Calamari in Rockville Centre

6 restaurants in Rockville Centre list calamari on their menus. The cheapest is Dirty Taco + Tequila RVC at $7.50, listed as Crispy Calamari. The typical price across town is $19.15, and the dearest we found is $26.95 at Bigelow's New England Fried Clams, so the two ends of the list are $19.45 apart, which is 259% 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 calamari in 493 other areas and compare them all on calamari across United States. The typical price there runs $15.42 at the median, so Rockville Centre is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 23 of the 493. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.50 at French Quarter Grille in Austin, TX, and the highest best price is $19.75 in Harwood Heights, IL. The nearest area with it is Lynbrook, about 2 mi away, where the best price is $15.95.

Where is the cheapest calamari in Rockville Centre? Dirty Taco + Tequila RVC, at $7.50 on 201 Sunrise Hwy. The same dish reaches $26.95 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $19.45.

What should calamari cost here? About $19.15 is the typical price across the 6 kitchens in Rockville Centre 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 Lynbrook, about 2 mi away, where the best price is $15.95. That is $8.45 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.