How Much Did a Plain Waffle at Waffle House Jump Since 2018? A Photo Gives Georgians an Unsettling Look
The plain waffle isn’t the only Waffle House price that jumped since 2018, and it isn’t the biggest.
A photo of two menus from the same location shows the difference.
Here’s how much a plain waffle jumped, and what that photo shows Georgians who love eating at Waffle House.
Where These Menus Come From
Every menu price you’ll read in this article comes from a Reddit photo of Waffle House menus that Newsweek covered on April 1, 2026.
The post went up on March 31.
The photo set a 2018 menu beside a 2026 menu from one Waffle House in Birmingham, Alabama, according to the post’s caption.
Newsweek described the image as removed, and said it had asked Waffle House for comment and couldn’t verify the details.
The post left Reddit users shocked and disappointed, with many recalling prices they once paid.
Plain Waffle and Hash Browns
On those menus, a plain waffle at that Waffle House cost $3.30 in 2018 and $4.75 in 2026, before toppings.
The plain waffle’s rise comes to $1.45, or about 44%.
Hash browns went from $2.20 to $3.25, a bigger percentage at about 48% but fewer dollars at $1.05.
Spread over eight years, the waffle’s pace works out to about 4.7% a year and the hash browns’ to about 5.0%.
If you order both, the 2018 total of $5.50 turns into $8.00 on the 2026 menu, $2.50 more and a rise of about 45%.
The Math Behind the Waffle’s 44%
$1.45 divided by the 2018 price of $3.30 comes to 0.4394, which rounds to 44%.
The hash brown figure works the same way, with $1.05 divided by $2.20 giving 0.4773, or about 48%.
For a yearly pace over the eight years between the menus, $4.75 divided by $3.30 is 1.4394.
The eighth root of that is 1.0466, or about 4.7% a year.
Newsweek printed dollar prices only for the menu items, so every percentage change for a menu item in this article is our arithmetic from those prices.
All-Star Special
At that Waffle House, the All-Star Special adds two eggs and a breakfast side to a waffle.
The 2018 menu priced it at $7.50, reduced from $9.90.
The 2026 menu priced it at $12, down from $15.75.
Between the two reduced prices, the rise is $4.50, or 60%.
That rise beats the 44% for the plain waffle and every other item in this article.
If you compare the prices before each reduction, $9.90 to $15.75 is about 59%.
Each menu cut the full price by about 24%, so the two comparisons come out close.
At the reduced prices, the All-Star Special rose about 6% a year.
Bigger Plates, Smaller Jumps
That Waffle House’s larger plates added more dollars than the plain waffle but rose by a smaller percentage.
Large hash browns covered with cheese, sausage and two scrambled eggs cost $7.50 in 2018 and $10.50 in 2026, a 40% rise.
The Texas bacon (or sausage), egg and cheese melt with hash browns went from $7.10 to $10, about 41%.
If you count dollars, the plate added $3.00 and the melt added $2.90, about double the waffle’s $1.45.
The plate rose about 4.3% a year and the melt about 4.4%.
A cheese-and-eggs plate rose by the smallest percentage in this article, from $7.50 to $8.25, or about 10%.
Newsweek said the 2026 plate no longer includes meat but now comes with cheese grits and raisin toast.
Psst! How much do you know about restaurant prices? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Restaurant Prices Nationwide
That Waffle House’s 44% waffle jump is close to the national rise in restaurant prices.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) index for food away from home read 276.648 in August 2018 and 397.868 in August 2026.
By our arithmetic, that’s a rise of about 44%, or 4.6% a year.
If you put that beside the waffle’s 44%, the gap is a fraction of a point.
At the national restaurant rate, a $3.30 waffle would cost about $4.75 in 2026.
Over those years, the BLS all-items index rose about 33% and its food-at-home index about 34%.
At the all-items rate, the waffle would cost about $4.38.
The match is rough.
The menus are dated by year, while the index runs from August to August.
The other items with a like-for-like price rose between 40% and 60%, so one price can run well ahead of the national figure.
Beyond Birmingham
As of June 2024, Waffle House had 2,000 restaurant locations across the U.S., primarily in the South and Midwest.
The company said wage increases would be paid for by higher menu prices.
The Independent also reported in June 2024 that Waffle House menu prices would rise by different amounts in different places, and menu items in bigger cities like Atlanta or Austin may see a bigger increase than in more sparsely populated areas.
The BLS index for food away from home in the Atlanta area read 297.864 in August 2018 and 441.608 in August 2026.
The index covers restaurant, cafeteria and vending purchases, so it measures more than Waffle House.
By our arithmetic, that’s a rise of about 48%, or 5.0% a year, more than the 44% for that Waffle House’s plain waffle.
At the Atlanta-area restaurant rate, the waffle would cost about $4.89.
Over those years, Atlanta-area prices overall rose about 36% and grocery prices about 33%.
At the overall rate, a $3.30 waffle would cost about $4.49.
In the 12 months to August 2026, the Atlanta-area food away from home index rose 3.6%, against 3.4% for the U.S. food away from home index.
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