Fettuccine Alfredo in Chicago

24 restaurants in Chicago list fettuccine alfredo on their menus. The cheapest is Medici on 57th at $9.95. The typical price across town is $16.00, and the dearest we found is $24.00 at Joe's on Higgins, so the two ends of the list are $14.05 apart, which is 141% more for the same dish. Of the 24 kitchens listed, 9 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 8 sit within a dollar of it and 7 charge more than a dollar over.

We track fettuccine alfredo in 191 other areas and compare them all on fettuccine alfredo across United States. The typical price there runs $16.95 at the median, so Chicago is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 107 of the 191. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $5.00 at Crave Italian Oven & Bar in North Myrtle Beach, SC, and the highest best price is $19.99 in Torrington, CT. The nearest area with it is Elmhurst, about 12 mi away, where the best price is $13.00.

Where is the cheapest fettuccine alfredo in Chicago? Medici on 57th, at $9.95 on 1327 East 57th Street. The same dish reaches $24.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $14.05.

What should fettuccine alfredo cost here? About $16.00 is the typical price across the 24 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 9 are more than a dollar below that and 7 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 Elmhurst, about 12 mi away, where the best price is $13.00. That is $3.05 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.