The cost of a night out, by city
Real average costs for a night out — per group and per person, plus tips, service fees, and what a beer, cocktail, or entrée runs — built from actual itemized receipts split on Tab Tender.
NY
Restaurant and bar prices in more cities
Cities where we publish venue pages: menu prices, and what people actually paid wherever receipts are in.
How these numbers are built
These pages carry two kinds of price, and keep them apart. What people paid comes from itemized receipts split on Tab Tender: real transaction lines, not survey answers. Menu prices come from the venue's own menu, either a photo a Tab Tender user uploaded or the menu on the venue's website. City figures for a night out are built from receipts only.
Menu prices
A menu is read line by line and each category is averaged across the items listed, after dropping add-ons, market-price items and large formats like bottles and pitchers. Only item names and prices are kept. Menus are list prices, so a venue page shows them beside what people actually paid rather than mixing the two, and a menu stops being shown once it is more than about eighteen months old.
What a night out means here
What one group paid at a bar or restaurant in a single sitting: food, drinks, tax, tip, and any service charge. It does not include getting there, tickets, or anything bought elsewhere that evening. Per person figures divide the whole bill by everyone on the tab, not only by the people who ordered a given item.
How the averages are worked out
Item prices are averaged across every receipt line we hold for a place. Outliers are trimmed so one unusual bill cannot move a city figure, and recent receipts are weighted more heavily than old ones. An individual item price only appears once it has enough receipt lines behind it to be worth stating. Everything is recomputed nightly.
Why somewhere might be missing
A venue appears once we have its menu, or once people have split bills there; a city's night-out figures need enough different people and venues before they publish. Those thresholds are deliberate: they stop one person's habits being published as a city average, and keep any single receipt from being picked out of the figures. If a place you go to is missing, add its menu or split a bill there.
What each page covers
A city with enough receipts has a cost of a night out page covering drink, food, tip, and service averages, plus a grocery prices page where there is store data. Individual venues get their own page with menu prices, what people paid, or both, and how each compares with the rest of the city.
Common questions
- Where do these prices come from?
- Two places, always kept apart. What people paid comes from itemized receipts split on Tab Tender at bars, restaurants, and stores. Menu prices come from the venue's own menu, uploaded by a Tab Tender user or read from the venue's website. A venue page shows the two side by side; they are never averaged together.
- Why do menu prices and what people paid differ?
- Menus list the regular price. Receipts catch what actually happened: happy hours, specials, comped rounds, and the drinks people really order. The gap between the two is often the most useful number on the page.
- What does the cost of a night out include?
- What one group paid in a single sitting: food, drinks, tax, tip, and any service charge. It excludes travel, tickets, and anything bought elsewhere that evening.
- How often are the figures updated?
- They are recomputed nightly, and recent receipts count for more than older ones, so a figure reflects what a place costs now rather than a year ago.
- Why is my city or local bar not listed?
- A venue appears once we have its menu or once people have split bills there. Adding a photo of the menu, or splitting a bill there, is what adds it.