Calamari in Middletown

6 restaurants in Middletown list calamari on their menus. The cheapest is Esca Restaurant and Wine Bar at $8.00, listed as Fried Calamari. The typical price across town is $17.00, and the dearest we found is $18.70 at Vero Cucino Rustico, so the two ends of the list are $10.70 apart, which is 134% more for the same dish. Of the 6 kitchens listed, 3 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 2 sit within a dollar of it and 1 charges 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 $15.42 at the median, so Middletown is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 98 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 Meriden, about 7 mi away, where the best price is $10.25.

Where is the cheapest calamari in Middletown? Esca Restaurant and Wine Bar, at $8.00 on 437 Main Street. The same dish reaches $18.70 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $10.70.

What should calamari cost here? About $17.00 is the typical price across the 6 kitchens in Middletown that list it. Of the ones listed above, 3 are 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 Meriden, about 7 mi away, where the best price is $10.25. That is $2.25 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.