Parmigiana in Philadelphia

79 restaurants in Philadelphia list parmigiana on their menus, and the 40 cheapest are listed above. The cheapest is Villagio at $9.00, listed as Chicken Parmesan. The typical price across town is $15.85, and the dearest of the 40 listed is $15.60 at Santucci's Original Square Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $6.60 apart, which is 73% more for the same dish. Of the 40 kitchens listed, 32 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 8 sit within a dollar of it and 0 charge more than a dollar over.

We track parmigiana in 730 other areas and compare them all on parmigiana across United States. The typical price there runs $18.49 at the median, so Philadelphia is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 626 of the 730. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.25 at Lione's Pizza in Downingtown, PA, and the highest best price is $24.95 in Mount Sinai, NY. The nearest area with it is Camden, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $9.25.

Where is the cheapest parmigiana in Philadelphia? Villagio, at $9.00 on 2421 E Allegheny Ave. The same dish reaches $15.60 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $6.60.

What should parmigiana cost here? About $15.85 is the typical price across the 79 kitchens in Philadelphia that list it. Of the ones listed above, 32 are more than a dollar below that and 0 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 Camden, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $9.25. That is $0.25 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.