Onion Rings in Buffalo

20 restaurants in Buffalo list onion rings on their menus. The cheapest is Ricota's Pizza at $4.39. The typical price across town is $5.95, and the dearest we found is $10.00 at The Burning Buffalo Bar & Grill, so the two ends of the list are $5.61 apart, which is 128% more for the same dish. Of the 20 kitchens listed, 5 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 7 sit within a dollar of it and 8 charge more than a dollar over.

We track onion rings in 500 other areas and compare them all on onion rings across United States. The typical price there runs $7.95 at the median, so Buffalo is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 485 of the 500. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Lucky's Burger and Brews in Marietta, GA, and the highest best price is $11.00 in Bellevue, WA. The nearest area with it is Tonawanda, about 7 mi away, where the best price is $4.99.

Where is the cheapest onion rings in Buffalo? Ricota's Pizza, at $4.39 on 206 Elk St. The same dish reaches $10.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $5.61.

What should onion rings cost here? About $5.95 is the typical price across the 20 kitchens in Buffalo that list it. Of the ones listed above, 5 are more than a dollar below that and 8 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 Tonawanda, about 7 mi away, where the best price is $4.99. That is $0.60 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.