Edamame in Austin

4 restaurants in Austin list edamame on their menus. The cheapest is Raku Sushi & Asian Bistro at $4.00. The typical price across town is $6.99, and the dearest we found is $7.50 at Tomodachi Sushi, so the two ends of the list are $3.50 apart, which is 88% more for the same dish. Of the 4 kitchens listed, 2 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 2 sit within a dollar of it and 0 charge more than a dollar over.

We track edamame in 13 other areas and compare them all on edamame across United States. The typical price there runs $6.00 at the median, so Austin is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 2 of the 13. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Shiku in Seattle, WA, and the highest best price is $5.50 in Naples, FL. The nearest area with it is Colorado Springs, about 722 mi away, where the best price is $5.00.

Where is the cheapest edamame in Austin? Raku Sushi & Asian Bistro, at $4.00 on 2222 Rio Grande Street. The same dish reaches $7.50 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $3.50.

What should edamame cost here? About $6.99 is the typical price across the 4 kitchens in Austin that list it. Of the ones listed above, 2 are more than a dollar below that and 0 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 Colorado Springs, about 722 mi away, where the best price is $5.00. That is $1.00 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.