08:30–16:00

Enjoy breakfast, lunch and sweet treats all day long!

Drake's Kitchen: 08:00–16:00

Breakfast: 08:00–11:30 | Lunch: 12:00–14:30
Sandwiches are available all day, while supplies last.

InterCity Plates Cafe: closed from 30 May, reopens 15 September 2025

John Bull Cafe: 08:00–15:30 

Breakfast: 08:00–11:30 | Lunch: 12:00–14:30
Paninis are subject to availability and snacks are available all day.

Library Cafe: 09:30–16:30, closed from 20 June, reopens 15 September 2025

Loafers Deli: 08:00–16:00

Our goal is to have all sandwiches prepared by 10:00. After 14:30, sandwiches are prepared upon request. 

Portland's Pizzeria: 09:00–17:00, closed from 27 June, reopens 15 September 2025.

RLB Cafe: 08:00–15:00, closed from 20 June, reopens 15 September

Reservoir Cafe : 08:00–15:30

Breakfast: 08:00–11:00 | Lunch: 12:00–14:00
Our bagels and wraps are available all day until we run out! 

Sub roll filled with chicken and bacon
Babbage Bytes Cafe
Serving an extensive variety of sub rolls packed with premium ingredients, plus jacket potatoes, soup, hot pasties and breakfast baps, pastries and waffles
The Container Cafe
The Container, Roland Levinsky Building
Serving food boxes and other food supplies: picnic boxes, sweet treats, bakes and breakfast croissants, English muffins, bagels as well as hot and cold drinks
Fish and chips meal on a plate.
Drake's Kitchen, Rolle Plaza
Serving all your favourite dishes from traditional English breakfasts to hot daily lunch specials
Breakfast bap containing sausage, bacon and hash brown at a campus cafe
InterCity Plates Cafe
Serving a variety of hot and cold beverages, breakfast rolls, daily soup specials, handmade paninis, filled croissants and an assortment of cakes
John Bull Cafe
John Bull Cafe, John Bull Building
Serving cooked breakfast and a 3-week rolling menu featuring internationally-inspired dishes
Library Café Food 
Library Cafe, Charles Seale-Hayne Library
Serving a wide selection of hot and cold drinks, handmade paninis, pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, wraps and snacks 
Loafers on our city centre campus
Loafers Deli, next to the Students' Union Shop
Serving handmade, artisan sandwiches crammed with scrumptious local produce
Portland Square cafe on our city centre campus
Portland's Pizzeria, Portland Square Building
Serving a wide variety of deliciously cooked-to-order 10-inch pizzas with a large selection of premium toppings
food at the Reservoir Cafe
Reservoir Cafe, Nancy Astor Building
Serving an exclusively vegetarian and vegan food
Bowl of food displayed on a table in the RLB Cafe
RLB Cafe, Roland Levinsky Building
Serving our pan-Asian inspired menu as well as breakfast, sandwich meal deals, cakes, and hot and cold drinks

Loyalty points information

We have installed a new till system in all our units across campus.
We are working hard in the background to bring you a brand-new app-based loyalty programme with new offers and deals! 
Just a reminder that the hot drink loyalty points offer utilising your staff and student card is no longer valid, payment via these methods is no longer accepted.

Cafe offers

The University of Plymouth cafes offer various deals as a great way to motivated you throughout the day. Whether you are studying with friends, holding a meeting or simply feeling something sweet – these deals are for you.

Carbon emission labelling on menus 

We have added the carbon impact of our dishes on many of our menus to enable customers to make choices that are better for the planet. We understand that what we eat can have a big impact on the environment, with food production estimated to account for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. 
The carbon footprint figure was created using TUCO's innovative greenhouse gas footprint calculator. The calculator allows us to select ingredients, insert the relevant quantities and select where the product is sourced from. It looks at forms of transportation, energy consumption and direct emission factors to calculate the total greenhouse gases and the emissions per serving in kilograms.
 


We display the amount of greenhouse gases next to each item on the menu in kilograms per serving. 
You can find the carbon emission labels next to certain items on our menus in the following cafes on campus: 
We are working hard behind the scenes to update more items on our menus.
 

Cashless campus

To enable a safe and quick method of payment for everyone, the University operates a cashless campus. This means that cash payments are not accepted for tuition fees, accommodation, library and print services or in any of our food and drink outlets or shops, including the Students’ Union. We accept payment by credit cards, debit cards, pre-paid cards and mobile devices.
We understand that not all students have access to these payment methods when they first arrive on campus. The University main campus is close to the city centre, with shops, supermarkets and places to eat, so there are plenty of other places where you can use cash to pay for essential items during your first few weeks. However, for safety reasons, we strongly discourage carrying around large amounts of cash.
 
Cashless payment with a phone

Use your reusable cup at our campus cafes

Our goal is to reduce the number of disposable cups that are used and then disposed of on campus. An estimated 2.5 billion paper coffee cups are thrown away in the UK every year (that’s almost 5,000 a minute, or 7 million per day), with our campus contributing over 300,000 of those. As of November 2019 there has been a reduction in the use of almost 60,000 disposable cups since implementing the 20p discount.
Use a reusable cup at our campus cafes and get a 20p discount.
Cut waste, cut carbon, save money.
Ditch the disposables coffee cup graphic for feature panel

Global Recipe Book 

As part of Global Week 2022, staff and students were invited to share their favourite recipes from around the world. 
After receiving some excellent submissions, the Global Recipe Book was put together by the Catering Team, offering you the chance to create these dishes and try something new. Each page offers everything you'll need – from ingredients through to cooking methods.
Balanced nutrition concept for clean eating flexitarian mediterranean diet. Assortment of healthy food ingredients for cooking on a wooden kitchen table.
 

We pride ourselves on excellent customer service, quality products and ensuring excellent value for money. As we are a subsidiary of the University, all profits are invested back into the University of Plymouth.

If you have any ideas or questions regarding catering on campus, please get in touch by emailing catering@plymouth.ac.uk.

Catering events