I was lucky enough to have the chance to visit the Forecourt Trader of the Year 2018 recently A26 Tannaghmore in Northern Ireland. And what a pleasure that visit was. It was easy to see how it wowed the judges.

The star of this particular site is undoubtedly the food-to-go. Big ’wow’ for that. I was really impressed with the Chopped salad offer where you choose your base ie your greens, then choose your protein and other salad bits. You then need to decide whether you want it as a straight salad in a pot or in a wrap. I went for the pot and was not disappointed. My choice was peri peri chicken with lettuce, onions and tomatoes and my choice of dressing peri peri, of course. The lovely Chopped assistant put all the ingredients into my pot then turned them out onto a board and literally chopped them, again and again and again. It was great to see it all being done before your eyes in-store theatre in the truest sense. Plus, the fact that it was a healthy choice made it go down well too.

However, it would have been rude not to have partaken of the other goodies on offer at A26 Tannaghmore, so I headed to the Ground Espresso Bar.

There I chose a hot chocolate and a slab of Nutella cake. I absolutely love Nutella and the cake did not disappoint. But I have to say the choice was not easy as they also had Mars Bar Rice Krispies bars and Honeycomb Squares as well as Apple & Cinnamon and Rhubarb & White Chocolate scones and they all looked heavenly.

I don’t drink coffee but I was intrigued by the Bobblehat Blend, which the assistant said was their special winter coffee. In the summer they had had the lighter, Flip Flop coffee. You could buy a cup of Bobblehat or buy the beans to take away. It all made rather a refreshing change from the typical coffee fare.

Although food-to-go, for me, was the star of the show at this site, I must say it had rather a well-rounded offer. The shop area was a proper convenience store, offering everything you would expect to find and the standards were excellent.

When you see sites like this, you can be nothing but impressed.

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