Costco Food Court Menu Hacks You Need To Know

The food court at Costco is known for some amazing food deals, like its famous $1.50 hot dog and soda combo, its super-tasty chicken bakes, and its better-than-delivery pizza (offered whole and by the slice). While the food court menu is not extensive, Costco does tend to offer new and/or regional menu items from time to time like the açaí bowl, the turkey provolone sandwich, and the meatless vegan al pastor salad. And although there is no Costco food court "secret menu" per se, you can, with some creative ordering and DIY combo-ing, hack a few special items of your own. 

Although root beer floats are not on Costco's food court menu, it's actually quite easy to get one of these — or actually two of these — for only about $2. And if root beer's not your soda of choice, you can always make it a Pepsi or Mountain Dew float. 

How do you do it? Simple. According to The Kitchn, you just order a soda and a frozen yogurt. For the soda, you'll get an empty cup. Put half (or more) of the froyo in the soda cup, then fill both the soda cup and the froyo cup with your soda of choice.

While Costco doesn't offer its famous all-beef hot dogs in a dressed-up version, that doesn't mean you always have to eat them plain. If a great big sloppy chili dog is what you're craving, just order a hot dog and a bowl of chili, put them together, and enjoy.

Even better if you go with a friend (or a really big appetite), since each bowl of chili's big enough to top a couple of hot dogs, although they do come with lids in case you prefer to save your leftover chili to enjoy at a later time.

For extra goodness, throw on the cheese that comes with the chili, and grab some onions from the condiment station.

When Costco overhauled its menu in 2018 to add more healthy items, one of the popular items they ditched was the chocolate frozen yogurt (via Fortune). While Costco does offer yogurt options beyond basic vanilla, including an acai/vanilla swirl and the berry sundae, they still don't do chocolate. Unless, of course, you happen to know that the mocha freeze is made with chocolate syrup. 

According to those in the know on Quora, you can just ask for some of that syrup on top of your vanilla froyo, and, if you're lucky, you'll get a Costco chocolate sundae for the same price as plain vanilla.

While Costco's food court offers just three types of pizza — cheese, pepperoni, and combo — it turns out to be possible to customize your pizza toppings, at least if you're ordering a whole pie. 

Instagrammer geekymomadventures geeked out over the fact that she could get a sausage and pepperoni pizza (combo minus the veggies), while a Quora user pointed out that you could also go the opposite route, asking for a veggie pizza which can easily be prepared by making a combo pizza without the meats. You can even do half and half splits, like half-cheese, half combo. 

Yet another reason to make Costco pizzas your go-to dinner after a busy day of bargain hunting.