Catering at motorway services
The catering at motorway service stations has a long and unpleasant history, which is covered under How To Design A Service Station. This page provides a little more detail on a few key points.
Most service station operators see themselves as operators of popular coffee and fast food brands. These are usually operated under a franchise agreement, where the service station provides the staff and sets the prices of the food.
There are some notable exceptions to this: Extra do not run any of the food brands which are provided at their services. Sometimes they are ran by the brand directly, but often they are ran by another operator. On the other hand Westmorland do run their own food brands, but they do not use any existing chains, and instead focus on their own menu of locally-sourced products.
A list of all the catering names available at each service station, and the ability to search for one, is provided in our database.
More Than Just Burgers
While the majority of service station customers are interested in the famous fast food names, the larger services have been trying to introduce a little variety. Chozen Noodle and El Mexicana are examples of this. Asian fast food restaurant Chow is especially interesting because it was created by Moto.
Having completely moved away from long-form dining, Welcome Break have brought it back to their busiest services with established restaurant chain PizzaExpress. Moto also trialled an established restaurant, Harvester.
The quandary for service station operators is that while most customers now want as quick a meal as possible, in the mornings breakfast is still popular. Partnering with the likes of Harry Ramsden's and Harvester means this can be accommodated within the existing menu. At the other services, the remains of the self-branded restaurant have been used to provide this, usually with smaller counters and vastly reduced opening hours. Some now alternate between being a breakfast bar in the morning and an unrelated brand name in the afternoon.
Food Quality
The consequence of food being served under established brand names is that there is usually a minimum quality that can be expected. If the food is not up to scratch, customers will start complaining to the brand who's name is being sullied.
The very first motorway services were famed for their fine dining. This phase was short-lived, and low revenue soon caused quality to be compromised. Meanwhile, lorry drivers were happy to be served 'cheap and cheerful' greasy-spoon style food in the transport café.
Over time the two classes of customer were merged, and large restaurants instead served cheap food at high prices, via a buffet counter. Despite a number of efforts to refurbish and revitalise the restaurants, including by automating them, they continued to be mired by poor experiences. In the 1990s established brands started to be introduced, creating large food courts, while the remaining waitress-service restaurants were removed. Emphasis then started to move towards freshness, with large restaurants changing to tiny counters.
Requirements
Under the MSA Policy, hot drinks and hot food must be made available throughout the service station's opening hours; 24 hours in the case of motorway services. However, there is nothing forbidding those food and drinks being served by automated vending machines.