Onion Rings in Des Moines

5 restaurants in Des Moines list onion rings on their menus. The cheapest is The Royal Mile at $4.50. The typical price across town is $10.00, and the dearest we found is $10.99 at Centro, so the two ends of the list are $6.49 apart, which is 144% more for the same dish. Of the 5 kitchens listed, 2 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 3 sit within a dollar of it and 0 charge more than a dollar over.

We track onion rings in 500 other areas and compare them all on onion rings across United States. The typical price there runs $7.95 at the median, so Des Moines is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 15 of the 500. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Lucky's Burger and Brews in Marietta, GA, and the highest best price is $11.00 in Bellevue, WA. The nearest area with it is West Des Moines, about 10 mi away, where the best price is $5.99.

Where is the cheapest onion rings in Des Moines? The Royal Mile, at $4.50. The same dish reaches $10.99 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $6.49.

What should onion rings cost here? About $10.00 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 0 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 $5.99. That is $1.49 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.