The quality and prices of the service station "restaurants" are incompatible. If food was cooked to order rather than left to go dry under heat lamps it might improve. They should at least be able to compete with basic pub food at a similar price. The argument that we have no other choice is a false one too as quite often if you just pull off at a junction it doesnt take long to find a local pub or restuarant to have a bite to eat in. The same goes for petrol too. The opening of Simply Food on the motorways has improved choice (if you want sandwiches or to take something home for later) but it doesnt really help with hot food. So if not the restuarant (and i use the term loosly) then you are left with KFC, BK or McDonalds as the norm. One plus point for KFC is that they dont charge you more than they do on the high street (just force you to buy large) whereas BK and the like extort their prices!
Lets face it you are never going to get great food on the motorway. In many towns and cities across the land you cant get decent food in pubs or restuarants. I often eat out even at expensive places and think "what a disapointment i can do just as well at home". Lets face the truth that if we are stopped at a service station can we really expect the best? or are they designed purely for a quick fill up before we continue our busy lives.
Service stations have had years to get their act together and they do not. Poor service, dirty eating area's and don't start on the food. If I stop at a service station it now goes as far as something they call coffee and no more. Dire places. Pop off the Mway and find somewhere better.
I think you hit the nail on the head with your closing comment Criag. I have been the token sales rep in the Ford Mondeo throughout England and Scotland, and when you're living on commission then you're very conscious of the minutes ticking away as you search for somewhere decent to grab lunch.
My solution was always the sandwiches, I was NOT going to give myself a heart attack in my thirties by eating the lard ridden sop they serve up at the little chef's etc.
Seems to be a very British problem in general, putting up with very average food without complaining. Certainly better food available when travelling on French roads. I don't think there has been any improvement here at all (especially on M-ways) and this has been made worse by the growth of companies such as Brake Brothers - now just called Brakes. All cooked and pre-frozen then delivered across the country to pubs, cafes, restaurants etc. Look out for the tell-tale plastic menus which never change - sure sign of this food. We now ask if the food is home cooked and quite often we get a positive reply which we question. They then answer 'we have hand placed it in to the microwave - does that count as home cooking'?
The search for good wholesome food is very dispiriting in this country. And don't even ask if anyone uses organic ingredients!
SR-71 I have to say the legal definition (for inclusion on the menu) as home cooked is thus - The product must have been assembled and heated at the premises where it is sold. Therefore, and a catering manager friend of mine told me this, you can buy in puff pasty pie lids and ready made steak pie mixes and by purely putting the frozen / blast chilled pie mix in a pie dish, applying the lid and cooking it counts as home made!!
The new service station on the M6 Toll at Norton Caines does offer food that is freshly cooked to order (even waitress service!) and is on par with pub food. BUT the rest of them are as described by Craig, Tomark, SR-71 et al -very expensive and poor quality.
On journeys we now tend to take snacks with us rather than stop and pay over the odds, even in the shop.
Depends on what you mean by roadside food. We have quite a few Layby caravans here selling really good bacon butties. Many of them are proudly displaying food hygiene certificates.
I wouldn't touch a service station with a bargepole. It seems to be a really expensive way of getting food poisoning
Surely you can't be serious. I am serious and don't call me Shirley
Entirely agree, TP, I'd much rather use a Layby Vendor or a Geasy Spoon Cafe than any of the M-way service stations - and quite honestly I feel that the food we get is actually healthier than the stuff on the m'ways.
If you like a decent fry-up, then a must do is the Super Sausage...It's a Transport Cafe on the A5, just south of Towcester, and not far from Silverstone. Very good fry-ups, clean, and prices everyone can afford. Highly recommended
The past is history...The future a mystery. This moment is a gift...That's why it's the present.
I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember Tony's Caff on the A1 near Grantham. Got through tons and tons of bacon every week. Great food. Now it's another plastic service area Thanks THF (not)
Surely you can't be serious. I am serious and don't call me Shirley
Many a road side cafe and greasy spoon over the years have supplied artery cloggers to yours truly. Chipped mugs but with tea you can lay a road with. All in for around £2.50 and a smile.
If you are near jcn 22 M5 then there is a cafe (proper) called the goat house although I have not been there for a few years.
It seems that to get good quality fayre at a sensible price the best places are truck stops. J23 Truckstop (that's its name so far as I can tell)off the M1 has a well-deserved reputation for decent food at decent prices. I guess the discerning truck driver has more sense than to stop at normal motorway services.
I never purchase "food" from the motorway companies. The fayre which they dare to serve up is what I refer to as 1970s British stodge. Its disgusting, inedible and expensive. Congealed beans and (non-kosher!) sausages made from sweepings from the abbatoir floor for £10!! Outrageous.
The UK has had a food revolution over the last 10 years, whereas it used to lag well behind the rest of the world and serve awful pub food & carbohydrates with crucified beef, now its world class and here in London are some of the very finest restaurants in the world. Not only this but there is an array of food speciality TV shows, and interest in entertaining guests at home and cooking has boomed.
Given this, there is no excuse for people like MOTO or ROAD CHEF to be so far behind and so expensive. I doubt if it costs £1 for them to make a plate of disgusting stodge from cheap sausages & revolting beans, yet they charge like a wounded rhino.
The only answer is to not frequent them, then theyd have to change.
Originally posted by Palmira: The UK has had a food revolution over the last 10 years, whereas it used to lag well behind the rest of the world and serve awful pub food & carbohydrates with crucified beef, now its world class and here in London are some of the very finest restaurants in the world. Not only this but there is an array of food speciality TV shows, and interest in entertaining guests at home and cooking has boomed.
If you mean those restaurants and programmes that give us "designer" food where the layout of the food on the plate is more important than the amount of food you get, then forget it Palmira!
Personally I prefer decent portions of edible food rather than a large (usually strangely shaped) plate with a small lump of what could be food "displayed" in the middle which would look more at home in a Modern Art Gallery!
Originally posted by Palmira: So youd happily pay the price of a good meal at a good restaurant in nice surroundings for a ghastly motorway service station offering?
Where on earth did i say that????!
A good restaurant in my opinion is one which serves proper food in decent quantities, many "so called" upmarket restaurants don't, they serve small portions in expensive surroundings and the "food" programmes on TV only make it worse.
I dislike Motorway Services as much as you, but I do like a good country pub and many so called Greasy Spoon Cafes are actually very good.
Just because a place only serves decent helpings of "plain" food doesn't make it bad.
Ooh, look at you two! Personally, if I go out to eat, I want to eat something that i wouldn't normally cook at home or go for something the restaurant excels in. If I want large portions of ok quality food, I'd rather cook it myself and invite some friends round. I find the vast majority of Pubs sell below par food (most of it is nuked from a container) at above reasonable prices. The few pubs that do really good food are usually out of the way and my favourites.
Getting back to service stations, there are a few good ones out there (there's a particularly good one on the way to Portsmouth), although per person it still works out at a few pence shy of a tenner. I agree, if you really want a break, take a turning and go to a village pub away from the streams of traffic. However, most drivers are lazy and don't have time on their side which probably explains why the current level is so poor.
No problem with that, Sebro, the point I was making was concerning the size of the portions vs price, if I want someone else to cook for me then I would expect to get enough food to fill me up, not a large plate with a very small portion for an inflated price.
If I wanted to go out for a pleasent evening I'd find a nice country pub and have a nice pint or two or Real Ale (and get someone else to drive home!). I must admit to not being a fan of eating in places where I'm crammed up against the next table and can't have a meal in peace - Indian and Chinese restraunts are the worst for this, but I've seen some posh places who do it as well - sad, really.
Oh dear, this seems to be turning into a posh food vs quantity argument! I think we are all agreed that motorway service station food is generally poor but like i said earlier the British dont stop at a motorway services for excellent food they stop for a dash to the loo and a bite on the run. This is so illustrative of modern British culture as it happens at lunch times in the offices around the country, people eating on the run or at their desks. No different when in cars for the majority.
Now when it comes to posh food I have to agree with Palmy. The quality of restuarants in London is superb and the quality elsewhere is rising too. In London i can get any cuisine I desire and (agreeing with Sebro) I generally only go out for cuisine i cant easily cook at home. The issue with portions is this. Yes they are served on huge plates etc in so called "posh" restuarants but the idea is that you dont just eat one course. Believe me, by the time you have demolished the taster menus at places like Claridges you might be £100 lighter in the pocket but it also feels like your 100 lbs heavier too. Modern food is as much about engaging all the senses as it is about taste.
Its OK Nox dont feel too bad! if i HAVE to eat on the motorway i always eat KFC as their prices are not higher than it is on the high street and at least its real meat!
