Grilled Cheese Sandwich in Philadelphia

74 restaurants in Philadelphia list grilled cheese sandwich 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 $6.59, and the dearest of the 40 listed is $6.65 at Paradise Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $2.65 apart, which is 66% more for the same dish. Of the 40 kitchens listed, 21 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 19 sit within a dollar of it and 0 charge more than a dollar over.

We track grilled cheese sandwich in 20 other areas and compare them all on grilled cheese sandwich across United States. The typical price there runs $7.95 at the median, so Philadelphia is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 17 of the 20. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.49 at Palmisano's of Parkville in Parkville, MD, and the highest best price is $8.99 in Boothwyn, PA. The nearest area with it is Upper Darby, about 7 mi away, where the best price is $5.85.

Where is the cheapest grilled cheese sandwich in Philadelphia? Papa Nick's Pizza, at $4.00 on 199 W Godfrey Ave. The same dish reaches $6.65 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $2.65.

What should grilled cheese sandwich cost here? About $6.59 is the typical price across the 74 kitchens in Philadelphia that list it. Of the ones listed above, 21 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 Upper Darby, about 7 mi away, where the best price is $5.85. That is $1.85 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.