Mozzarella Sticks in Atlantic City

8 restaurants in Atlantic City list mozzarella sticks on their menus. The cheapest is Maria's Pizzeria at $6.99. The typical price across town is $8.00, and the dearest we found is $9.59 at Joe's Famous Hoagies & Steaks Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $2.60 apart, which is 37% more for the same dish. Of the 8 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 5 sit within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track mozzarella sticks in 700 other areas and compare them all on mozzarella sticks across United States. The typical price there runs $9.95 at the median, so Atlantic City is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 619 of the 700. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Master's Pizza in New York, NY, and the highest best price is $11.28 in Lake Grove, NY. The nearest area with it is Ventnor City, about 3 mi away, where the best price is $11.00.

Where is the cheapest mozzarella sticks in Atlantic City? Maria's Pizzeria, at $6.99 on 405 N Pennsylvania Ave. The same dish reaches $9.59 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $2.60.

What should mozzarella sticks cost here? About $8.00 is the typical price across the 8 kitchens in Atlantic City that list it. Of the ones listed above, 1 is 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 $11.00. That is $4.01 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.