The Precooked Meat You Should Avoid At Costco, According To Some Shoppers

A piping hot pot roast ready in 15 minutes with zero prep? It almost sounds too good to be true, but this is what the Kirkland Signature beef pot roast with gravy from Costco offers. However, it seems there are some seriously mixed opinions regarding this heat-and-serve offering — internet comments run the gamut from pleasant remarks that the pot roast is a tasty, convenient meal starter to vitriol directed at the amount of fat and inedible matter on the beef. 

Those who regretted buying the Costco pot roast spoke extensively about the amount of fat in the package. "Worst food I've ever purchased from Costco," one Reddit review lamented. "It was a gelatinous mess. I tried to separate the fat from the meat — it was a disaster. I hoped to have found an easy meal option." In response to that commenter, another buyer sympathized: "Sorry you tried this. Terribly disappointing, and just absolutely dreadful." Elsewhere on Reddit, a pithy comment dug at the same sore spot: "Eww, it had lots of fat when I tried it. No thanks!" And yet a third Reddit thread produced a similar opinion: "The last time we bought it, it was pretty fatty and not appetizing. It's better to just make yourself. An instant pot can speed up the process. Not worth it imo." 

How much fat to trim off pot roast meat is a contentious subject, so it's not exactly a shocker that this meal is a bit long on fat. Many buyers, however, found the fat unpleasant instead of unctuous.

Nobody goes to the Costco fridge case expecting the equivalent of Julia Child's pot roast, but we are a bit put off by how many internet reviews used the word "inedible" to describe this dish. And, yet, some folks didn't mind it. In the same Reddit threads mentioned above, we read satisfied customers' reports of serving the pot roast with mashed potatoes and veggies, piling it into taco shells, or even making sandwiches with it. Some claimed that the abundant fat melted into sauce if the meal was heated properly, while others favorably compared the price to raw meat and pointed out that you are saving a lot of time on convenience.

What stymies us with regards to the pot roast is the fact that, while complaints about the fat content overwhelm the negative reviews, they don't represent the full extent of the griping. Many folks also argued that this dish is intensely salty, while others pointed out that quality control seemed to be lacking vis-à-vis how much gravy was included in the package. This entrée isn't the cheapest thing at Costco (as of this writing, it averages north of $20 per package, varying by weight), so you might want to do your due diligence with regard to gathering opinions.

When a Foodie writer ranked Costco prepared meals from worst to best, she didn't try the Kirkland Signature beef pot roast with gravy, but now we're curious about how the review might have read.