Shrimp Scampi in West Long Branch

3 restaurants in West Long Branch list shrimp scampi on their menus. The cheapest is La Scarpetta Italian Restaurant at $15.95. The typical price across town is $21.95, and the dearest we found is $27.00 at Nelly's Grill & Pizzeria, so the two ends of the list are $11.05 apart, which is 69% more for the same dish. Of the 3 kitchens listed, 1 charges more than a dollar under the typical price, 1 sits within a dollar of it and 1 charges more than a dollar over.

We track shrimp scampi in 272 other areas and compare them all on shrimp scampi across United States. The typical price there runs $23.00 at the median, so West Long Branch is cheaper than most of them, with a lower typical price than 183 of the 272. The lowest best price anywhere we cover is $8.99 at Via Italian Table in Worcester, MA, and the highest best price is $32.00 in Red Bank, NJ. The nearest area with it is Long Branch, about 2 mi away, where the best price is $24.00.

Where is the cheapest shrimp scampi in West Long Branch? La Scarpetta Italian Restaurant, at $15.95 on 167 Locust Ave. The same dish reaches $27.00 elsewhere in town, so where you order it changes the bill by $11.05.

What should shrimp scampi cost here? About $21.95 is the typical price across the 3 kitchens in West Long Branch 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 Long Branch, about 2 mi away, where the best price is $24.00. That is $8.05 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.