Loaded Fries in Buffalo

6 restaurants in Buffalo list loaded fries on their menus. The cheapest is Ricota's Pizza at $5.99. The typical price across town is $8.50, and the dearest we found is $14.99 at Papa J's Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $9.00 apart, which is 150% more for the same dish. Of the 6 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 3 sit within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track loaded fries in 11 other areas and compare them all on loaded fries across United States. The typical price there runs $9.60 at the median, so Buffalo is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 11 of the 11. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $5.50 at Zombie Burger + Bird in Des Moines, IA, and the highest best price is $9.99 in Cleveland, OH. The nearest area with it is Orchard Park, about 12 mi away, where the best price is $7.45.

Where is the cheapest loaded fries in Buffalo? Ricota's Pizza, at $5.99 on 206 Elk St. The same dish reaches $14.99 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $9.00.

What should loaded fries cost here? About $8.50 is the typical price across the 6 kitchens in Buffalo 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 Orchard Park, about 12 mi away, where the best price is $7.45. That is $1.46 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.