Shrimp in Boulder

4 restaurants in Boulder list shrimp on their menus. The cheapest is Haoway Chinese Cafe at $11.95. The typical price across town is $19.99, and the dearest we found is $41.95 at Rio Grande, so the two ends of the list are $30.00 apart, which is 251% more for the same dish. Of the 4 kitchens listed, 2 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 1 charges more than a dollar over.

We track shrimp in 85 other areas and compare them all on shrimp across United States. The typical price there runs $15.50 at the median, so Boulder is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 6 of the 85. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at El Nopal in Dover, DE, and the highest best price is $19.50 in Revere, MA. The nearest area with it is Denver, about 29 mi away, where the best price is $4.25.

Where is the cheapest shrimp in Boulder? Haoway Chinese Cafe, at $11.95 on 1678 30th Street. The same dish reaches $41.95 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $30.00.

What should shrimp cost here? About $19.99 is the typical price across the 4 kitchens in Boulder that list it. Of the ones listed above, 2 are more than a dollar below that and 1 is 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 Denver, about 29 mi away, where the best price is $4.25. That is $7.70 less than the best here, though whether that is worth the journey is your call.

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.