Spaghetti And Meatballs in El Cajon

8 restaurants in El Cajon list spaghetti and meatballs on their menus. The cheapest is Rancho Giant Pizza at $11.99, listed as Spaghetti with Meatballs. The typical price across town is $16.00, and the dearest we found is $23.50 at Testo Pepesto Italian Restaurant, so the two ends of the list are $11.51 apart, which is 96% more for the same dish. Of the 8 kitchens listed, 4 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 3 charge more than a dollar over.

We track spaghetti and meatballs in 215 other areas and compare them all on spaghetti and meatballs across United States. The typical price there runs $15.99 at the median, so El Cajon is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 102 of the 215. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $6.40 at Pavone's Pizza in Syracuse, NY, and the highest best price is $22.00 in Delray Beach, FL. The nearest area with it is Santee, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $14.00.

Where is the cheapest spaghetti and meatballs in El Cajon? Rancho Giant Pizza, at $11.99 on 2441 Jamacha Rd. The same dish reaches $23.50 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $11.51.

What should spaghetti and meatballs cost here? About $16.00 is the typical price across the 8 kitchens in El Cajon that list it. Of the ones listed above, 4 are more than a dollar below that and 3 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 Santee, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $14.00. That is $2.01 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.