Jumbo Shrimp in Chicago

19 restaurants in Chicago list jumbo shrimp on their menus. The cheapest is Mama Luna's Restaurant & Pizzeria at $9.79, listed as Jumbo Shrimp Dinner. The typical price across town is $15.95, and the dearest we found is $22.39 at Vito & Angelo's Pizzeria, so the two ends of the list are $12.60 apart, which is 129% more for the same dish. Of the 19 kitchens listed, 5 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 7 sit within a dollar of it and 7 charge more than a dollar over.

We track jumbo shrimp in 7 other areas and compare them all on jumbo shrimp across United States. The typical price there runs $14.50 at the median, so Chicago is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 3 of the 7. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $6.99 at Happy's Pizza in Detroit, MI, and the highest best price is $16.49 in Milwaukee, WI. The nearest area with it is Milwaukee, about 84 mi away, where the best price is $16.49.

Where is the cheapest jumbo shrimp in Chicago? Mama Luna's Restaurant & Pizzeria, at $9.79 on 5109 W Fullerton Ave. The same dish reaches $22.39 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $12.60.

What should jumbo shrimp cost here? About $15.95 is the typical price across the 19 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 5 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 Milwaukee, about 84 mi away, where the best price is $16.49. That is $6.70 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.