Mozzarella Sticks in Chicago

52 restaurants in Chicago list mozzarella sticks on their menus, and the 40 cheapest are listed above. The cheapest is Reggio's Pizza at $4.25. The typical price across town is $8.75, and the dearest of the 40 listed is $10.90 at Beggars Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $6.65 apart, which is 156% more for the same dish. Of the 40 kitchens listed, 18 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 18 sit within a dollar of it and 4 charge more than a dollar over.

We track mozzarella sticks in 700 other areas and compare them all on mozzarella sticks across United States. The typical price there runs $9.95 at the median, so Chicago is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 553 of the 700. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Master's Pizza in New York, NY, and the highest best price is $11.28 in Lake Grove, NY. The nearest area with it is Berwyn, about 3 mi away, where the best price is $6.99.

Where is the cheapest mozzarella sticks in Chicago? Reggio's Pizza, at $4.25 on 8548 South Cottage Grove Avenue. The same dish reaches $10.90 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $6.65.

What should mozzarella sticks cost here? About $8.75 is the typical price across the 52 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 18 are more than a dollar below that and 4 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 Berwyn, about 3 mi away, where the best price is $6.99. That is $2.74 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.