Calamari in Austin

5 restaurants in Austin list calamari on their menus. The cheapest is French Quarter Grille at $4.50. The typical price across town is $11.99, and the dearest we found is $21.00 at Red Farm, so the two ends of the list are $16.50 apart, which is 367% 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 495 other areas and compare them all on calamari across United States. The typical price there runs $15.42 at the median, so Austin is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 473 of the 495. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $5.00 at Thai Basil Signature in Phoenix, AZ, and the highest best price is $19.75 in Harwood Heights, IL. The nearest area with it is San Antonio, about 72 mi away, where the best price is $9.00.

Where is the cheapest calamari in Austin? French Quarter Grille, at $4.50 on 13000 North Interstate 35. The same dish reaches $21.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $16.50.

What should calamari cost here? About $11.99 is the typical price across the 5 kitchens in Austin 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 San Antonio, about 72 mi away, where the best price is $9.00. That is $4.50 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.