Clackett Lane Road Chef M25 (Motorway Services)

Member Name: sue.51

Product:	Motorway Services
Date:	10/04/01 (4575 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Convenient, Range of eating places, clean, open 24 hour

Disadvantages: A little on the pricey side

After an early start today (5am), because of family commitments, we had no kids for the day, and decided to take a ride to Kent (from Swansea) to visit my sister-in-law. En-route, we decided to stop off for something to eat, but the Little Chef's do not open until 7am. After some ill-informed advice from my other half, which left us in the middle of nowhere, with no food to be seen, we decided to bite the bullet and visit the Road Chef in Clackett Lane in between junctions 4 & 5 on the M25.

The entrance to the service station is poorly signposted, and I would advice caution on approach, else you could find yourself in with the lorries and coaches. There is a large car park there which offers two hours free parkings, after which there is a daily fee. This car park however, is home to a number of very severe sleeping policemen which you cannot avoid, so if you have a laden down car, BE CAREFUL. The signs on entrance to the facilities cover all the 'brand' names offered under this umbrella, so you could be mislead into believing there is more there than there actually is. The brand covers, to name a few, McDonalds, Wimpy, The Road Chef restaurant itself and Costa Coffee (not cheap but worth a visit).

Clackett Lane services are quite compact and well used, owing to a lack of other services on the big orbital car-park, but I was pleasantly surprised. The Wimpy does not open until 10am, so if your kids are big fans they will be disappointed, and there is also no McDonalds on this site. After partaking of the facilities (which were exceptionally clean), we decided to try out the food; the queue at Costa Coffee was horrendous, so we decided on (with little other option, save starvation) the main restaurant. The breakfast menu was being served, and on offer was a selection of 6 items for £4.99 (this also included a piece of toast with butter and conserve). You could pick any six items from:

Sausages
Bacon
Fried Bread (2 pie
ces = 1 item)
Hash Browns (2 = 1 item)
Fried Egg
Scrambled Egg
Black Pudding
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
Baked Beans

and despite the food being on display, it was piping hot. Both additional and individual items can be purchased for 99p each. Additional butter portions are 20p. A pot of Douwe Egberts coffee was £1.68.

I did cheekily ask if there was a discount available for AA members (like in Little Chefs, but unfortunately got a resounding NO - NB: There appears to be confusion in the Little Chefs on the discount policy - I have checked with the AA, and they have confirmed that the discount is valid until at least June 30 2002), if in any doubt, check your AA offers book, where they provide discount vouchers for Little Chef and a whole host of other attractions, including Free Child places at Alton Towers.

Even though it was quite busy at Clackett Lane, the service was fast and efficient, and the staff friendly and helpful (despite no discount). Best of all, the food tasted absolutely delicious and was piping hot, previous experiences of this type of serving has resulted in a rather cold and lack-lustre meal. (Even my other half was impressed and believe me, that takes some doing)

There is lots of no-smoking seating there, and as turnaround is relatively fast we got a table easily. There is also a Travel Inn on site, for those looking for a reasonably priced place to stay.

Also on site, is the traditional fayre you find at service stations, including a shop, mobile phone shop and gaming/play station machines. For smokers, there are strategically placed sand-filled ash-trays within the entrance hall, saving you desperately having to find somewhere to extinguish your often well deserved 'ciggie' break. The main downside to this area, is that there are often stand-alone marketing stands for a variety of financial companies who try to get you to buy things, sign up for credit cards etc
.

I have visited Costa Coffee at the Strensham Road Chef site (M50/M5 interchange), and when they are not busy, provide a welcome alternative for those in a rush, offering a range of delicious coffees in various sizes, and a vast array of mouthwatering pastries and cakes.

In summary, it turned out to be a good choice for our saviour from starvation, and I would certainly pay another visit. Prices are a little high, but I accept that, if I want to eat at any service station, then I am likely to pay more than on my local high street.

There are 20 of these Road Chef sites throughout the country, and a few of them offer overnight facilities in the form of a Travel Inn, including the ones at Clackett Hill and Strensham

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