Leicester Forest East Services, M1: I wish I have never pulled in.

Sunday, 10th March
We had to beat a hasty retreat down the M1 from Manchester (M6 blocked above Birmingham, and a pressing mothers' day appointment in Southend). As we left the Premier Inn before breakfast serving time, we had little choice but to have something to eat on the way down at a service station. I knew I was not going to get lunch, and so despite my preferences, an enforced stop at Eat In at the services. Frankly I would have preferred something else, but nothing else of consequence was open.
I know that the standards of motorway service food are supposed to have come on leaps and bounds, but for my money it is expensive and undesirable, and given the option, I would normally press on and not eat at a service station. But they know their customers, and you are trapped by Hobson's Choice. Interestingly, the operator of the hot food franchise, Eat In provides no web base information.
On the surface, it looks like quite a good idea, but every obstacle is put in the way of a good experience. On this occasions, I chose a deal of a choice of items (I think it was four, and I opted to two eggs to make two choices) and a drink for £8.30, which was pretty much what I paid for the hotel all you eat freshly cooked the day before. The hot food is all pre-cooked and kept warm/hot on a griddle. It is served to you and there is a possibility of covering it with a plastic lid. But that is where it goes wrong, and by the time you have queued with all the people who are either unexpectedly surprised that they have to pay, or are so advanced in their financial situation that they never deal in cash, even the best insulation will give up the ghost.

The picture does not tell the story, and this was a luke-warm apology of a breakfast scoring about a 5 or 6 on the CHOF scale despite my best efforts to keep it warm. I should have known better, and in fact next time I will: I think I would rather go hungry than pay the inflated prices asked for indifferent food, indifferent service and utilitarian surroundings. There will not be a next time.