Nachos in Chicago

26 restaurants in Chicago list nachos on their menus. The cheapest is Gomez Tacos & Pizza at $5.99. The typical price across town is $12.00, and the dearest we found is $18.00 at Broken English Taco Pub, so the two ends of the list are $12.01 apart, which is 201% more for the same dish. Of the 26 kitchens listed, 10 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 6 sit within a dollar of it and 10 charge more than a dollar over.

We track nachos in 74 other areas and compare them all on nachos across United States. The typical price there runs $12.95 at the median, so Chicago is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 44 of the 74. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $5.29 at Fat Cats in Westminster, CO, and the highest best price is $13.89 in Spokane, WA. The nearest area with it is Milwaukee, about 84 mi away, where the best price is $5.75.

Where is the cheapest nachos in Chicago? Gomez Tacos & Pizza, at $5.99 on 3016 E 91st St. The same dish reaches $18.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $12.01.

What should nachos cost here? About $12.00 is the typical price across the 26 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 10 are more than a dollar below that and 10 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 $5.75. That is $0.24 less than the best here, though whether that is worth the journey is your call.

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.