Pizza in Detroit

12 restaurants in Detroit list pizza on their menus. The cheapest is Chicago's Pizza at $7.41, listed as Cheese Pizza. The typical price across town is $9.90, and the dearest we found is $15.00 at Royal Barbecue Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $7.59 apart, which is 102% more for the same dish. Of the 12 kitchens listed, 3 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 4 sit within a dollar of it and 5 charge more than a dollar over.

We track pizza in 1060 other areas and compare them all on pizza across United States. The typical price there runs $13.95 at the median, so Detroit is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 1046 of the 1060. 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 Taylor, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $7.50.

Where is the cheapest pizza in Detroit? Chicago's Pizza, at $7.41 on 4650 Vernor Hwy. The same dish reaches $15.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $7.59.

What should pizza cost here? About $9.90 is the typical price across the 12 kitchens in Detroit that list it. Of the ones listed above, 3 are more than a dollar below that and 5 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 Taylor, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $7.50. That is $0.09 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.