Mozzarella Sticks in Columbia

5 restaurants in Columbia list mozzarella sticks on their menus. The cheapest is Jake's Bar & Grill at $8.00. The typical price across town is $9.58, and the dearest we found is $11.95 at By The Fire Pizza & Restaurant, so the two ends of the list are $3.95 apart, which is 49% more for the same dish. Of the 5 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 3 sit within a dollar of it and 1 charges 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 Columbia is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 377 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 Lexington, about 16 mi away, where the best price is $7.49.

Where is the cheapest mozzarella sticks in Columbia? Jake's Bar & Grill, at $8.00 on 2112 Devine Street. The same dish reaches $11.95 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $3.95.

What should mozzarella sticks cost here? About $9.58 is the typical price across the 5 kitchens in Columbia that list it. Of the ones listed above, 1 is more than a dollar below that and 1 is 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 Lexington, about 16 mi away, where the best price is $7.49. That is $0.51 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.