Motorway service stations - is there any alternative?

[DewinDoeth]

Did our north Wales-London trip today: we do it often. It takes 6 hours, so we usually stop at a service station somewhere.

Slightly horrified today. Stopped at Norton Canes (on the Toll road) and bought:
1 x sparkling water
1 x fanta
1 x child's meal (1 sausage, beans, mashed potatoes)
1 x sandwich (standard, not extra large or anything)
1 x jacket potato with beans.

The bill was £16!!!
The jacket potato - which was crappy - was £5.49, Fanta £2.05, Sandwich was £3.99 and stale, bread all hardening. Child's meal was £2.99.

It is quite shocking for a basically shite meal. Not even nice really.

Is there any alternative to this? Given that it's a 6 hour journey, sandwiches in a car park isn't great for DS (2.5) and he's potty trained so needs toilets etc too! (Mind you, he tends to run around and play on those ride-on machines instead of sitting properly and eating properly - so that's another negative. Running around = fair enough, been cooped up in the car, but those blooming machines...)
Travelling too far off the road isn't useful for our massive journey, but surely there's something better and also cheaper than this?

I'm aware that McDonalds/Burger King is cheaper. But that's .

Go at night. Let DS sleep(hopefully straight through) and take your own food and drinks from home.

Are there any massive supermarkets just off the motorway (I don't know the route well)? Those are usually good value and would only add another 10-15 mins to your journey which would probably be worth it. I hate paying ££ for shit food :(

There's a brilliant website called just off the motorway with details of pubs, restaurants etc within a couple of miles of the motorway. You can search by junction number. We've had some great meals at a fraction of the cost of the shitty services ones.

there's a book called Off the Motorway (possibly related to website) which is handy to have in the car.

On our Manchester to Cornwall trip last year we had the brain wave of taking a packed lunch. Don't know why we'd never done it before except that DH doesn't normally do packed lunches. We had a nice hour sat in the sunshine by the service station playground while we ate and DD played. She ate her lunch in the car later.

We've discovered Moto service stations are better, generally have nice play areas and grassy park/picnic areas, so we always try to stop at them if we can.

Do you come back down the M42/M40? If you turn off at J4 of the M42 and take the Shirley exit, there is a massive Tesco and garden centre almost immediately on the right, they share a car park and both have cafes. The garden centre has a little play area too.

Mum and dad joined the national trust. They were sold on the idea that they can just pull off the motorway to wherever is close for lunch & comfort break.

The Garden Centre Group

I KNEW Mumsnet would have the answers! Thank you all!
WhoKnows yes, we do go M42/M40, and will definitely give the Shirley Tesco a go! Garden centres often good too.

We're also National Trust members.

Oh, my heart is full of joy at never having to eat that dreadful food again!

Our route is A55, then across the ?A41 to the M6, and that bit is fine, we know the area very well.
It's then M6, M6 Toll (which is a desert - probably, we don't know otherwise, but thinking about it, after ChristinedePizan's [great name btw] suggestion there is a visible Sainsburys at some point), then M42, M40 and London we know well.

Moto services are better; there's not so many of them though until you get south of Birmingham.

Perhaps we should start a thread - great places to stop with children...

The 'off the motorway' book is fab for pointing these things out.

Otherwise, its a case of deciding where you will stop and googling garden centres/supermarkets etc close to there