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[Jimmy]

I worked in the fast food section of Forton motorway services in Lancashire, UK, for a year in the mid nineties and can say that I have never eaten in one of those places since.
One morning I arrived at 7am and opened up the unit only to find a box of Danish pastries had been left out and was covered in ants and roaches. I called the manager of the services and down he came, saw the mess and said 'no worries' and proceeded to brush off the ants before putting out tha pastries on the counter.
On another occasion the freezers had broken down. We arrived one morning and opened them up and the smell was just horrendous. Again we called Joe and he came down and just said take it out and serve as much as possible and don't order too much stock today. The freezers were out for 2 weeks. The burgers were half rotten and customers were just leaving most on the tables.

It was just so so so busy at times and we were ran off our feet. With greedy customers that ordered a half pound cheesesburger instead of just a quarter pounder, and customers that didnt say 'please' we would have a special set up - the person on the till would shout out the order in a different way and we gave the customer a 'special'. Spit, grease from the collection tray next to the burger machine, crap from the floor, even snot from our noses would go on those burgers.
Out of date food was also the norm and noone batted an eyelid at having to scrape off mould from the buns and toasting them just that little bit darker.
There was never any soap in the dispenser and noone ever bothered washing hands after the toilet or smoking or touching money.
When the health inspectors used to turn up ( with prior appointment!!!) every five opr six months the place was spotless and everyone was using tongs to make the food. It was such a joke as we had so many problems trying to make up burgers with tongs. The health inspectors just smiled.
Hey we larked around and did horrendous things to the food but we we were all so bored, tired and unhappy at our terrible wages, very long hours and total exploitation. - And we didnt have to eat the food!

[Boeg]

You get what you give to others. If you go to a fast food restaurant, you will probably get food prepared the way you described it. If you don't have respect for food, don't expect to have it too..

stupid idiot

[--Allan--]

Odviously Boeg you've never eaten in an English Motorway service station

[dave]

Jimmy!
I worked at that service station too, but in 1992. I know exactly what you are saying. I remember one really funny incident though. It was a quiet evening and Jason, the team leader, decided to have a laugh. There was a business lady eating her burger on a table and Jase decided to stuff loads of paper towel down his trouser front. H e then went out with the filty rag we used to clean tables, looking like he had a huge hard on. He went over to the table and started to clean around the woman and said to her ' ooh, this finger has quite a fishy smell doesn't it?' We were killing ourselves watching it all behind the counter. The lady just got up and left. I remember too that it was such a filthy establishment, we regularly had mice runs. And we had to serve those bloody half pound cheeseburgers too! Often half cooked, frequently spat on, nobody ever new the difference. We also had something called steakwich baguettes, which was a thin piece of fatty meat in a sandwich with lettuce etc. These baguettes were a bugger to cook cos they keeped frizzling up on the grill, so we often used to serve them in bits. Another one was when it was really busy (sats and suns) we'd be sweating like crazy and the amount of sweat that dripped into those burgers from our faces was unreal. Yep, the most disgusting place I have ever worked in. Always be very nice to that person behind the counter