Parmigiana in Columbia

7 restaurants in Columbia list parmigiana on their menus. The cheapest is Pizza Boli's at $12.99, listed as Chicken Parmesan. The typical price across town is $16.99, and the dearest we found is $23.70 at Tino's Italian Bistro, so the two ends of the list are $10.71 apart, which is 82% more for the same dish. Of the 7 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 4 sit within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track parmigiana in 730 other areas and compare them all on parmigiana across United States. The typical price there runs $18.49 at the median, so Columbia is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 494 of the 730. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.25 at Lione's Pizza in Downingtown, PA, and the highest best price is $24.95 in Mount Sinai, NY. The nearest area with it is Ellicott City, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $10.99.

Where is the cheapest parmigiana in Columbia? Pizza Boli's, at $12.99 on 7060 Oakland Mills Rd. The same dish reaches $23.70 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $10.71.

What should parmigiana cost here? About $16.99 is the typical price across the 7 kitchens in Columbia that list it. Of the ones listed above, 1 is more than a dollar below that and 2 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 Ellicott City, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $10.99. That is $2.00 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.