Tebay Services (Southbound) — Attraction in Orton

Totally phenomenal. When I first rode my enormous cargo bicycle into the car park, I started riding around to look around. A guy getting into his electric car, who turned out to be the manager of the whole place, got chatting to me. He insisted I wheel the bike into the shop for safe keeping, and put the batteries on charge. He was super nice.

Something really important, I have a perfume allergy, which classes as a disability. I'm very happy to report, their disabled radar key toilet does NOT have any air freshener. SUCH a relief! Toilet access is a big issue for people with disabilities, and we couldn't possibly complement Tebay Services more.

I wandered around and boght some dinner. It was totaly gourmet food. And they sell Karma Cola, something I'd always wanted to try, and it was great. And I had a chicken leek and bacon pie. The bacon and cumberland sausage sarnie was gourmet too. It was the proper coiled up type of cumberland sausage, which was a nice touch because it meant it coiled to the shape of the round bread, spreading itsef evenly through each bite. Some really nice flapjacks too. etc. I spent a fortune, because they were SO good. One guy put my phone on charge for me, before I bit the bullet and bought a new cable in the petrol station part. It was a really high quality braided one, not like that dodgy ones at Roadchef WHSmith. This place blows all other services out of the water.

Side note, even the scavanging birds here are high class. There are no pidgeons. Instead, you get these cute little finches that make adorable high pitched litle chirps and wait politely for tiny little crumbs to come their way. Pidgeons don't like Tebay services, too classy for them.

Last but not least, as I was only on a bicycle, I decided to pitch my tent on the waste land at the back. I don't leave litter (though sadly there was some already there) or light fires or bother anyone, but at other places I've had people move me on. Here though, they were super nice. Someone, who turned out to be another site manager, woke me up with a free coffee. I didn't mind, because I needed to be up anyway, and it was such a generous touch. Maybe his secondary goal was to check me out, who knows, but whether or not that was the case he handled it like a champ. They all handled everything SO respectfully.

I'm an unusual customer for a motorway services (I don't even drive!) But they were great to me. And I purchased tonnes of great stuff... exactly as it should be! And you should do the...

We visited this service area on 26 October at about 0945.

We have used Tebay regularly over the past few years, but the reorganisation of the food stations has had a detrimental effect on the experience.

The full breakfast counter is only about half as long as it was previously, with the waffles/sandwich stations being longer. When busy, the queue for the breakfast counter stretches across to the two stations on the other side of the area, with people having to thread through it to get to the seating area, or to exit the restaurant.

The breakfasts have also dipped in quality. The sausages are as good as ever, and fried eggs are cooked fresh. However, the plates are not being kept as warm as previously, resulting in several items (tomato, mushrooms, beans, bacon) getting cold before they are completely consumed. The tomatoes were piled in two layers in the serving dish, resulting in the top layer receiving very little heat from the hotplate. I'm not sure why the mushrooms were only lukewarm, as they were in a pot on the hotplate; perhaps a little more heat required? The plastic lids for plates are no longer present, which may also have helped to keep a little more warmth in the food prior to sitting down.

There is a little delay, as there was previously, if you want a hot drink with your breakfast, resulting in a second queue forming after paying, as people wait for their drinks. I think that there are fewer machines now for these drinks, which may exacerbate the delay.

I'm not sure that the rearrangement of the food stations is working as well as it could. It may be that the main meal/breakfast station should be moved to the longer servery, allowing more room for the queue, and for the staff working behind the counter.

The rest of the service area maintains its earlier high standards, with the shop being as good as ever and the takeaway area efficiently run. We will visit again, but the breakfast there on the way south this time was not the highlight that...

I regularly stop at tebay with my family as the food is very home made and would get a 5 star rating on its own. However, I have a real problem with their inflexibility with thier meal options. Classic example was when they said I could have lasagne with chips or lasagne with salad. I asked for lasagne with a half portion of chips and a half portion of salad - so essentially the same amount of food. "No that's not allowed" was the response. On further visits I got into the same conversation and was refused again. Where is the logic here? No cost difference to them. You would never get this kind of inflexibility in a restaurant. On a recent trip my teenage son was served cheesy mac in a small ish ramekin. The portion size was tiny. He could of easily eaten 4 or 5 times this amount. There was a manager nearby so I mentioned this to him. His response was "the portions are a more than sufficient for the pasta". Not what you expect. To be fair to him he was dealing with another issue so wasn't able to continue the conversation or look at the measly portion of food. So tebay - I think you need to listen to your customers and take their complaints/suggestions seriously. Personally I feel like I don't want to go there any more as I just get annoyed. On another note the cake and pastry section looked a mess. It's self service and looks like a terrier has done a couple of circuits through the display cabinet. I am also unhappy that the water dispenser at the food servery has gone. Previously you could help yourself to water but it has disappeared. I was told to go into the children's area and use their sink for water. Not particularly clean and no glasses available. This is a downgrade after their recent refit. All such a shame - I had a lovely beef cobbler and the the butchers there is first class. Please take my comments seriously tebay south! I suggest you install a suggestion box for customers and act on...