8 Items You Should Buy From The Costco Deli & 6 You Shouldn't

PJ McDonnell/Shutterstock

Costco's success is due in large part to the fact the big box warehouse chain makes its own rules. Perhaps most famously, one of Costco's co-founders' harsh words about a hot dog price increase turned some heads — in short, he revealed himself to be steadfastly committed to keeping the food court staple at a $1.50 price point even if standard inflation might justify a higher cost. In that same vein, the deli sections at Costco warehouses are different in certain key ways from standard grocery store delis. Whereas most grocery stores serve deli customers at least a few different kinds of single-serve sandwiches or salads, for example, Costco's delis only offer those items in bulk sizes. Furthermore, its range of premade foods extends well beyond those staples, including items like cilantro lime shrimp and chicken Alfredo pasta. Of course, standard sandwich meats like ham and turkey are also among Costco's assortment of deli products, albeit in bulk.

While its selection of products is quite a bit different than what's available at most competing grocery stores, not everything in the Costco deli is a winner. Based on customer feedback online as well as some personal experience when relevant, the following are eight of the Costco deli's highlights, as well as six items from the Costco deli best avoided.

Sam Skopp/Mashed

Ask a group of Costco members the single product they most closely associate with Costco and there's a good chance that, for a fair number of them, the answer is a Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken. It's certainly not a perfect product — it's excessively salty, for instance. There's even one additive ingredient in Costco's rotisserie chicken warranting at least a little worry. And it's best not to think about where Costco sources chickens that can be sold so cheaply. Nevertheless, the meat-per-dollar provided by a single rotisserie chicken at its $4.99 price point makes for one of the best deals at virtually any grocery store. Plus, nutritional complications aside, it tastes pretty good.

Online comments discussing the Costco rotisserie chicken in the context of frugal living are full of widespread appreciation for the Costco rotisserie chicken as well as some strategies to stretch the $4.99 purchase even further. One commenter, for example, uses the inedible parts to make a bone broth. And on the Costco subreddit, comments are likewise positive. "One of my favorites from Costco," wrote a Reddit user. "I usually deboned the rotisserie chicken as soon as I get home, while it's still hot and warm. Stored the meat in a container and added to salad, pasta, omelets, or stirred fried veggies over the next few meals. Amazing value and delicious protein source."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

No deli is complete without premade sandwich meats. Deli turkey is most often sold in grocery stores pre-sliced, but for shoppers who prefer to save money at the cost of convenience, Costco sells a whole Kirkland Signature Oven Browned Turkey Breast. Each turkey breast is sizable, weighing in at around 4 pounds. Customers with room in the fridge for 4 pounds of turkey have had nothing but great things to say about the Oven Browned Turkey Breast — and given that it's not pre-portioned, its utility extends beyond just sandwiches too.

Understandably, some fans of the Oven Browned Turkey Breast have recounted separating and freezing some of it, to alleviate the pressure of finishing such a large quantity of turkey before its expiration date. Those same proponents of the product have described it as a good fit for sandwiches and Thanksgiving dinners alike. On sandwiches in particular, some find that the Oven Browned Turkey Breast is of a higher quality than pre-sliced turkey. "I have bought that a couple times," wrote a Reddit user. "So much better than the slimy prepackaged options they have even just cutting it with a knife pretty thick is still good."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

Premade meals come in a few different configurations at Costco. On the inexpensive end of the spectrum is its food court, with its iconic $1.50 hot dog combo and perhaps underrated $1.99 cheese pizza slice. Maximizing convenience are frozen entrees, like the Italpizza Wood Fired Margherita Pizza, which ranks among the best new Costco frozen foods customers have raved about in 2025. Finally, the Costco deli offers refrigerated meal kits that balance the premade element of the freezer aisle with the immediacy of the food court. While some meal kit options make for legitimately solid lunches for a small group of people, the Kirkland Signature Chicken Street Tacos are best avoided — while they deliver on convenience, they simply don't taste very good.

Each package of Chicken Street Tacos comes with 12 tortillas, pre-diced grilled chicken, shredded cabbage, shredded cheese, slices of lime, red salsa, and cilantro crema. Those tortillas, like most bought from a grocery store, are pretty dry. The chicken, meanwhile, is a little dry itself, and not flavorful enough to carry a taco on its own. Mild flavors in both the salsa and crema are unable to compensate for those deficiencies. One Reddit commenter even pointed out that these are not complicated ingredients, and each might best be purchased on its own rather than in this prefab taco kit. "It's OK," they wrote. "Recommendation: Buy the ingredients separately, save big money!"

Sam Skopp/Mashed

The Costco deli department covers some pretty significant real estate. Beyond its hot rotisserie chickens, sandwich meats, and refrigerated meals is a relatively robust selection of dips. One standout dip is packaged in a bulky, Costco-sized container — the Kirkland Signature brand's Organic Hummus.

First of all, the Organic Hummus is a great deal, at around a $7 price point for 34 ounces of hummus. For an organic product especially, but even hummus in general, it's hard to find a better value in most grocery stores. Like the Costco Rotisserie Chicken, however, the Organic Hummus is super salty, totalling 110 milligrams of sodium per 2-tablespoon serving. But also like the Rotisserie Chicken, it tastes pretty great, making for a solid purchase overall. "It's pretty good. It's closer to more homemade hummus I feel because of the garlic and ratio of tahini. Much better than Sam's and better than Sabra," wrote one Reddit user. "If I'm not eating it as a side I'll put a slather on a nice piece of bread, with fried egg, some harissa + cottage cheese or slice of cheese, and spinach."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

Premade soups, for whatever reason, are not plentiful at Costco warehouses. The selections of refrigerated, lunch-ready soups at other chain grocery stores are likely to beat out Costco's in terms of variety. Costco still makes a pretty good soup, however. One of the only Kirkland Signature brand soups — supplementing a selection that otherwise includes brands like Panera and Allen Family Foods — is a Chicken Tortilla Soup two-pack. Soup lovers can rest assured that, even if this is oftentimes the only bespoke soup product Costco offers, it's well worth buying.

In the Chicken Tortilla Soup is a hearty mix of ingredients including white meat chicken, diced tomatoes, corn, onions, roasted chili peppers, carrots, and, of course, tortilla chips. The directions on its packaging include instructions to heat up the soup in the microwave, making a container well-suited for a work lunch. Pretty much the single factor customers who have tried the soup have criticized is the fact its tortilla strips don't stay crispy. Overall, however, that's far from enough to detract from a simple, high-quality product. "This soup is better than in some Mexican restaurants," wrote a Reddit user. "I just add crispy tortilla strips to it."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

Plenty more robust than the selection of either soups or dips at Costco warehouses is the deli's cheese section. The types of cheeses on store shelves covers much of what a good cheese section should, from English cheddar to fresh mozzarella, French brie, Spanish manchego, and more. Among those options are some kinda enormous, 1-pound plastic containers of pre-shredded Kirkland Signature brand Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

These sorts of products in bulk quantities at Costco often save customers money, and by volume, Costco's shredded Parmesan is a solid deal. However, that value is significantly lessened for two major reasons. Perhaps first and foremost is the fact that plenty of Costco shoppers find their households unable to finish an entire package of shredded Parmesan before it goes bad. Worsening its value is that customers who have tried both prefer Costco's unshredded Parmesan. "In addition to fresh tasting better, it lasts longer, too," wrote one Reddit user, comparing the shredded Parmesan unfavorably to its unshredded counterpart. "I've had the shredded stuff mold way before the expiration date. If that happens with the whole stuff, you can just cut off the mold and freeze it."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

The Kirkland Signature Oven Browned Turkey Breast is a standout among the Costco Deli's selection of sandwich ingredients section in part because it's sold whole. That said, for customers who prefer a more convenient sandwich protein, the Costco deli offers some solid presliced sandwich meats as well, including the Kirkland Signature Italian-Style Dry Salame. While pretty salty by its very nature, Costco does proclaim that its salami is made with a reduced level of sodium. Each package is 16 ounces in weight, and packages are sold in pairs.

One distinct advantage that fans of Costco's salami have highlighted is the fact it's cheaper than similar products produced by the Columbus brand, likewise available at Costco warehouses. It's also versatile, with some customers using it in a sandwich and others simply serving it with cheese. "Soooo good!" wrote a Reddit user. "So thin and soft! Way better than the Columbus ones. These with Costco Black Forest ham and some pepperoni makes amazing Italian sandwiches."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

Alongside the shredded Parmesan in the Costco deli's cheese section are two kinds of feta. One is a plastic container of President brand crumbles that's well worth buying largely because it's at a much lower price per volume than President feta at most other grocery stores. Meanwhile, Costco offers its own Kirkland Signature brand's version of a whole block of Organic Feta. While the organic label is nice, most customers who have tried the Kirkland Organic Feta have reported that they straight up did not enjoy the product.

Many of the Kirkland Organic Feta's detractors have compared it unfavorably to both President as well as the Dodoni brand, which Costco used to stock. One Reddit user falls into the latter camp. "I was down to ¾ of a piece and it turned into a runny mess," they wrote. "In all the years of buying Dodoni, that has never happened to me before. This is one case where the Kirkland alternative is subpar."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

The selection of premade salads in the Costco deli isn't quite as meager as the range of soups offered, but it's still relatively small. Whereas Costco only has a few kinds of salads, Trader Joe's, for instance, is constantly rotating in new salad products, including a Trader Joe's dill pickle-inspired salad kit that straight up makes salads easier. As small as the Costco selection may be, however, a Broccoli Salad With Walnuts and Dressing that the warehouse chain introduced in 2025 quickly became a hit with Costco members.

Each salad starts with a combination of kale, cabbage, and broccoli as its base. That's supplemented with dried cranberries, Asiago cheese, walnuts, and a poppyseed dressing. A Costco-focused YouTuber shared a video spotlighting the broccoli salad shortly after its arrival in the first half of 2025. "It was delicious," they said. "Absolutely delicious. I think I would just cut the cabbage down a little bit more, but this salad is so good. We will definitely be picking it up again."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

Unsurprisingly, anyone interested in premade mac and cheese from the Costco deli must be willing to commit to a pretty sizable quantity — each tray of deli mac and cheese weighs in at around 3.5 pounds. Of course, frequent Costco shoppers are well aware that the store's multitude of bulk items are worth the possible hassle of figuring out what to do with so much of one thing. Unfortunately, customers who have tried Costco's Mac and Cheese have found that it just doesn't taste good enough to warrant buying, bulk or not.

For what it's worth, some store regulars have recommended alternatives also available at some Costco stores, like the Beecher's brand's so-called "World's Best" Mac and Cheese. Meanwhile, a Reddit user summed up just how Costco's product falls short. "Honestly, I've never really liked the Mac n Cheese. I get almost zero cheese flavor. It tastes more like I'm eating Mac n Cream," they wrote. "I usually need to 'fix' it by adding my own cheeses. But at that point i'd rather just make mac n cheese at home."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

Nothing beats homemade guacamole, especially when guacamole recipes can be quick and easy. But sometimes a lack of time or even a simple lack of interest might mean that a prepackaged guacamole is the right call. Anyone seeking a ready-to-eat guacamole could do a whole lot worse than Kirkland Signature's Organic Chunky Guacamole.

First of all, it's worth noting that Costco serves its organic guacamole in individual, 2.5-ounce dipping cups, 16 to a package. On the whole, Costco is committed to the idea of individually packaged dipping cups of guacamole, because even the non-Kirkland brands available in Costco warehouses adhere to a similar principle. The reasoning behind that philosophy may well be that individual cups help keep guacamole fresh — a Reddit user, at least, found this to be true about the Organic Chunky Guacamole. "I did buy a box to test out the convenience of small servings, and I realized that this was actually the best quality commercially produced guacamole that I had ever had," they wrote. "Not only is it super fresh, and it tastes great, and the quality of the avocados and ingredients is incredibly good, but those little cups of the guac stay fresh!"

Sam Skopp/Mashed

So, the Costco deli may not make the best prepackaged mac and cheese. Adjacent to those disappointing mac and cheese trays are similarly bulky containers of premade Kirkland Signature Chicken Alfredo With Penne Pasta. Ideally, that chicken Alfredo would make for a superior alternative to the mac and cheese, but customers who have tried the chicken Alfredo have found its quality to be similarly middling.

There are a select number of Costco customers who happen to enjoy the mac and cheese and find the chicken Alfredo pleasant for similar reasons. On the flip side, plenty of customers who have tried both products find them equally unpleasant. A common complaint is that the dish lacks flavor, requiring additional ingredients to enjoy. One Reddit user found the Kirkland Signature Chicken Alfredo With Penne Pasta's flavor underwhelming. "If I tried to tell someone how to make chicken Alfredo without any measurements and they had no taste buds, this what they would make," they wrote. "It tastes like chicken Alfredo but it is bland, weird chicken amounts, and overall left me feeling like it was the most 5/10 dish I've ever eaten in my life."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

Some of Costco's best products are only available seasonally. In 2022, for example, Costco customers were running to grab seasonal Pumpkin Streusel Muffins, knowing they were only going to remain on warehouse shelves for a limited time. Another favorite of Costco members that's come and gone from store shelves — albeit without a clear correlation to a particular season — is the deli's prepackaged Cilantro Lime Shrimp.

Most discussions of the product online, for what it's worth, consist of comments wondering when Costco stores will bring Cilantro Lime Shrimp back, rather than descriptions on its quality. Nevertheless, among customers who miss it are those who consider it one of the Costco deli's standouts. And as of about halfway through 2025, it was back in at least some Costco warehouses. "The plain shrimp are fine, but that sauce was killer," wrote a Reddit user. "Great as a little protein side dish."

Sam Skopp/Mashed

The hot case in the Costco deli is almost entirely dedicated to the store's flagship rotisserie chickens. But, typically on its top shelf are one or two additional products, often including racks of Kirkland Signature St. Louis Style Dry Rub Ribs. The ribs, it's fair to say, are not at a bargain bin price point like the rotisserie chicken, so they don't fly off the hot case's shelves in the same way. With that said, habitual rotisserie chicken buyers curious about the product beside Costco's signature hot dish are not missing out, given an overwhelmingly middling reception to the hot case's St. Louis ribs.

Criticism of the ribs' quality is multifaceted, with posts online decrying an overly firm meat and a subpar flavor in equal measure. One Reddit user took issue with both of those qualities. "I tried twice. They are a pass for me boss," they wrote. "They have not been cooked to tender, have no smoke flavor, and taste primarily of black pepper."

Chris Allan/Getty Images

Each item on this list's worth was primarily determined by reading opinions online. Products with significantly positive or negative feedback made the cut. Products with divided, mild, or an outright lack of opinions were ineligible. While this isn't a comprehensive rundown of the Costco deli, the list's focus is on items frequently purchased by Costco customers. When relevant, I used my personal experience with an item to further characterize its quality, as long as my experience was backed up by a prevailing sentiment among online commenters.