Hot Dog Solution

After reading Brad H’s review, I was convinced to give Hot Dog Solution a try, so Brad and I met up for a bite. I’m a newbie when it comes to Sonoran Hot Dogs, so I followed Brad’s lead and ordered the Chipilon Style Sonoran. For 3 bucks you get a fully loaded Sonoran served on a buttery (and I mean buuuutttery) toasted Bolillo bun. And boy is this puppy stuffed to the brim. What’s in it? A bacon wrapped hotdog, cheese, beans, tomato, onion, mayo, mustard, and relish. The amazing thing is that you taste every ingredient with each bite. They offer extra sauces if you wish to add more to the already jam-​packed hot dog. The owner suggested I top it with a chipotle sauce, so I did and it was delicious! Brad H successfully ate two Chipilon style dogs… and managed with one but it sure was filling! Three hot dogs and two sodas was about 13 dollars. This cart accepts both cash and cards. I suggest you bring cash, that way you can leave a tip! Practice your Spanish because not much English is spoken here.
The menu is short and sweet here, 3 items only– Regular Sonoran dog (bun isn’t toasted), Chipilon Style dog and a foot long. Chips and soft drinks are sold separately and they have a small sitting area so you don’t have to take your dog to go!

Well, I hate to do this, but Ruiz’s just got dethroned as my #1 Sonoran Dog in town. I had the Chipilon style dog and it was divine. Somehow, there is more bacon flavor that comes out with this dawg than any other Sonoran Dawg I’ve had. And then with the Chipilon style, the bun is toasted, which I love (and why I loved Ruiz’s), and there is melted cheese underneath the hot dog at the bottom of the bun. This makes for a really great tasting experience.
There was also a bottle of chamoy sauce there. Some young men next to us were pouring it on their Doritos and I asked them what was that stuff. It is a tangy, thick, cherry sauce. So I had to try it, too. It’s pretty good. Interesting flavor combination. I guess you can put it on any chip you like. But looking it up on an Internet search, it is a Mexican condiment.
It was $ 3 for the Chipilon dog, it is $ 2.50 for a Sonoran style, and $ 5 for a foot long of either style. Chips were $ 1 a bag and drinks are $ 2. I highly recommend this place.

This is a repeat review but they deserve it. I think I posted my review in my check-​in section. First, not all hot dog stands in Tucson are created equal. Each has it’s own quirky menu, usually consisting of other Mexican street food options like tacos and burritos. Not Hot Dog Solution. Consistent with the review from 2012, they only serve three things — Sonoran Style, Chipilon Style and a foot long that can be made either way. When you only serve hot dogs, you get pretty good at it and they have definitely improved since Danny’s review in ’12. My favorite is the Chipilon, which I must eat about 4 a week. This place is so consistent, making the hot dogs the exact same way every time. The bread is the freshest in the city (will someone tell me where you can buy sonoran style hot dog buns for home???) and the bacon wrapped hot dog is sizable and doesn’t get lost in the beans and pico. This is definitely a take out spot vs eat in. Their sitting area only holds 6 – 8 people at the most so plan ahead. But if you have a friend visiting Tucson and you want to show them what a real Sonoran Style dog tastes like, take them here first. There are definitely other places, but this is about as authentic as it gets.

This could have been really interesting, but well… it wasn’t really. Too bad!
Hot Dog Solution gives you three options: the standard Sonoran dog you’ve grown to know and love (at just $ 2 each!), a footlong dog called «The Solution» ($ 4), and a cheesy option called the Chipilon (also $ 2). I’m a big fan of options, especially when they are options to get a Sonoran dog that isn’t exactly the same as every other Sonoran dog ever. So I asked the woman working the stand which was her favorite (first in English, then in shaky, broken Spanish when that wasn’t getting anywhere), and was pleased to hear that it was the Chipilon.
As it turned out, the cheese in the Chipilon was either really creamy or sparsely-​applied, because I wasn’t really getting much of a cheese flavor. I was, however, getting a mayonnaise flavor in spades — I guess she was feeling generous today. The bun was slightly toasted, but not quite as much as I might have liked. All in all, it ended up being just on the negative side of an average Sonoran dog experience, with a price tag about 20% better than an average Sonoran dog experience.
I didn’t get a chance to try the standard or footlong options, and it’s possible that I just got a particularly unfortunate serving, so I hesitate to pass final judgment on the quality of this cart. But given that Hot Dogs Obregon is right down the street, I’m not sure I would opt to go here instead of there if I were in the area.