Patty Melt in Des Moines

3 restaurants in Des Moines list patty melt on their menus. The cheapest is The Royal Mile at $11.00. The typical price across town is $15.00, and the dearest we found is $16.00 at Francie's Bar & Grill, so the two ends of the list are $5.00 apart, which is 45% more for the same dish. Of the 3 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 2 sit within a dollar of it and 0 charge more than a dollar over.

We track patty melt in 8 other areas and compare them all on patty melt across United States. The typical price there runs $15.79 at the median, so Des Moines is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 4 of the 8. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $9.99 at Edmond's Burgers & More in Plano, TX, and the highest best price is $15.50 in Wilmington, NC. The nearest area with it is Kansas City, about 178 mi away, where the best price is $12.99.

Where is the cheapest patty melt in Des Moines? The Royal Mile, at $11.00. The same dish reaches $16.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $5.00.

What should patty melt cost here? About $15.00 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 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 Kansas City, about 178 mi away, where the best price is $12.99. That is $1.99 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.