How we check prices

Last updated: October 8, 2026

1. We start from real menus

We use, in order of preference: the restaurant brand's own online ordering menu with a specific restaurant selected; official brand announcements for national deals (for example a McValue deal price); and the menus restaurants publish on delivery apps such as Uber Eats. Every page says which kind of source it uses.

2. We check several locations

Restaurant chains let franchise owners set prices, so we record each item at several restaurants in different states, currently five to eight per brand. We store each observation with the location, the source link and the date.

3. We show ranges and a typical price

For each item we show the lowest and highest price we saw and the typical price, which is the median (middle) of our observations. The number of locations behind each range is shown next to it.

4. We label delivery prices

Delivery menus are often priced above in-restaurant menus, and some brands say so themselves. When a price comes from a delivery app we label it, and we never mix it with official deal prices without saying which is which. Taxes, delivery fees, service fees and tips are never included.

5. We never fill gaps with guesses

If an item was not on the menus we checked, for example breakfast items outside breakfast hours, we look for published price reports: price lists on independent US menu-price websites. We note each site's price for the item as a single fact (we never copy their text or tables), count sites that publish identical lists as one report, and show the item only when at least two independent reports give a price. Those rows are clearly labelled “published price reports” and list their sources and the date we checked them. If no public price can be found at all, we leave the item off the page until we can confirm one.

6. We recheck on a schedule

Every page shows its “Prices last checked” date. We aim to recheck the most popular pages monthly and every page at least once a quarter, and we only put a month in a page title when the prices were really checked that month.

Corrections

If you paid a different price, please let us know with the restaurant location and date. We review every report.