Shrimp in Providence

6 restaurants in Providence list shrimp on their menus. The cheapest is Baja's Taqueria at $8.00. The typical price across town is $17.99, and the dearest we found is $20.74 at Big Tony's Pizza, so the two ends of the list are $12.74 apart, which is 159% more for the same dish. Of the 6 kitchens listed, 3 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 2 charge more than a dollar over.

We track shrimp in 81 other areas and compare them all on shrimp across United States. The typical price there runs $15.95 at the median, so Providence is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 19 of the 81. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Butterfly Belly Asian Cuisine in Portland, OR, and the highest best price is $19.50 in Revere, MA. The nearest area with it is Stoughton, about 27 mi away, where the best price is $10.99.

Where is the cheapest shrimp in Providence? Baja's Taqueria, at $8.00 on 223 Thayer Street. The same dish reaches $20.74 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $12.74.

What should shrimp cost here? About $17.99 is the typical price across the 6 kitchens in Providence that list it. Of the ones listed above, 3 are 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 Stoughton, about 27 mi away, where the best price is $10.99. That is $2.99 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.