My £3.80 bacon sandwich from this 'greasy spoon' style food van hit the spot
With the end of January just hours away, it’s time to ease up on the strict rules we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. Whether you forced yourself to endure ‘veganuary’ or ‘dry January’, next month should be ‘whatever you fancy February’.
After all, if you stick to your goals for the next 11 months, you will have no means of making yourself miserable in January 2026. Or perhaps you will have to choose something else to cut out: no TV? No sugar? No laughter?
To ward off these fates, I decided to propose a first stop on my journey towards un-healthiness: Mary’s Munchies. What Mary is craving, it turns out, is fried food.
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The Mary’s Munchies van is a new addition to High Street in Chesterton, just next to the Chesterton Working Men’s Club. In its position used to be Mikey’s Food Box, run by Working Men’s Club manager Mikey Dowling since 2023. Mikey’s offering was very similar to Mary’s: full English breakfasts, burgers, and sausage and bacon rolls.
Considering the Cambridge location, Mary’s Munchies’ prices are cheap. They range from £3 for chips to £7.90 for an all-day breakfast of bacon, sausage, egg, beans, tomatoes and hash browns – with £1.50 tea or coffee to wash it down.
The classic ‘greasy spoon’-style trio is available for sandwich fillings: bacon, sausage and egg. One filling costs £3.80, two costs £4.50 and three costs £5.20.
I asked for bacon in a soft roll (the options were: crusty roll, soft roll and baguette) and enjoyed a friendly chat with the chef to the tune of her sizzling pan. From an offering of butter, tomato sauce and brown sauce, I chose butter and brown sauce.
The sandwich hit the spot. The two slices of bacon were hot and salty, the roll was soft and the sauce was evenly spread out. There was a little more un-rendered fat on the bacon than I typically like but, for just £3.80, I was satisfied.
Mary’s Munchies is open from 7am to 2pm, Monday to Friday, and from 8am to 12pm on Saturdays.