Spaghetti in El Cajon

6 restaurants in El Cajon list spaghetti on their menus. The cheapest is Rancho Giant Pizza at $8.99. The typical price across town is $11.99, and the dearest we found is $13.99 at New York Giant Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $5.00 apart, which is 56% more for the same dish. Of the 6 kitchens listed, 2 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 2 sit within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track spaghetti in 50 other areas and compare them all on spaghetti across United States. The typical price there runs $12.90 at the median, so El Cajon is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 35 of the 50. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.90 at Pavone's Pizza in Syracuse, NY, and the highest best price is $15.99 in Jacksonville, FL. The nearest area with it is San Diego, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $8.99.

Where is the cheapest spaghetti in El Cajon? Rancho Giant Pizza, at $8.99 on 2441 Jamacha Rd. The same dish reaches $13.99 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $5.00.

What should spaghetti cost here? About $11.99 is the typical price across the 6 kitchens in El Cajon 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 San Diego, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $8.99. That is the same as 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.