Onion Rings in Salem

4 restaurants in Salem list onion rings on their menus. The cheapest is Papa's Pizza at $4.73. The typical price across town is $6.59, and the dearest we found is $7.99 at Garden City Pizza and Grill, so the two ends of the list are $3.26 apart, which is 69% more for the same dish. Of the 4 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 2 sit within a dollar of it and 1 charges more than a dollar over.

We track onion rings in 500 other areas and compare them all on onion rings across United States. The typical price there runs $7.95 at the median, so Salem is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 423 of the 500. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.00 at Lucky's Burger and Brews in Marietta, GA, and the highest best price is $11.00 in Bellevue, WA. The nearest area with it is Roanoke, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $4.45.

Where is the cheapest onion rings in Salem? Papa's Pizza, at $4.73 on 1951 Electric Rd. The same dish reaches $7.99 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $3.26.

What should onion rings cost here? About $6.59 is the typical price across the 4 kitchens in Salem that list it. Of the ones listed above, 1 is more than a dollar below that and 1 is 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 Roanoke, about 5 mi away, where the best price is $4.45. That is $0.28 less than the best here, though whether that is worth the journey is your call.

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.