Loaded Hot Dogs & Fries - Duxford.

Loaded Hot Dogs & Fries – Duxford.

18/06/2022

Being a foodie isn’t all about the best. It’s also about finding the right food for the right occasion.

I’ve always been a firm believer that there is a time and a place for a cheap and cheerful meal which puts convenience and value over quality. Today was one of those occasions…

During our trip to the Duxford airshow we decided to grab something to eat. I’m not a huge hotdog fan but this seemed to stand out over the rather bland looking pizzas and doughnut stands, so we thought we would give it a try.

There was a novelty 1ft long hotdog, a Germanic “bockwurst” and a chilli cheese hotdog. Prices were hovering around the price you’d expect from other high end vans, so the illusion of this being cheap and cheerful was immediately shattered. I was expecting quality now.

I went for a chilli cheese dog which looked quite depressing. It was served with chilli and cheese as you would expect. The sausage itself was pretty tasty which took me by surprise but the overall meal was certainly not worth the £8 charge. The mark up here must have been staggering with a mass produced sausage, mass produced cheese, supermarket bun, and some chilli. I can’t imagine this costing much more than £1 to make.

The biggest shock was the chips. An utterly depressing portion of bog standard football stadium chips for £4. Again, there must have been two potatoes in this MAX leaving an 800% mark up at least.

I came into this with an open mind. I understand that everything isn’t going to be gourmet or high end. I respect the fact that even places like McDonald’s can serve a purpose and aren’t always targeting the foodie market but even by these standards this was just an opportunity to rip people off.

Let it never be said that my reviews are always positive.

Simon Tompkins

Duxford, Food Van, hotdog

One response to “Loaded Hot Dogs & Fries – Duxford.”

J Johnson

June 18, 2022 at 11:06 pm

At IWM Duxford the public catering contract is awarded to an outside company, who are responsible for all public food provision, permanent or temporary like the supplier you mentioned. Further, the contract requires that, certainly the permant food outlets, pays the, museum 25% of sales. All that this means is that the caterers work out their normal selling price, add 25% and that is the price the customer pays. Now, as the price at all outlets for similar items need to be the same (no price fixing here), therefore the temporary caterers sell at same price as the permanent outlets. (Also note the temporary outlets are, organised by the one company). I don’t know if the temporary outlets have to hand over 25% to the museum or not … but if they do, with additional costs like pitch rent etc., might go some way to the high price, low quality you experienced. Really at IWM Duxford, the only cheep and cheerful food you’ll get is by buying your Marmalade Sandwiches at a supermarket before visiting.

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