Fettuccine Alfredo in El Cajon

9 restaurants in El Cajon list fettuccine alfredo on their menus. The cheapest is Dolci Cafe Italiano at $8.00. The typical price across town is $18.95, and the dearest we found is $21.00 at Testo Pepesto Italian Restaurant, so the two ends of the list are $13.00 apart, which is 162% more for the same dish. Of the 9 kitchens listed, 4 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 3 sit within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track fettuccine alfredo in 191 other areas and compare them all on fettuccine alfredo across United States. The typical price there runs $16.95 at the median, so El Cajon is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 39 of the 191. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $5.00 at Crave Italian Oven & Bar in North Myrtle Beach, SC, and the highest best price is $19.99 in Torrington, CT. The nearest area with it is San Diego, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $9.99.

Where is the cheapest fettuccine alfredo in El Cajon? Dolci Cafe Italiano, at $8.00 on 2522 Jamacha Road. The same dish reaches $21.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $13.00.

What should fettuccine alfredo cost here? About $18.95 is the typical price across the 9 kitchens in El Cajon that list it. Of the ones listed above, 4 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 San Diego, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $9.99. 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.