This Is Our Least Favorite Costco Food Court Item

The food court is an essential part of the Costco experience. After perusing through the aisles of big boxes and pushing around a heavy cart, there's nothing better than heading over to the food court to grab a $1.99 slice of pizza, and whatever else you may like. Costco food courts are well-loved for their low prices and quick service, but that doesn't guarantee each item is a hit. In order to figure out what Costco shoppers should steer clear of, Mashed headed to the food court in 2022 and taste-tested the menu at the time. Then, we ranked every Costco food court item and determined that the twisted churro was the least favorite of the bunch.

The twisted churro had twisted dough, was covered in cinnamon sugar, and was even large enough to share. It sounds great, but once you actually bit into the churro all of its good qualities went down the drain. Our biggest issue with the churro was its incredibly dry and hard dough. Even if you wanted to share it, a plastic knife would have a rough time cutting through. The twisted churro was also very messy, with more cinnamon sugar falling off the churro than sticking to it. Perhaps it's a good thing that this churro is now off Costco menus.

You might also remember Costco's original churros. They were stick-straight, a little smaller than the twisted churros, and only cost one dollar. Costco got rid of this churro during the pandemic after decades of being a food court staple (who knows why?) and soon replaced it with the $1.49 twisted churro in 2021. Sure, the twisted churro was larger (hardly an acceptable reason for the price increase), but there's no point in eating a large snack that's not tasty.

Late in 2023, there was a Reddit rumor that Costco was discontinuing its churros and indeed the twisted churros were cut from the menus in early 2024. It seems like they are officially phased out of the food courts, but you can still buy the original straight churro Costco offered through its supplying brand, Tio Pepe, which is sold at Walmart. Now, Costco has replaced all forms of churros with a giant chocolate chip cookie that goes for $2.49. Even though this is more expensive than a churro, at least it's a sharable size. There is even a delicious Costco food court hack for the ultimate sundae that combines a chocolate chip cookie with the chocolate sundae. It's okay to be glad the twisted churro is gone — it was just one of many Costco food court items that were total flops.