Fried Shrimp in New Orleans

5 restaurants in New Orleans list fried shrimp on their menus. The cheapest is Joey K's at $8.50. The typical price across town is $13.50, and the dearest we found is $29.00 at Tipsy Trumpet, so the two ends of the list are $20.50 apart, which is 241% more for the same dish. Of the 5 kitchens listed, 2 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track fried shrimp in 45 other areas and compare them all on fried shrimp across United States. The typical price there runs $16.95 at the median, so New Orleans is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 38 of the 45. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $5.99 at Picatta Pizza & Pasta in Houston, TX, and the highest best price is $21.75 in Montclair, NJ. The nearest area with it is Fort Walton Beach, about 204 mi away, where the best price is $9.95.

Where is the cheapest fried shrimp in New Orleans? Joey K's, at $8.50 on 3001 Magazine Street. The same dish reaches $29.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $20.50.

What should fried shrimp cost here? About $13.50 is the typical price across the 5 kitchens in New Orleans that list it. Of the ones listed above, 2 are more than a dollar below that and 2 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 Fort Walton Beach, about 204 mi away, where the best price is $9.95. That is $1.45 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.