Grilled Chicken in Boston

9 restaurants in Boston list grilled chicken on their menus. The cheapest is Viva Burrito at $11.95. The typical price across town is $16.00, and the dearest we found is $20.00 at Maria's Kitchen, so the two ends of the list are $8.05 apart, which is 67% more for the same dish. Of the 9 kitchens listed, 4 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 2 sit within a dollar of it and 3 charge more than a dollar over.

We track grilled chicken in 93 other areas and compare them all on grilled chicken across United States. The typical price there runs $13.00 at the median, so Boston is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 20 of the 93. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Fresco Market & Catering in Caldwell, NJ, and the highest best price is $15.99 in Chelmsford, MA. The nearest area with it is Dorchester, about 3 mi away, where the best price is $15.00.

Where is the cheapest grilled chicken in Boston? Viva Burrito, at $11.95 on 274 Franklin Street. The same dish reaches $20.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $8.05.

What should grilled chicken cost here? About $16.00 is the typical price across the 9 kitchens in Boston that list it. Of the ones listed above, 4 are more than a dollar below that and 3 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 Dorchester, about 3 mi away, where the best price is $15.00. That is $3.05 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.