Quesadilla in Des Moines

3 restaurants in Des Moines list quesadilla on their menus. The cheapest is Buzzard Billy's at $7.99, listed as Cheese Quesadilla. The typical price across town is $11.00, and the dearest we found is $13.50 at Skip's, so the two ends of the list are $5.51 apart, which is 69% 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 quesadilla in 270 other areas and compare them all on quesadilla across United States. The typical price there runs $12.25 at the median, so Des Moines is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 192 of the 270. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Don Juan | Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Hot Springs, AR, and the highest best price is $16.00 in Babylon, NY. The nearest area with it is West Des Moines, about 10 mi away, where the best price is $8.00.

Where is the cheapest quesadilla in Des Moines? Buzzard Billy's, at $7.99 on 615 3rd Street. The same dish reaches $13.50 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $5.51.

What should quesadilla cost here? About $11.00 is the typical price across the 3 kitchens in Des Moines 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 West Des Moines, about 10 mi away, where the best price is $8.00. That is $0.01 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.