Quesadilla in Chicago

20 restaurants in Chicago list quesadilla on their menus. The cheapest is Rubi’s Tacos at $5.00. The typical price across town is $12.95, and the dearest we found is $22.00 at Tarascas, so the two ends of the list are $17.00 apart, which is 340% more for the same dish. Of the 20 kitchens listed, 9 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 3 sit within a dollar of it and 8 charge more than a dollar over.

We track quesadilla in 268 other areas and compare them all on quesadilla across United States. The typical price there runs $12.25 at the median, so Chicago is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 111 of the 268. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Don Juan | Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Hot Springs, AR, and the highest best price is $16.00 in Babylon, NY. The nearest area with it is Naperville, about 24 mi away, where the best price is $6.95.

Where is the cheapest quesadilla in Chicago? Rubi’s Tacos, at $5.00 on 1316 West 18th Street. The same dish reaches $22.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $17.00.

What should quesadilla cost here? About $12.95 is the typical price across the 20 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 9 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 Naperville, about 24 mi away, where the best price is $6.95. That is $1.95 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.