Calzone in Chicago

25 restaurants in Chicago list calzone on their menus. The cheapest is Taqueria El Ranchito at $5.99, listed as Build Your Own Calzone. The typical price across town is $12.99, and the dearest we found is $19.99 at Broadway Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $14.00 apart, which is 234% more for the same dish. Of the 25 kitchens listed, 10 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 4 sit within a dollar of it and 11 charge more than a dollar over.

We track calzone in 747 other areas and compare them all on calzone across United States. The typical price there runs $12.99 at the median, so Chicago is about average, with a lower typical price than 361 of the 747. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Catania's Pizza in Yonkers, NY, and the highest best price is $15.99 in Eustis, FL. The nearest area with it is Wheaton, about 19 mi away, where the best price is $9.00.

Where is the cheapest calzone in Chicago? Taqueria El Ranchito, at $5.99 on 2829 N Milwaukee Ave. The same dish reaches $19.99 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $14.00.

What should calzone cost here? About $12.99 is the typical price across the 25 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 10 are more than a dollar below that and 11 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 Wheaton, about 19 mi away, where the best price is $9.00. That is $3.01 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.