Spaghetti in Chicago

39 restaurants in Chicago list spaghetti on their menus. The cheapest is Sharks Fish & Chicken at $5.99. The typical price across town is $12.30, and the dearest we found is $20.00 at Lula Cafe, so the two ends of the list are $14.01 apart, which is 234% more for the same dish. Of the 39 kitchens listed, 18 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 7 sit within a dollar of it and 14 charge more than a dollar over.

We track spaghetti in 50 other areas and compare them all on spaghetti across United States. The typical price there runs $12.90 at the median, so Chicago is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 29 of the 50. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.90 at Pavone's Pizza in Syracuse, NY, and the highest best price is $15.99 in Jacksonville, FL. The nearest area with it is Cicero, about 2 mi away, where the best price is $7.95.

Where is the cheapest spaghetti in Chicago? Sharks Fish & Chicken, at $5.99 on 400 E 87th St. The same dish reaches $20.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $14.01.

What should spaghetti cost here? About $12.30 is the typical price across the 39 kitchens in Chicago that list it. Of the ones listed above, 18 are more than a dollar below that and 14 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 Cicero, about 2 mi away, where the best price is $7.95. That is $1.96 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.