Steak Frites in Arlington

4 restaurants in Arlington list steak frites on their menus. The cheapest is Bar Colline at $25.00, listed as STEAK FRITES*. The typical price across town is $32.50, and the dearest we found is $45.00 at Cafe Colline, so the two ends of the list are $20.00 apart, which is 80% more for the same dish. Of the 4 kitchens listed, 2 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 1 charges more than a dollar over.

We track steak frites in 15 other areas and compare them all on steak frites across United States. The typical price there runs $36.00 at the median, so Arlington is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 10 of the 15. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $20.99 at Murphy’s Grill in Washington, DC, and the highest best price is $39.00 in Charleston, SC. The nearest area with it is Alexandria, about 9 mi away, where the best price is $22.50.

Where is the cheapest steak frites in Arlington? Bar Colline, at $25.00 on 269 19th Court South. The same dish reaches $45.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $20.00.

What should steak frites cost here? About $32.50 is the typical price across the 4 kitchens in Arlington that list it. Of the ones listed above, 2 are more than a dollar below that and 1 is more than a dollar above, so the typical price is a middle rather than a floor.

Is it cheaper nearby? The nearest area we track it in is Alexandria, about 9 mi away, where the best price is $22.50. That is $2.50 less than the best here, though whether that is worth the journey is your call.

Why do the prices differ so much? We compare what each menu calls the same dish, and menus are not identical: portion, cut, sides and the kind of room you are sitting in all ride on the price, and none of that shows up in a number. Part portions and half sizes are kept out of this comparison, and a chain charging the same at several addresses is counted once, so the spread above is between genuinely different kitchens rather than the same one repeated.