Pizza in Des Moines

5 restaurants in Des Moines list pizza on their menus. The cheapest is Centro at $7.00, listed as Cheese Pizza. The typical price across town is $12.50, and the dearest we found is $16.00 at Captain Roy's, so the two ends of the list are $9.00 apart, which is 129% more for the same dish. Of the 5 kitchens listed, 2 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track pizza in 1058 other areas and compare them all on pizza across United States. The typical price there runs $13.95 at the median, so Des Moines is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 767 of the 1058. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.49 at Bellacino's Pizza & Grinders in Troy, MI, and the highest best price is $18.00 in Tacoma, WA. The nearest area with it is West Des Moines, about 10 mi away, where the best price is $10.99.

Where is the cheapest pizza in Des Moines? Centro, at $7.00 on 1003 Locust Street. The same dish reaches $16.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $9.00.

What should pizza cost here? About $12.50 is the typical price across the 5 kitchens in Des Moines that list it. Of the ones listed above, 2 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 West Des Moines, about 10 mi away, where the best price is $10.99. That is $3.99 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.