Little Chef

We went here after staying the night in the attached Travelodge. Wow, it was seriously depressing on entering. Not only was it badly in need of decorating, the chairs were falling apart the layout was very, very strange, lending an surreal air to the place.
Things started to look up with the service, which was surprisingly warm and friendly (I guess you need a good sense of humour to work in this dump) and the food (an Early Starter) was surprisingly nice and well cooked. The coffee, on the other hand, was absolutely vile. I’m by no means a coffee snob, but this was just sludge — a mug of instant would have been 10 times nicer. Unless you’re staying in the Travelodge, I’d steer clear until it gets Heston’s magic touch.

I can’t understand why this Little Chef is still there, when there were two other ones in the area (both nicer staff) that have both closed down.
We went to this Little Chef when we happened to be passing and couldn’t easily get to the one on the other side that is now closed.
The staff ignored us standing there for quite a while. (They were not busy at all!) They stood chatting to each other while we waited to be seated.
When we finally got seated the staff were not very friendly taking our order. The food took ages to come and was very average.
We had dessert there and have to say we were not impressed. I had a fruit salad that had obviously gone off. When we complained they would not change it or refund our money.
The play equipment outside was unusable, it was very old and falling to bit and not suitable for children to play on.
We will not be going there again, even though now it is the only one left.