Fries in Ottawa

4 restaurants in Ottawa list fries on their menus. The cheapest is State & Main at $5.00. The typical price across town is $10.00, and the dearest we found is $12.99 at Zak's Diner - ByWard Market, so the two ends of the list are $7.99 apart, which is 160% more for the same dish. Of the 4 kitchens listed, 2 charge 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 fries in 3 other areas and compare them all on fries across Canada. The typical price there runs $7.00 at the median, so Ottawa is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 0 of the 3. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Blanco Cantina in Saskatoon, SK, and the highest best price is $5.00 in Edmonton, AB. The nearest area with it is Hamilton, about 393 km away, where the best price is $5.00.

Where is the cheapest fries in Ottawa? State & Main, at $5.00 on 1880 Ogilvie Rd. The same dish reaches $12.99 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $7.99.

What should fries cost here? About $10.00 is the typical price across the 4 kitchens in Ottawa that list it. Of the ones listed above, 2 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 Hamilton, about 393 km away, where the best price is $5.00. That is the same as 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.