Grilled Cheese in Des Moines

3 restaurants in Des Moines list grilled cheese on their menus. The cheapest is Waveland Cafe at $4.75. The typical price across town is $7.99, and the dearest we found is $16.00 at The Stuffed Olive, so the two ends of the list are $11.25 apart, which is 237% 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 grilled cheese in 2 other areas and compare them all on grilled cheese across United States. The typical price there runs $9.00 at the median, so Des Moines is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 2 of the 2. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $5.50 at The Best Steak House in Saint Louis, MO, and the highest best price is $6.49 in Madison, WI. The nearest area with it is Madison, about 238 mi away, where the best price is $6.49.

Where is the cheapest grilled cheese in Des Moines? Waveland Cafe, at $4.75 on 4708 University Avenue. The same dish reaches $16.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $11.25.

What should grilled cheese cost here? About $7.99 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 Madison, about 238 mi away, where the best price is $6.49. That is $1.74 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.