... 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, ... Read review
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Advantages: Convenient, open 24 hour, clean, good service, food tasty and hot Disadvantages: slightly on the pricey side (but certainly comparable with other service stations)
...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 ... ...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 ... more
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:
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: The policy in Little Chefs has recently changed - apparently they now offer AA discounts at Roadside Cafes but RAC discounts at Major service stations - I will check this out with the AA and confirm). Even though it was quite busy there, 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
Advantages: 24hr facillities Disadvantages: restaurant prices are high
I have read the opinions of motorway service stations and it seems that the high prices charged are the main factor of peoples dissatisfaction.
I would like to give you a point of view from the worker rather than the consumer and i hope the points i raise will help you to understand or at least be a little more tolerant about the prices.
I work for Roadchef, a company that has 20 motorway service areas in the country. We run a 24hr a day restaurant ... ...it is,you can come in and purchase hot and cold food and drink.
Also on site is a 24hr petrol station, a Travel Inn and a newsagent type shop (open 6am-10pm). We also have two cash dispensers, disabled toilets, public phones and a conference room that is available to hire.
Due to being open all the time, our overheads are higher than that of a 9 till 5 cafe, or similar establishment. We have to light and heat (or air condition) our building all ...
wiggglypufff 25.11.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Road Chef
Advantages: Outside picnic area Disadvantages: Just about everything else
I hate McDonalds. I find the food there lukewarm, tasteless, and totally inedible. Yet as I sat in the service station at Rownhams eating my lunch I felt myself yearning for a Cheeseburger Happy Meal because at least the toy would give me something to smile about. We stopped there because we needed a bathroom break. The bathrooms needed a break too. The ladies needed a good scrub, some of the toilet rolls needed refilling and the water was less than ... ...there was one of those little coin operated rides right outside the door to the gents. As I was playing with my son on this ride, everytime the door to the gents was opened I was treated to a full view of the inner workings of this sanctum. Hmmmmm.
So anyway we decided to eat lunch here. There was a Costa, a Wimpy, and an On Route cafe which we chose as it gave the most variety. I selected a sandwich, my husband got the All Day Breakfast, and we ...
dawn_ash 12.08.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Road Chef
We went into a road chef on our way back from the new forest. We stopped for our lunch at around 1:45 at the Winchester road chef between junction 8 and junction 9. This is a new road chef and was only opened in march this year. There are a number of franchises here including Costa coffee, on route food, travel inn, world news, Dr beaks chicken and wimpy.
We , of course being children choose to eat at the wimpy, which had the longest queue!! After ... ...were only two people actually working behind the counter, 1 girl cooking and 1 girl on the till. The girl on the till had to take the orders and take all the food to the tables, it was ridiculous! The poor girl was running back and forward getting all the orders wrong. WE ended up waiting 55 minutes for our meals. A number of people left the queue and went to other food franchises and many people made complaints. You would have thought that on a ...
loz989 09.09.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Road Chef
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