Steak Frites in Washington

17 restaurants in Washington list steak frites on their menus. The cheapest is Murphy’s Grill at $20.99. The typical price across town is $35.95, and the dearest we found is $54.00 at Bourbon Steak, so the two ends of the list are $33.01 apart, which is 157% more for the same dish. Of the 17 kitchens listed, 5 charge more than a dollar under the typical price, 4 sit within a dollar of it and 8 charge more than a dollar over.

We track steak frites in 15 other areas and compare them all on steak frites across United States. The typical price there runs $36.00 at the median, so Washington is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 8 of the 15. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $21.00 at Bassett Street Brunch Club in Madison, WI, and the highest best price is $39.00 in Charleston, SC. The nearest area with it is Alexandria, about 8 mi away, where the best price is $22.50.

Where is the cheapest steak frites in Washington? Murphy’s Grill, at $20.99 on 620 Michigan Avenue Northeast. The same dish reaches $54.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $33.01.

What should steak frites cost here? About $35.95 is the typical price across the 17 kitchens in Washington that list it. Of the ones listed above, 5 are more than a dollar below that and 8 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 Alexandria, about 8 mi away, where the best price is $22.50. That is $1.51 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.