Shrimp in Ottawa

6 restaurants in Ottawa list shrimp on their menus. The cheapest is Noodle House 79 at $6.99. The typical price across town is $17.50, and the dearest we found is $19.95 at My Thai Village, so the two ends of the list are $12.96 apart, which is 185% more for the same dish. Of the 6 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 3 sit within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track shrimp in 5 other areas and compare them all on shrimp across Canada. The typical price there runs $15.95 at the median, so Ottawa is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 2 of the 5. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Madrocks Bar and Grill in Oshawa, ON, and the highest best price is $8.00 in Whitby, ON. The nearest area with it is Oshawa, about 296 km away, where the best price is $4.00.

Where is the cheapest shrimp in Ottawa? Noodle House 79, at $6.99 on 1600 Merivale Road. The same dish reaches $19.95 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $12.96.

What should shrimp cost here? About $17.50 is the typical price across the 6 kitchens in Ottawa that list it. Of the ones listed above, 1 is 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 Oshawa, about 296 km away, where the best price is $4.00. That is $2.99 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.