Shrimp Scampi in Ellicott City

3 restaurants in Ellicott City list shrimp scampi on their menus. The cheapest is Trattoria at $16.00. The typical price across town is $17.99, and the dearest we found is $27.49 at UNO Pizzeria & Grill, so the two ends of the list are $11.49 apart, which is 72% more for the same dish. Of the 3 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 1 charges more than a dollar over.

We track shrimp scampi in 272 other areas and compare them all on shrimp scampi across United States. The typical price there runs $23.00 at the median, so Ellicott City is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 260 of the 272. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $8.99 at Via Italian Table in Worcester, MA, and the highest best price is $32.00 in Red Bank, NJ. The nearest area with it is Columbia, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $18.00.

Where is the cheapest shrimp scampi in Ellicott City? Trattoria, at $16.00 on 4725 Dorsey Hall Drive. The same dish reaches $27.49 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $11.49.

What should shrimp scampi cost here? About $17.99 is the typical price across the 3 kitchens in Ellicott City that list it. Of the ones listed above, 1 is more than a dollar below that and 1 is 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 Columbia, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $18.00. That is $2.00 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.