Calamari in Houston

12 restaurants in Houston list calamari on their menus. The cheapest is Dan's Pizza ''In The Mont'' at $7.99, listed as Fried Calamari. The typical price across town is $13.25, and the dearest we found is $15.95 at Original Napoli Beechnut, so the two ends of the list are $7.96 apart, which is 100% more for the same dish. Of the 12 kitchens listed, 3 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 5 sit within a dollar of it and 4 charge more than a dollar over.

We track calamari in 493 other areas and compare them all on calamari across United States. The typical price there runs $15.45 at the median, so Houston is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 426 of the 493. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.50 at French Quarter Grille in Austin, TX, and the highest best price is $19.75 in Harwood Heights, IL. The nearest area with it is Austin, about 137 mi away, where the best price is $4.50.

Where is the cheapest calamari in Houston? Dan's Pizza ''In The Mont'', at $7.99 on 12373 Scarsdale Blvd. The same dish reaches $15.95 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $7.96.

What should calamari cost here? About $13.25 is the typical price across the 12 kitchens in Houston that list it. Of the ones listed above, 3 are more than a dollar below that and 4 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 Austin, about 137 mi away, where the best price is $4.50. That is $3.49 less than the best here, though whether that is worth the journey is your call.

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.