A rest and a bite

We left for Sheffield at 9:15am yesterday with Bea who will stay with her friend Jenny in Broomhill. We will be attending Alex and Nadine’s wedding in Buxton on Friday, hope the sun shines. We stopped every hour or so to stretch our legs and finally at 12 came across a services where the A43 meets the M1 near Northampton. Roadchef looked an inviting place and I was looking forward to a full English breakfast which is my usual choice when travelling. Inside there were three refreshment areas: a coffee vendor, a burger vendor and a place called ‘restbite’. In the middle of their menu were the magic words ‘Full English Breakfast’ and “hot food all day”.

“Full English Breakfast” I requested at the counter. Replied dour man “Don’t do breakfasts”. “But it says on the menu Full English Breakfast”. “Breakfast finished at 12”. Lady joins in and I concede defeat. I stared at three sad looking fish in batter waiting for a customer. Bea ordered ham, egg and chips and the lady got to work on the order. I then said “make that two”. No reply. “Could you make that two ham egg and chips please?”. An extra scowl and mutter told me she had heard me. Sue ordered Chicken Tikka with rice. She said the rice was very good, the curry sauce OK but the chicken was inedible. It looked good,  with big chunks, but tasted awful and was left for the recycling bin. The ham egg and chips was served on a cold plate so the eggs, which were hot off the frier, soon cooled and the luke warm chips were as you’d expect. The ham was tasteless catering pack stuff from the fridge. The cup of tea was fine…

I guess these places survive because people need to stop and eat on long journeys, but there is no excuse for such miserable catering standards. I challenge the CEO  to eat at this facility and leave smiling. There will be no second chance from these travellers.