The Best And Worst Meats To Buy At Costco

For almost 50 years, first as Price Club, now as Costco, people in the United States and beyond have been filling their shopping carts with all the goodies the retailer has to offer. From the vast range of items under the 20-year-old Kirkland Signature label to global brands: There really is something for every card-carrying Costco member. It's been around long enough to become a generational store, with kids who shopped with their parents now devoted and loyal customers.

Although Costco limits its warehouse stock to around 4,000 items — much less than its competitors — there can still be a variety of hits and misses stacked on the company's shelves and pallets, including the broad array of fresh and frozen meats. From beef patties and rotisserie chicken, to bacon and chicken breasts, here are some of the best and worst meats to buy at Costco, based on online reviews.

If you're looking for a flavorful piece of meat with plenty of marbling that can be roasted, braised or slow cooked, Costco's Swift commodity pork shoulder butt is the one for you. Sold in packs of two and costing from around $1.99 per pound, it's a versatile ingredient that is ideal for everything from pulled pork that would please Katie Lee and hearty stews, to carnitas and ragus.

Redditors appreciated the low price of the commodity pork shoulder butt, even if some admitted they weren't fans of the deboning process used to create it. The pack of two enabled one commenter to smoke one and freeze one, while another, who fed 175 people with five pork butts, said they preferred using them for home-cooked sausage "because they are deboned and easy to cut into chunks for grinding."

Restaurant owners and passionate home cooks may have their own methods of cooking brisket, but all are fans of Costco's. Depending on where you are in the United States, you can choose from USDA prime or choice commodity beef brisket, as well as a Wagyu version. According to the replies in this Reddit thread, there's very little to separate the first two.

In a side-by-side smoking comparison, Racevice Smokehouse & Grill found the choice brisket was fattier and needed more trimming but it and the prime took exactly the same time to cook. In a taste test, he said both were "delicious" and couldn't tell the difference. For one BBQ Brethren member, Costco briskets were their go-to meat, for one simple reason: "You get to pick out the briskets which will work for you."

Millions of people across the United States love a good piece of chicken, so you'd think Costco would consistently serve up quality pre-packed meat. Sadly not, according to several social media users. A question on Facebook in 2024 about rancid-smelling packs of Costco's Kirkland Signature organic chicken thighs revealed multiple commenters had experienced the same problem. One person said: "I quit buying their packed fresh chicken years ago. Always had a funky smell to it."

More recently on Reddit, a poster asked if other users had cooked the chicken and ended up with meat that was "tough, dry and an almost stringy consistency." It seemed they too were not alone. One reply mentioned the poor quality chicken, and another commenter said: "We've had bad experiences with fresh meat from Costco, so we avoid it now."

Wagyu beef is notoriously expensive, and for good reason. Thanks to Costco, most people can — occasionally — get their hands on this delicious cut of meat. Those who do have nothing but praise for it. YouTuber The Sushi Man made sushi with American Wagyu and Costco's Japanese A5 Wagyu, to compare the taste. The former he deemed "solid" but the latter was in a different league. "When people say that it melts in your mouth, it really does," he enthused.

A photo on Reddit of A5 Japanese Wagyu on sale next to beef loin at the poster's Costco for just $59.99 per pound prompted one commenter to reply: "I would snatch either of those in a heartbeat." Others complained about never seeing similar deals in their part of the country, while another who did manage to buy some wrote: "Can't wait to try these for a special occasion."

Not to be confused with skirt steak, which comes from the same part of a cow (the side) flank steak is generally thicker than skirt, has less marbling and a milder flavor. Although it can be a cheaper cut of meat, it's not as popular among foodies, including one Redditor who said: "Flank steak is tough as all hell, doesn't have a bone, and has little to no fat in it."

Costco's flank steak in particular does not go down well with Mui Kitchen's Marian Avila. She advised shoppers to sidestep it, largely because of the marinade it is sold in and her preference of using her own herbs and spices to season the meat. Avila also pointed out that the retailer predominantly offers inside flank steak, rather than the more appealing, easier-to-cook outside type.

Few things divide the internet more than Costco's range of ground beef. The non-organic version is popular for its versatility and freez-ability but many online health experts try to nudge shoppers in the direction of Kirkland Signature organic ground beef. They consistently point out the meat comes from cows that are not given GMO feed or grain, and so consumers are eating 'cleaner'.

In a review for Costco Food Database, Greg Larkin described the Kirkland Signature organic ground beef as "the highest quality ground beef that Costco sells," adding it was "super fresh and flavorful." YouTuber Clean Kitchen Nutrition said preferred the organic ground beef as it contained fewer pesticides. That said, everyone wanted to get their hands on the grass-fed type of ground beef which, if this Facebook thread is anything to go by, is getting thin on the ground.

Who would have thought a humble frozen burger patty would be the object of so much online affection, but that's the case for Costco's ground sirloin and loin of beef patties. Alexandra at ReviewStream loved the thickness of the patties, writing: "You can actually taste the burger meat."

Natalie, in a 2022 review for Cost Cuisine, said when she barbecued burger at home, Costco's ground sirloin and loin of beef were her "go-to hamburger patties." Two years later she reviewed them against three other Costco frozen burgers: 100% grass-fed beef, Angus ground chuck and beef, and the retailer's lean ground beef, rating the Angus and sirloin burgers 9/10 for taste.

For many people, bacon isn't just a meat, it's almost a sacred thing, and anyone messing with it better be sure they know what they're doing. According to the ongoing online grumbling about Costco's Kirkland Signature bacon, the company doesn't. Setting aside the ruffled feathers on Facebook about it being made in Canada, it seems the bacon's quality has been on the slide for a while.

In 2023, James Beard award-winning writer Danielle Centoni had few good things to say about Costco's bacon. In a review for Cubby, she said it offered little value for money, didn't have much meat compared to fat and the flavor "lacked porkiness, smokiness, or any '–ness' of any kind." More recently on Reddit, one poster said their Kirkland bacon was "so paper thin I can't even hold it up without it falling apart," with many commenters agreeing the quality had nosedived.

Costco shoppers are spoiled for choice when it comes to the array of beef steaks on offer but many of them plump for the New York or strip steak. In her review for Mui Kitchen, Marian Avila described the steaks as "beautiful," "healthy looking," and "with a nice layer of fat," making them perfect for a reverse sear cooking technique.

While the cost of around $16 per pound was a little less than other retailers, Redditors did appreciate Costco's habit of cutting them thicker than other stores, with one poster saying he and his wife usually split one steak between them. On YouTube, It's Binh Repaired cooked up a batch of Costco's New York strip steaks, and concluded at the end of a 44-minute YouTube video: "That's a good steak."

When one Redditor took to the platform to ask which Costco steak they should choose for dinner – a ribeye or a New York — the ribeye won by a country mile. One commenter wrote: "Ribeye all day long, it is the only steak I will pay money for. And from Costco, we stopped buying steaks from anywhere else."

Another thread on the site demonstrated how prices for Costco choice ribeye can vary, with one user grabbing steaks for $10 next to others at $14. When it comes to taste, the retailer's ribeye can more than hold its own against quality cuts from other outlets, as demonstrated in this video from Mr. Make It Happen. It also outstripped its supermarket rivals when it came to quantity, with Costco offering multiple steaks for sale in a single pack.

Being a member of Costco has its definite advantages but there's a downside, too. Products that thousands of customers love can disappear from shelves almost overnight, and their replacements don't always hit the mark. Take Kirkland Signature mild Italian sausage, for example. It was slotted in after the popular Tarantino Italian sausage was dropped: Cue the online opinions.

On Facebook, one user described the replacement sausage as "weak on the fennel and way too mild," while another pointed out the mild version had fennel seeds instead of fennel powder, adding: "All is fine unless you suffer from diverticulitis!" The reception for Kirkland Signature's mild Italian sausage was a little warmer on Reddit, until one commenter grumbled: "Just bought some and very unhappy, they had no flavor."

Looking for a low-cost cut of meat that will taste great? According to online reviewers, you can't go wrong with Costco's Kirkland Signature rack of pork. At around $3 per pound, customers get bang for their buck, though one slight issue is they're not always available at every store.

The shoppers on this Reddit thread all gave the pork a thumbs up, with comments ranging from "great price, nice pork," to "so damn good and dirt cheap," and one user encouraging people to snap up the meat if ever they saw it in store. Marie Clark at CostContessa also liked the Kirkland Signature rack of pork. She described it as "a crowd pleaser with adults and kids alike," as well as "on the affordable side."

Customers looking to buy meat at Costco are faced with a mind-boggling array of cut choices. While lots of them offer value for money, the majority are pre-packed, forcing shoppers to buy in larger amounts. This isn't a problem for most, but for Marian Avila, writing for Mui Kitchen, the size of Costco's Choice filet mignon steaks was enough of a reason to advise people to give them a wide berth.

"They don't offer great value for money," she said, adding the steaks often weigh in at more than 8-ounces each. Because Costco doesn't allow customers to buy custom cuts, Avila instead buys a whole tenderloin and cuts it herself. She did acknowledge the fact Costco's Choice filet mignon steaks were among the few prime cuts that were not blade tenderized, a process that is "pretty unique to Costco," according to jesspryles on TikTok.

Lamb can be a bit of a Marmite meat — those who love it, love it, those who don't, don't. Costco's lamb loin chops, which also come in a halal version, are tiny but mighty, according to online reviewers. BBQplus, who admitted he wasn't the biggest fan of the meat, cooked some Costco lamb loin chops from Australia. In his YouTube review, he said they were "great, really tender," and had "kind of a sweetness" to the meat.

They are a popular choice on Reddit, too, with one commenter saying: "I cook these all the time. They are pretty great," amid hundreds of recipe ideas. Other reviewers pointed out the T-bone style lamb loin chops offered good value for money, coming in at around $5.99 per pound.

There are many reasons Costco's legendary rotisserie chickens fly out of the door. They're great value at $4.99, they're now sold in flexible plastic bags so they're easier to lug around, and they're also gluten-free. The mix of spices covering the chickens' skin may still be a mystery but — according to online reviews — they consistently taste delicious, which is why they're never in the store for long.

One Redditor said: "My son called it 'yummy chicken' when he was little and it has stuck." Other commenters enthused about the number of meals they could get from the store-bought rotisserie chicken, with one writing: "I usually buy two or three at a time. I use one for chicken salad, it's amazing. Then all the usual stuff, pastas, salads, etc."

Costco's rotisserie chicken, with its crispy breast and the juiciest thighs, is a perennial favorite among shoppers but the same can't always be said of its other chicken products. Flexible and healthy it may be as a food ingredient, some customers can't stand the way Kirkland Signature chicken thighs are packaged, and what comes with the meat.

A Reddit post initially began with the difficulty of separating the six-pack of thighs, sparking lots of advice on how to cut the packaging. The post also talked about the "quarter cup of slimy chicken juice" in the packaging that was a "serious problem," and were oddly spongy, before giving their Costco's Kirkland Signature chicken a 0 out of 10 rating. A few commenters recommended looking for "air chilled" meat to avoid the liquid issue or opening the thighs after freezing them.

"Cap or no cap?" may be the hotly debated question among many Costco shoppers on Reddit when discussing the retailer's Choice beef top sirloin, but there's little doubt it's a very popular cut of meat. Lean yet tender, top sirloin is good for anyone looking to chow down on a tasty piece of beef protein. According to Costco, steaks from the loin and rib are "very tender, juicy and flavorful and are suited to dry-heat cooking."

Fans regularly wax lyrical about beef top sirloin on social media. One Redditor wrote: "Top sirloin from Costco is my go to for steak night. Fantastic flavour [sic] and value," while in a separate post about top sirloin cap, the cut was deemed to be superior, more tender and offering better flavor than steaks without.

It's well-known that almost all chicken sold in the United States has been chlorinated but that doesn't prevent it from being served up in millions of households. However, many people buying Kirkland Signature chicken party wings from Costco have been left disappointed.

Several commenters on this Reddit thread remarked on the wings' lack of meat, while one person said theirs turned out rubbery after being cooked, and another noted a lot of shrinkage. The issues aren't just limited to the fresh chicken party wings. In a separate discussion, someone said they had thrown an entire bag in the trash after finding more hairs than they could count on the frozen wings, while another said their wings lost over 60% of their weight after cooking.

Anyone who loves their steak knows that tri-tip, a triangle of meat from the very bottom of the sirloin, is one of the best value cuts there is. It's so beloved, commenters on this Reddit thread wanted to keep it a secret, lest higher demand sent prices soaring.

Although the certified Angus beef steakhouse beef tri-tip can take a bit more patience to cook, the "tender, juicy and delicious" results are worth it, according to a Facebook post. Commenters revealed how they bulk buy tri-tip whenever they visit Costco, while others described it as "really good and tender," "insanely delicious," and "yummy." Intriguingly, Marian Avila warned shoppers to avoid Costco's marinated tri-tip, writing in Mui Kitchen they would be "paying for a lot of flavored liquid."

Costco's Kirkland Signature chicken breasts have long been the subject of grumbling about the meat's quality, with one Reddit poster complaining theirs was "rubbery and off-putting to chew." The industry-wide issue, known as 'woody' chicken, prompted a Today report in 2022, but it's still ongoing.

In a 2025 review, The Snarkle Sauce approved of Costco's Kirkland Signature chicken breasts' convenience, but was shocked by the size of the meat. "They are HUGE. I mean. Really huge. And thick," they wrote. They shrank a little during cooking and weren't packed with flavor, they didn't like the large cavity that appeared after cooking, nor the shreds of skin left in their soup. They wrote about the flavor: "It's just a slightly more processed, less tasty-taste. Not horrible. But not awesome."