9 Must-Have Frozen Foods From Costco And 7 You Can Leave Behind

It's clear from the gargantuan aisles that Costco has no shortage of items to pick from. Whether you want frozen meals, ready-to-eat foods, or bakery treats, there's a little something for everyone. But when you're in the mood for a convenient meal or snack, it's hard to narrow down what to pick from. After all, the store has rows of freezer products that make shopping feel overwhelming. 

Don't worry, because we've narrowed it down for you by picking some of the must-have frozen foods from Costco, as well as identifying ones that you should leave behind. Since we've tried everything on this list, we'll dive into the flavors, textures, and what makes it a hit or miss. There's only so much room in your freezer, so we think it's best to keep the tastiest items on deck. We hope you're hungry, because there are some delicious options on this list. After reading, grab your Costco membership card and a shopping cart to stock up.

The Kirkland supreme cauliflower crust pizza is nothing new, but if you haven't tried it, then you should pick up a pack the next time you go to Costco. This certified gluten-free dish has a bit of meat, veggies, cheese, and sauce to create a well-rounded pizza that's both flavorful and satisfying in its texture. The cauliflower crust cooks beautifully without burning or tasting too veggie-forward, especially because there are so many other components at play. The crust has a slightly buttery flavor, while the meat offers a fatty profile, and the veggies add a colorful earthiness.

This item is hyped for a reason: It delivers a scrumptious experience without feeling like you're missing out on gluten. Some even say it's the best pizza they've ever had. We recommend following the box instructions carefully, but if you'd like a firmer crust, you can leave it in the oven for a couple of extra minutes — just keep an eye on it the whole time. 

If you're not in the mood for meat, unfortunately, we can't recommend the Kirkland cheese pizza. It ranked last on our list of frozen pizzas from Costco because it was dire all around. Every component is poorly executed, from the dough to the sauce to the cheese. The crust is doughy and floppy and takes over the whole pizza, which doesn't make for an enjoyable or easy dining experience. The marinara supposedly has tomato puree, basil, garlic, onion, and herbs, but that doesn't come through.

It would be one thing if a single component was subpar, but everything works together to create a poorly made dish that leaves you feeling completely underwhelmed. After you make this, you'll probably have to order another pizza anyway. To make matters worse, you get four pizzas, so you're stuck eating multiple unpleasant meals or pawning them off to some other soul. Cheese is a quintessential pizza flavor that's hard to get wrong, but save your money and skip this Kirkland brand item.

Where Kirkland's cheesy pie lacked, Authentic Motor City Pizza Co.'s double pepperoni Detroit-style deep-dish pizza picked up the slack. The crust is thick and crunchy, with no doughiness in sight — we recommend the corner piece, but any slice will offer a flavorful bite. The cheese is marvelously gooey, and the pepperoni slices and chunks supply a salty, lightly spicy bite. 

People on Reddit share that it's a delicious option, even amongst those who are picky about their pizzas. One commenter mentions that you can enhance the deep-dish delight if you take it out of the tray it comes in halfway through the cooking process to let it finish baking without it. If you want a pizza that delivers a texture that contrasts your average thin slice, then this deep-dish version is the way to go. It'd be a great option when you want a game-day meal that will blow your guests away.

The chicken bake that you can purchase from Costco's food court is a delectable, mouthwatering, and savory concoction. The soft, warm dough, gooey cheese, and hearty chicken work to create a marvelous quick bite. You might be intrigued to pick up the frozen boxed version of this food court classic, but we encourage you to skip it. It simply doesn't measure up. Believe us, we've given it multiple shots.

The bread gets too hard, and there is lots of gaping, which makes it seem like you aren't getting as much filling. The Caesar dressing is oversalted, while you're stuck gnawing on fatty pieces of bacon. These frozen, individually wrapped eats aren't nearly as satisfying, especially if you know and love the fresh version. You're also stuck with six frozen bakes, so it can get monotonous after the first couple. We didn't want to waste them, but it was honestly a chore to finish the box. It ultimately took last place when we tried frozen Kirkland brand meals. 

Lasagna is a robust dish that can be a familiar option to keep stocked in your freezer. Luckily, the Kirkland Italian sausage and beef lasagna brings a lot to the table. Literally. You'll get two 3-pound containers of the tomato sauce-laden dish — perfect to feed your crew and then some. You get a blend of cheese, beef, and sausage as your protein sources, so it doesn't feel like it's one-note. The two types of meat come together to offer a delicious salty and fatty dish to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

You have to bake it in the oven for just under an hour, so you just have to plan ahead. You could microwave it, but we prefer baking it to get the lightly browned layer of cheese on top. Either way, this frozen dish saves you time from cooking from scratch, allowing you to spend precious moments with your family, catch up on your favorite show, or do whatever brings you joy.

Beef is certainly a delicious type of meat, but the Kirkland beef lasagna tastes a bit drab. The cheese and sauce can only do so much when the beef is so boring. Perhaps if the meat was heavily seasoned, it would turn out better. It has a soft texture that doesn't give much depth when it comes to the mouthfeel. Seeing as you get two huge trays of lasagna, you might be disappointed to eat this for multiple meals.

The beef and Italian sausage lasagna is considerably more flavorful and satisfying because the sausage provides a richness, fattiness, and substantial texture that the beef can't compete with. One person on TikTok ranked the beef lasagna six out of 10, and we think that's accurate. It's not bad (although someone in the TikTok's comments section said that it's awful), but it's noticeably not as flavorful as the beef and sausage lasagna. People agree that the latter is much better.

These Hebrew National beef franks in a puff pastry blanket get everything right. They're like a refreshed version of the nostalgic ones our mom used to make. The puff pastry brings a crisp, flaky, buttery component that contrasts the juiciness of the kosher beef franks. We love how these are the perfect size to pop in your mouth in one bite — dainty yet filling. 

You can cook them in the air fryer and eat the morsels all within about 10 minutes; no need to hand-wrap a bunch of little hot dog pieces, either, when you can simply buy this Hebrew National variety. Elevate them further by brushing the pigs in a blanket with garlic butter to deepen the butter's profile while giving it an added savory kick. If you're craving mom's cooking, then keep (at least) one box of these stored in your freezer. You won't be disappointed by these flavorful appetizers.

Tacos are one of the most amazing foods when done right, but the Don Miguel mini chicken and cheese tacos don't offer a delightful experience. There are so many genuinely tasty tacos to purchase or make, so there's no stomach room to waste on something that doesn't deliver. The miniature aspect of the tacos is pretty amusing, and the flavors are there, but they are too dry. We needed something to dip it in to make it easier to wash down (that's not a good sign when it comes to tacos). The tortillas also weren't as crispy as the packaging claimed, which was another miss for these frozen bites. 

Skip these if you spot them in the Costco freezer. Instead, we suggest making slow-cooker Mexican chicken tinga, which is incredibly moist and juicy. Use street taco tortillas to get the "mini" effect. The slow cooker does all the work, but you can skip the cooking process and buy a Costco rotisserie chicken and then saute it with the rest of the ingredients for something quicker.

If you're looking for a Costco appetizer to leave in the freezer, then the tempura shrimp with dipping sauce makes for an excellent choice. This frozen dish can be found near other frozen prepared seafood items and comes with 30 pieces of shrimp. They are not teensy pieces of shrimp, either; they are large, hearty, and satisfying. The key with this (and most shrimp dishes) is to cook as directed so it remains tender without getting too chewy or unpleasant. The tempura batter is crispy and flaky to contrast the shrimp's more delicate texture.

The soy dipping sauce is salty with umami notes that linger on the tongue. You don't need a lot to enhance the flavor of the shrimp. This dish is great to pop out of the freezer when you're entertaining guests and need something that doesn't require much oversight. Put them in a bake-safe tray, place them in the oven to bake as directed, and serve. It's that easy.

Ramen is such a delicious and comforting food, so it's a bit of a shock that the Ajinomoto shoyu ramen bowl didn't turn out as a success. You can usually expect the broth to be flavorsome — salty and full of dimension — and that remains partially true for this dish. Yes, the broth was the most flavorful part of the dish, although not spectacular and a tad oily. It had a pleasant, umami, soy taste, which was our favorite part of this meal.

The broth and noodles do the brunt of the flavor work, while the other elements just aren't very good. One person on TikTok commented that they liked the broth but threw the chicken away. We found that the poultry has a mild, sweet flavor that doesn't pair well with the savory nature of the broth. The vegetables were minuscule and forgettable, leaving us disappointed. We've seen this given out as a sample at Costco, so it is worth trying it that way — but we wouldn't recommend purchasing the 6-count package.

Burritos are such a well-known, scrumptious food, but sometimes you don't have a Mexican restaurant near you or simply don't want to leave the house. The Frankly Fresh chicken breast burrito bowl is a flavorful option when you want some Mexican-American flair from home. It's packed with ingredients like corn, black beans, salsa, cheese, rice, and, of course, the seasoned chicken breast. 

You get three 12-ounce bowls, which makes it an impressive option to store for when you want a quick meal to feed yourself. Everything in the bowl is pretty bite-sized, so you don't have to chomp on a giant piece of chicken — it makes for an easy and pleasant dining experience. The cheese adds a textural opponent that looks beautiful on the top of the burrito bowl. The chicken chunks are moist, and everything is thoroughly seasoned, so you don't have to feel like you're eating something bland.

We love a nostalgic chicken pot pie, but the Marie Callender's version doesn't leave much to be desired. Unfortunately, this did not meet our expectations and ranked last when we tried some of the popular frozen Costco meals. Although you can microwave it, we opted for the baking method, hoping to get a well-cooked golden crust, but that didn't happen. 

The crust remained soggy, fell apart, and started leaking as we removed the pot pie from its tray. While the flavors are acceptable, every single component's texture is unpleasant. The veggies are soft, while the chicken pieces are large and dry. The gravy is liquidy to the point of being a soup. This dish doesn't get anything right and doesn't look like the incredible image on its packaging. If you spot Marie Callender's chicken pot pie at Costco, just keep walking past it.

The Birds Eye garlic chicken has a little bit of everything that you need to make a hearty, filling dish with minimal effort: grilled white meat chicken, pasta, and veggies (broccoli, carrots, and corn) all decked out in a garlic sauce. Everything works harmoniously to create a meal that appeals to all the senses. The chicken is moist while the pasta is tender and not overly soft, which can be difficult to achieve in frozen meals. 

The vegetables aren't mushy (except for the broccoli), and you get a lot of punch from the garlic sauce, which ties the whole thing together. The dish is colorful thanks to the medley of veggies, and as a bonus, this is indeed Costco-sized, giving you 63 ounces of product. You can serve the whole thing to your family in one night or have multiple servings for yourself to eat whenever you need a quick bite. 

The Bibigo steamed chicken and vegetable dumplings aren't terrible, but they simply aren't good enough to recommend. To cook, you microwave it in the tray, and it's ready within two minutes. We've found that microwaving dumplings messes with the overall consistency, and that's the case here. The texture is rubbery, which makes it difficult and unpleasant to bite into. The contents were disappointing, too. 

The dumplings look like a half-deflated balloon. They appear sad and lackluster, nothing like the plump dumplings shown on the box. They may be a smidge better if you pan-fry them after microwaving them, just to give them variation in texture. The item has mixed reviews on Reddit, though. A few like it, some say they're okay, others avoid it, and some say the recipe changed, so it doesn't taste as good as it once did. Overall, we'd skip these frozen dumplings on our next Costco run, as they ranked last on our list of popular Costco freezer-aisle appetizers.

On the other side of the coin, we have the Summ! pork lumpia Filipino-style spring rolls. These marvelous, handheld delights were our No. 1 pick for the popular Costco frozen appetizers because of the flavor, texture, and general experience. We cooked them in the air fryer for around eight minutes, and they turned out perfectly crisp without being too hard or crumbly. 

While they don't have a lot of filling, the pork flavors still shine through the crisp wrapper and sweet chili sauce. It also has carrots, cabbage, celery, onion, and other ingredients to give it a pop of color and flavor. You get 20 pieces in the package, which makes it a stellar item to tuck away in the freezer for when you want a quick addendum to dinner. It's the perfect amount to eat in one go if you have a few people over, so it won't stay in the freezer for long.

There are a lot of chicken nugget, tender, and wing options out there, and not all of them are good. Chicken is one of those proteins that's finicky; you never know if you'll get a woody chicken that's fibrous and rubbery or a juicy, mouthwatering one. Unfortunately, the only way to know is to bite into it, but luckily, you can rely on the Foster Farms buffalo-style take out crispy wings. They are meaty and flavorful even if you omit the sauce (which is quite a feat) — this gives you the flexibility to dunk them into your preferred dips without mismatching flavors or having to bake a different flavor for someone who doesn't want the buffalo sauce. 

Others on Reddit agree with the quality, saying they're the best frozen wings they've come across. One person even says they buy three bags at a time; they're that good. These are a top pick for a football game because they're already cooked and don't require a lot of maintenance. You can bake or air fry them to beef up the texture without fretting about food poisoning. 

This list is compiled from our own experiences doing various Costco product taste tests and rankings at Tasting Table. Every single item mentioned here was purchased and tried by someone on the Tasting Table team at some point. But you don't have to take our word for it; we also supplemented some items by including information provided by customer reviews from Costco or other social media channels. 

Costco has heaps of items — more than would be possible to eat in a lifetime — and, indeed, life is too short to try things that don't taste good or don't deliver a quality experience. This article should help inform you about some top frozen items to pick up the next time you're at Costco and which products to leave behind. We hope you find something that you love!