Sometimes you enjoy your meal so much you forget about the bill as it lies in wait, ready to drain all the pennies from your pocket. When you get the check, you frown, but realize the food is worth the price. Usually you have no complaints; you might be mad at yourself, but that’s all.

Well, that didn’t happen to The Biscuit after breakfast at Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe last week. The bill came, and it read: $10.24 (excluding $2 tip) for one pecan waffle, one egg, two slivers of bacon and a coffee.

This time, the restaurant is getting the blame for upsetting its diner.

Now there are plenty of extremely overpriced dishes out there. Even in Chapel Hill, eateries like Bin 54 will really set you back many, many bucks. But there is something peeving about charging so much for the most basic ingredients you can find in a kitchen. How can a few restaurant nuts cost double the price of a nut candy bar?

Obviously you have to cover your expenses, but breakfast is a cheap meal to make, and there are dozens of joints around, like Country Junction, Walt’s Grille, EB’s, Time Out, where you can get it for next to nothing. Even at a more haute, if you will, establishment like Elmo’s, you really can pay less and get more than at Waffle Shoppe.

Considering the above, The Biscuit decided to do a cost analysis of the pecan waffle combo at Waffle Shoppe. This was far from a scientific study, and the Shoppe might not offer the most overpriced breakfast around. Also, it’s not a commentary on flavor - breakfast is breakfast. Still, it’s worth examining how deserved your frustration is when you hand over so much money for so little (you’ll see in a minute) food. Waffle Shoppe, no matter how many culprits exist out there, is taking the flack this time.

Before scrutinizing the breakfast joint, though, The Biscuit had to determine a standard to which to compare Waffle Shoppe. The likely candidate, which also has a similar Tudor moniker, is Durham’s Waffle House off Highway 54.

Using Waffle House makes sense because the food should be standard nationwide. One could argue the eatery can purchase ingredients cheaper as a chain, but this one is independently owned and, still – at the least The Biscuit would consider – almost expensive for breakfast (not counting the outlier: hotel buffets).

So, first, let’s break down the $10.23 receipt.

The bulk of the order consisted of a $6.40 helping of a foot-or-so circumference waffle, a single (isn’t two standard?) scrambled egg that had not fluffed up and two thin pieces of bacon that tangled together to form a floppy pork belly helix. The most aggravating ingredient was the $1.40 dash of pecans. Coffee, for $1.65, rounded out the order, but at least that was all-you-could-drink.

Waffle House, on the other hand, offered all that and more for a total (with tax) of $9.15. The All-Star Special included a pecan waffle; not one, but two eggs; two thick slabs of bacon; coffee; and then toast and a heaping plop of grits. And if that doesn’t convince you finding a better value is easy, check out the next part.

Weight analysis. This really showed The Biscuit that there was reason to be angry with the Waffle Shoppe bill.

For $10.23, The Biscuit got 8.64 ounces, about half a pound of food, not including the coffee, at the Shoppe. For more than a dollar cheaper, Waffle House served up 21.2 ounces – almost one and a half pounds – of breakfast. Take away the grits and toast, and there are still nearly 4 more ounces of food in the Waffle House meal.

But here’s what really irks The Biscuit – the pecans. The fun (not really) part was separating them from the waffle, which involved sucking off the cooked batter, spitting them onto a scale. They cost $1.40 at the Shoppe, and you’ll get roughly 1.1 ounces of the nut; yet for only 45 cents, you can get 1.8 ounces of pecans at Waffle House. Why?

Let’s make some large generalizations to explain why the difference between the two prices is upsetting. Most restaurateurs follow the rule that the actual cost of an ingredient should make up about 30 percent of the item’s menu cost. In this case, that number could be an even lower percentage because neither of these establishments offers fancy cuts of meat or caviar.

Assume that because Waffle House pecans are so much cheaper than those at the Shoppe even though they are still the same product, the former eatery must be keeping prices as low as it possibly can while still covering costs. That means the pecans, about 1.8 ounces of them, cost the House about 13 cents (0.13($) / 0.3 of menu price = 0.45($)).

Taking this as the relative base rate price for pecans, then these nuts cost the restaurants about 7 cents an ounce. According to the USDA, retail pecans last year went for about $1.50 per pound, or 8 cents an ounce, so the Waffle House price makes sense.

If Waffle Shoppe faces the same prices – 8 cents an ounce – then 1.1 ounces of pecans should cost them roughly 10 cents. If they charge $1.40 for that amount, they are making $1.30 off the customer, which means the nut’s actual cost accounts for only 7 percent of the menu price, much less than the 30 percent standard.

Phew, lots of numbers, and this may not be a rigorous proof, but you should get the idea. There is a discrepancy between pricing at both locations, and one of them, Waffle Shoppe, seems to be earning much more from their patrons.

The Shoppe must have it’s reasons, but when you get much more of the same exact thing, arguably better tasting, at other places for even cheaper, why bother going there? Some Shoppe servers are nice, and it’s a quick jaunt from campus, but that’s about it. The food is nothing more than mediocre. They don’t take credit cards either, which is an inconvenience these days.

Bottom line is, to reiterate, breakfast is breakfast. Unless you’re getting farm-fresh ingredients or fancy cheese, there is absolutely no reason to pay exorbitant prices for a meal that’s cheap to make. Save the money and go get a more filling lunch.

Maybe Waffle House was a bad comparison, but the food from the Durham one was actually excellent, especially relative to other franchise locations. The bacon was bulky and crisp all the way through; the grits were nice and buttery; the waffle was truly, definitely better than its counterpart.

If you have bad memories of the big yellow sign and waiters with paper hats, though, here’s what The Biscuit advocates for breakfast: Go to Elmo’s during the weekday before 11:30, get two biscuits, sausage gravy, two eggs, bacon and grits for $5.50, and you will get full. You will enjoy each bite. You won’t be mad when the bill comes.