French Fries in Champaign

3 restaurants in Champaign list french fries on their menus. The cheapest is Manzella's Italian Restaurant at $4.25. The typical price across town is $5.55, and the dearest we found is $6.50 at Oishi Hibachi Steak House, so the two ends of the list are $2.25 apart, which is 53% more for the same dish. Of the 3 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 2 sit within a dollar of it and 0 charge more than a dollar over.

We track french fries in 500 other areas and compare them all on french fries across United States. The typical price there runs $6.49 at the median, so Champaign is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 436 of the 500. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Big Tony's Pizza II in Chicago, IL, and the highest best price is $7.50 in Seaford, NY. The nearest area with it is Indianapolis, about 115 mi away, where the best price is $4.00.

Where is the cheapest french fries in Champaign? Manzella's Italian Restaurant, at $4.25 on 115 S 1st St. The same dish reaches $6.50 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $2.25.

What should french fries cost here? About $5.55 is the typical price across the 3 kitchens in Champaign that list it. Of the ones listed above, 1 is more than a dollar below that and 0 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 Indianapolis, about 115 mi away, where the best price is $4.00. That is $0.25 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.