I am usually not one to mess about at a service station on a road trip. I just want to get on with the journey. But I recently broke my rule because the services down the road from my parents’ house was named as one of the best in the UK.

Which? ranked Peterborough Extra services, just off the A1, 14th out of 90 stations. The service station received a 53 per cent customer satisfaction score and three out of five stars for its shops, food and drink, facilities, cleanliness and convenience and accessibility.

This didn’t sound like the highest score to me, especially compared to the number one spot, the posh Gloucester services on the M5. It landed a customer score of 85 per cent.

I decided to have a nose around to judge for myself, as I had not been here in years.

My earliest memories of this service station were eating at KFC with my parents and older brother, before Peterborough had one in the city centre. I thought the chicken was amazing as a kid in the early 2000s, so it was often a Sunday treat for us.

It was nice to see that my childhood favourite KFC was still there, along with McDonald’s, M&S Food, WHSmith, Chopstix, and Costa. Two brands I hadn’t tried before were a bakery called Fresh and an El Mexicana restaurant.

I could tell when I walked in that the service station was well kept, with no litter or bits of food left on the floor. It........

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