It’s more like the Great White Rip-off.
Diners planning to chow down at one of the chain restaurants lining Times Square better be ready to shell out a lot more than they would for the same exact dishes in the heartland.
Herb-grilled salmon at the Olive Garden in Manhattan, Kansas: $17.75. In Midtown Manhattan: $25.75.
In the mood for seafood? A rock-lobster tail at Midtown’s Red Lobster will run you $37.50, almost triple the $13.19 it goes for in Montgomery, Ala.
“It’s not fair,” said patron Bebe Amirulla of the shellfish game. “They should all be the same prices.”
What about a ribeye? At the T.G.I. Friday’s on 46th Street, it’ll cost you $27.59, almost $10 more than what it sells for in South Dakota.
The Times Square gouge was found at 10 different chains price-checked by The Post. In every case, the same menu item was far pricier in the tourist mecca.
“It’s bad marketing to gouge people in Times Square,” said Russ Haven of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “If you want repeat business, you treat people well everywhere.”
Jeffrey Roseman, an executive vice president at the real-estate consultant Newmark Knight Frank Retail, said the price of doing business in Times Square is higher than other parts of the country thanks to high rents — but that markups above 10 to 20 percent are “out of whack unless there is a really good reason.”
Erica Jaeger, a spokeswoman for Red Lobster, defended its 184 percent markup.
“Like virtually every multi-unit restaurant brand, our menu pricing can vary from market to market based on each area’s specific cost structure,” she said.
Jeff Horlander, who was visiting the city with his family from Louisville, Ky., wasn’t lovin’ the prices at McDonald’s.
“I got a double cheeseburger. At home, it’s $1.29 plus tax. Here, it was $1.99,” he said outside a Seventh Avenue Mickey D’s. “If you really have to worry about money, you don’t come to New York.”
mgartland@nypost.com