Wait, Why Are Restaurants Now Charging $40 for Chicken?

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Once associated with French bistros, upscale chicken dishes have spread across cuisines—and prices have followed. Chicken dish prices grew 22% over the past four years in fine dining restaurants, according to Datassential, a Chicago-based firm. The median cost of a chicken entree is $28—more than fish and shellfish entrees, both $25, despite chicken being a lower cost ingredient, according to the firm’s 2026 data. (The data set excluded market pricing for seafood and other variably priced dishes.)

In New York City, it’s fairly common to see chicken dishes priced much higher. At Chez Fifi on the Upper East Side, the poulet rôti, served by the half portion, is $78. At Gramercy Tavern, the brick-pressed chicken, cooked in a wood-burning fire, is $36. In April, Gigi’s, a Brooklyn restaurant that bills itself as a “rotisserie wine bar,” became the subject of local debate after a councilman from a nearby district, Chi Ossé, posted a message on Instagram that said, simply: “$40 half chicken at a wine bar? Really?”

Though Ossé didn’t specify any restaurant, Gigi’s, which serves a $40 half chicken, became a target in the “fallout from his post,” said the restaurateur, Hugo Hivernat, in an email, citing “fake Google reviews, aggressive calls and messages.” Hivernat says he spoke with Ossé on the phone and has invited the councilman to eat at Gigi’s, though Ossé has not yet visited. “We would genuinely love to have a deeper conversation about what it’s like to try and open and run a small business in New York City,” Hivernat says.

New York chef Jason Hall, who serves a whole rotisserie chicken at Cathédrale Restaurant for $78, says the high price leaves less room for error. The restaurant, owned by the Tao Group Hospitality and located inside Moxy East Village, starts cooking the chickens at 4:30 p.m. each day so they are fresh throughout the night. The dish is popular, but “if you don’t execute it correctly, people are going to be upset with you,” he says.

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“We’ve heard it all, and we don’t want you if you’re coming in looking for Costco prices,” Wolen says. “We don’t make our money off mattresses and TVs.”

The Costo-style habituation makes chicken an ingredient that feels like it should always be available at accessible prices no matter what happens to the economy, similar to how Americans view eggs. “Cheap chicken ticks a lot of boxes, and expensive chicken violates those boxes,” Rude says. “People see it as a symbol of their own quality of life.”

Another problem for American chefs is that diners often assume they can re-create a labor-intensive, high-quality chicken dish at home, says Alex Eaton, culinary director of restaurant La Cave in Charleston, S.C. Eaton uses a carefully sourced heritage breed bird that’s brined, deboned and served in butter for $35.

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Rather than alienating his customers by charging about $50, which is what the chicken should cost, Wolen says, he has increased the price of other entrees.

Customers are a lot less likely to blink at a $65 duck breast.

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