Tebay Service near Penrith, England

Following on from my last blog, we had a great time at my husband's nephew's wedding. It was really a lovely wedding. The bride and groom looked absolutely fantastic, Kaylee was absolutely beautiful in her wedding dress. Andrews wore kilt and so as his friends and family from Scotland.  Andrew even arranged a Scottish Piper at the church as a surprise for Kaylee.

It was a lovely church service, with delicious food and wonderful venue for reception. Unlike my daughter Emily's wedding, I had no pressure as a MOB (mother-of-bride) so I could actually relax and enjoyed their wedding properly.

The next day, we headed back to Scotland. It was a long journey, especially this time, we made this trip in one day. Luckily, it was Sunday and the road was quieter, even in London orbital.

We did not follow back the same route to go back to Scotland. This was because I insisted to my husband that I wanted to go to a 'posh (?)' motorway service called Tebay (http://www.tebayservices.com) near Penrith. Their website informs me that they are family business, see themselves as a food business, and produce, source, prepare and sell their products on site.

As it is more closer to Scotland than to London, we stopped over at a normal service area for a quick snack around mid-day before we continued on our journey.  Dunkin Donuts and a cup of tea!

As we were approaching the Lake District area, the scenery is looking more like Scotland.

I was wondering how we would find Tebay on the motorway, but no problem. It is actually well signposted.

Tebay has restaurant, farmshop, souvenir shop and some take-away shop too.

They were selling delectable looking cookies and cakes. I said to myself, I would need to come back to this after the meal to take them home...

We then looked around what we could choose.... shall I have flatbread, sandwich or roll ....

I then decided to go for a hot meal.....

My mother in law Mary had macaroni. My husband and I had smoked haddock macaroni. You can choose either chips or salad with it.

It is not cheap but you don't come to motorway service to eat out. You pay for the convenience, and as Tebay says, they use local produce, prepare them and serve, so hopefully you also pay for the quality of the ingredients.

Anyway, I enjoyed my smoked haddock macaroni. There were lots of chunks of fish. I must try to make this at home ...

There seem to be two big areas for seating.  We found a table in the quieter side of the restaurant.

After the meal, I popped into the farm shop area. I must apologise, I don't have any pictures, but I do have a picture of Bacon Jam they were selling, which intrigued me. Well, I even find its own dedicated website (http://www.eat17baconjam.co.uk). Is it a jam, a spread or a relish?

They say it's an onion jam meets smoky bacon. Interesting.... As I don't eat meat, I did not buy it but I could have bought it for a souvenir.

I wanted to bring back an artisan bread or two from the shop but being later in the afternoon already, there were not much loaves left to buy.

We came out of Tebay with empty handed and continued on the rest of our journey back to Scotland.

And then what? I just remembered ... I had earlier told myself to remember to buy some delectable looking big shortbread home from Tebay's restaurant. Of course, I forgot, typical of me! By then it was too late to turn back as I could now see we were approaching Scotland!

Welcome back to Scotland.  Ok, we may not have great weather in Scotland in comparison to the southern England however there are still plenty of places to eat in Scotland.

What shall I eat next ....?

That's all fork!