Parmigiana in Columbus

10 restaurants in Columbus list parmigiana on their menus. The cheapest is Pastaria at $8.99, listed as Chicken Parmesan. The typical price across town is $19.00, and the dearest we found is $21.99 at Pat & Gracie’s, so the two ends of the list are $13.00 apart, which is 145% more for the same dish. Of the 10 kitchens listed, 4 charge 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 Columbus is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 265 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 Dayton, about 63 mi away, where the best price is $14.99.

Where is the cheapest parmigiana in Columbus? Pastaria, at $8.99 on 59 Spruce Street. The same dish reaches $21.99 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $13.00.

What should parmigiana cost here? About $19.00 is the typical price across the 10 kitchens in Columbus that list it. Of the ones listed above, 4 are 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 Dayton, about 63 mi away, where the best price is $14.99. That is $6.00 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.