Chili Cheese Fries in Des Moines

3 restaurants in Des Moines list chili cheese fries on their menus. The cheapest is Zombie Burger + Bird at $5.50. The typical price across town is $6.75, and the dearest we found is $11.00 at Angry Goldfish Pub & Eatery, so the two ends of the list are $5.50 apart, which is 100% 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 chili cheese fries in 6 other areas and compare them all on chili cheese fries across United States. The typical price there runs $11.95 at the median, so Des Moines is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 6 of the 6. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $5.25 at Happy's Pizza in Detroit, MI, and the highest best price is $12.09 in Ann Arbor, MI. The nearest area with it is Ann Arbor, about 510 mi away, where the best price is $12.09.

Where is the cheapest chili cheese fries in Des Moines? Zombie Burger + Bird, at $5.50 on 300 East Grand Avenue. The same dish reaches $11.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $5.50.

What should chili cheese fries cost here? About $6.75 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 Ann Arbor, about 510 mi away, where the best price is $12.09. That is $6.59 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.