Steak Frites in Columbia

3 restaurants in Columbia list steak frites on their menus. The cheapest is Pearlz Oyster Bar Columbia at $32.95, listed as STEAK FRITES*. The typical price across town is $47.00, and the dearest we found is $55.00 at Terra Restaurant, so the two ends of the list are $22.05 apart, which is 67% more for the same dish. Of the 3 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 1 charges more than a dollar over.

We track steak frites in 15 other areas and compare them all on steak frites across United States. The typical price there runs $35.95 at the median, so Columbia is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 0 of the 15. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $20.99 at Murphy’s Grill in Washington, DC, and the highest best price is $39.00 in Charleston, SC. The nearest area with it is Charleston, about 103 mi away, where the best price is $39.00.

Where is the cheapest steak frites in Columbia? Pearlz Oyster Bar Columbia, at $32.95 on 153 East Bay Street. The same dish reaches $55.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $22.05.

What should steak frites cost here? About $47.00 is the typical price across the 3 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 Charleston, about 103 mi away, where the best price is $39.00. That is $6.05 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.