Small customer seating area at Ilminster rest area, positioned left of the main entrance, opposite Greggs. This seating area primarily serves Greggs, but is Burger King’s overflow seating when all of their seating is used up. Typical Green/Blue furniture for EG sites to match the fully refurbished interior of Ilminster. It’s small, but doesn’t need to be much larger. The lack of natural lighting and plain walls make this seating area seem depressing, especially when the sites quiet. My visit was at 7am, and the site was totally empty, making this seating area easy to photo. It was also spotlessly clean. During the day and in afternoons, seating here can, naturally, get messy with litter. These seats are quite comfortable as well. Despite the almost unrecognisable new interior of Ilminster, the seating is in a similar layout to when it was Little Chef. There’s a pointless totem pole advertising Greggs and a BK advert in the corner. Former Little Chef sites which EG have bought and refurbed all look similar to this, with grey floor tiles. If this amenity building was any smaller, EG would make it a Starbucks only, like at Willoughby Hedge. Ilminster being a larger little chef, which previously had a BK restaurant and other side-brands, meant EG had space to transform it into a mini food court with several brands inside. There are two picnic benches on a small hill outside the amenity building which customers can use in clement weather, however, the limited quantity of outdoor seating means this seating area is in constant high demand, and when the sites busy, this seating fills up quickly, so customers have to take food away. Hopefully this seating remains clean and tidy as it was during my visit.

Photo taken on 04/04/2024 by Tom Moon.

Assigned to galleries: Ilminster, EG Group, A303, Little Chef (closed)