French Fries in Philadelphia

85 restaurants in Philadelphia list french fries on their menus, and the 40 cheapest are listed above. The cheapest is Papa Nick's Pizza at $4.00. The typical price across town is $5.80, and the dearest of the 40 listed is $5.63 at Colonial Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $1.63 apart, which is 41% more for the same dish. Of the 40 kitchens listed, 19 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 21 sit within a dollar of it and 0 charge more than a dollar over.

We track french fries in 501 other areas and compare them all on french fries across United States. The typical price there runs $6.49 at the median, so Philadelphia is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 413 of the 501. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Big Tony's Pizza II in Chicago, IL, and the highest best price is $7.50 in Seaford, NY. The nearest area with it is Pennsauken, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $4.95.

Where is the cheapest french fries in Philadelphia? Papa Nick's Pizza, at $4.00 on 199 W Godfrey Ave. The same dish reaches $5.63 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $1.63.

What should french fries cost here? About $5.80 is the typical price across the 85 kitchens in Philadelphia that list it. Of the ones listed above, 19 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 Pennsauken, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $4.95. That is $0.95 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.