Shrimp Scampi in Manahawkin

3 restaurants in Manahawkin list shrimp scampi on their menus. The cheapest is Joey's Pizza & Pasta at $15.99. The typical price across town is $26.45, and the dearest we found is $30.45 at Nick's Pizza & Pasta, so the two ends of the list are $14.46 apart, which is 90% 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 Manahawkin is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 49 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 Barnegat, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $18.95.

Where is the cheapest shrimp scampi in Manahawkin? Joey's Pizza & Pasta, at $15.99 on 1340 NJ-72. The same dish reaches $30.45 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $14.46.

What should shrimp scampi cost here? About $26.45 is the typical price across the 3 kitchens in Manahawkin 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 Barnegat, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $18.95. That is $2.96 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.