Parmigiana in Santa Monica

6 restaurants in Santa Monica list parmigiana on their menus. The cheapest is Forma Restaurant & Cheese Bar at $15.00, listed as Eggplant Parmigiana. The typical price across town is $26.00, and the dearest we found is $29.00 at North Italia, so the two ends of the list are $14.00 apart, which is 93% more for the same dish. Of the 6 kitchens listed, 3 charge 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 parmigiana in 730 other areas and compare them all on parmigiana across United States. The typical price there runs $18.49 at the median, so Santa Monica is dearer than most of them, with a lower typical price than 14 of the 730. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $4.25 at Lione's Pizza in Downingtown, PA, and the highest best price is $24.95 in Mount Sinai, NY. The nearest area with it is Marina del Rey, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $20.00.

Where is the cheapest parmigiana in Santa Monica? Forma Restaurant & Cheese Bar, at $15.00 on 1610 Montana Avenue. The same dish reaches $29.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $14.00.

What should parmigiana cost here? About $26.00 is the typical price across the 6 kitchens in Santa Monica that list it. Of the ones listed above, 3 are 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 Marina del Rey, about 4 mi away, where the best price is $20.00. That is $5.00 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.