Calamari in Atlantic City

5 restaurants in Atlantic City list calamari on their menus. The cheapest is AC Island Pizza at $12.00, listed as Fried Calamari. The typical price across town is $14.39, and the dearest we found is $24.00 at Council Oak Steaks & Seafood, so the two ends of the list are $12.00 apart, which is 100% more for the same dish. Of the 5 kitchens listed, 2 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track calamari in 493 other areas and compare them all on calamari across United States. The typical price there runs $15.45 at the median, so Atlantic City is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 348 of the 493. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.50 at French Quarter Grille in Austin, TX, and the highest best price is $19.75 in Harwood Heights, IL. The nearest area with it is Ventnor City, about 3 mi away, where the best price is $15.00.

Where is the cheapest calamari in Atlantic City? AC Island Pizza, at $12.00 on 1333 Pacific Ave. The same dish reaches $24.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $12.00.

What should calamari cost here? About $14.39 is the typical price across the 5 kitchens in Atlantic City that list it. Of the ones listed above, 2 are more than a dollar below that and 2 are 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 Ventnor City, about 3 mi away, where the best price is $15.00. That is $3.00 more than the best price here.

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.