Costco's Newest Prepared Meal Is A Pricey Platter Of Disappointment

Summer is here, meaning it's time to eat some grilled grub and barbequed food. Now, Costco has quite a few delightful summer staples worth a spot in your shopping cart. But the warehouse chain has also created a new product for 2026 that could make summer gatherings a breeze (and has been setting the internet abuzz): the Kirkland Signature Barbeque Platter.

The platter includes ribs, chicken wings, corn on the cob, potato salad, pickles, pickled onions, and a tub of barbecue sauce. Since my local Costco had this platter available as of June 30, I decided to try it for myself and give a verdict. The platter I purchased included an unknown amount of potato salad, barbeque sauce, and pickled products, as well as 18 bone-in chicken wings (flats and drumsticks), 12 ribs, and eight pieces of corn (four total ears).

Since I wanted to see whether the platter was worth serving guests, I went to my nearest warehouse to pick one up. After trying all the elements, I can give you some insights into how they taste, what the texture of the meat is like, if anything is particularly outstanding (positively or negatively), and whether I think the Kirkland Signature Barbeque Platter is a worthy purchase from Costco.

I was specifically looking at whether this platter could make hosting a gathering or preparing a family meal easier. Now, everything was already cooked, which is convenient since I simply needed to heat the meat and corn in a microwave. But I also wanted to make sure this was something where everything was part of a whole.

With that in mind, I was looking for tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs, succulent and well-seasoned chicken, a complex barbecue sauce, tangy pickled items, and a creamy potato salad to round it all out. Everything needed to work together, though minor issues would be considered fine as long as the rest of the elements could pull their weight. However, major problems with flavor, or if the entire item didn't seem worth the cost, would make this Costco platter unworthy of purchasing. After all, I wanted to feel confident placing the platter out for people to enjoy the night I bought it (during the FIFA World Cup 2026 round-of-32 game between Mexico and Ecuador).

First, the chicken is tasty. It's nicely seasoned with a juicy texture. I prefer flats, so I found them easy to eat. The seasoning includes garlic, onion, and paprika, so it's nothing too out of the box, but it's a good base. The barbecue sauce is surprisingly complex, as well. At first, there's that hit of sweetness, but it's very tomato-forward, bringing a noticeable umami, savory component.

The potato salad is great, and a fantastic summery addition. The potatoes have a perfect texture — neither too firm nor too mushy. There's creaminess from mayonnaise, sour cream, and sharp cheddar cheese. It has added crunch from celery, and dimension from relish, mustard, and green onion. Plus, the cold creaminess helped break up the fattiness of the ribs (more on that shortly). The pickled items are excellent, as well. The pickles themselves are good, but the pickled red onions are a standout. They're tangy, crisp, and extremely vinegar-forward. You almost pucker your mouth every time you eat one. It's like a palate cleanser, and I'm so happy these are included in the platter.

Unfortunately, I had some problems with both the ribs and the corn. The ribs, while flavorful, weren't quite fall-off-the-bone worthy. I had to do a bit of ripping to get the meat off, and found a fair amount of cartilage and fattiness in my pieces, too (my plate was a considerable mess, with some of those bits and bobs left over). Meanwhile, the corn is supposed to be sweet corn, but it had a slightly sour aftertaste despite looking fresh and flawless.

I can appreciate the thought behind the platter, but the price — it cost $50.34 for just over 9 pounds of food — is quite high for what you get and for the quality of the food. For instance, the ribs in my platter were filled with gristle and cartilage, and hardly worth the mess. One of my mother-in-law's signature dishes is ribs (with meat from Costco, by the way), and these paled in comparison. And while I'm no rib expert, I've made the dish multiple times before, and I'd wager these needed at least one more hour of cooking to soften and loosen the meat from the bone.

The chicken wings, meanwhile, are fine, but I wouldn't grab the platter for them alone. In fact, my favorite item out of everything is the simplest, easiest-to-make element: the pickled red onions. Here, they are made solely from vinegar and onion, but they're genuinely excellent with an eye-twitching tanginess.

If Costco sold the pickled red onions alone, I'd love to stock up. Other than that, I'm afraid this platter would leave guests unsatisfied and hungry (depending on how much meat they could scrounge off the ribs). Interestingly, folks online don't appear to be sold on the platter, either, so you might be better off buying other Kirkland Signature items for a summer cookout instead.

I'm based in the San Diego area, where the Kirkland Signature barbeque platter is priced at $5.49 per pound. There were about five platters at my store, and they were all around $47 to $51, so you aren't likely to find a smaller (or much larger) amount than that. It seems like there's a set amount of ribs, corn, and wings, so the price difference might be based purely on the amount of potato salad or pickled items.

I called my store every couple of days for about a week to find out when the item would be available. It went from "it'll be here next week" to "we have them, and they'll be out tomorrow," so you might expect a similar timeline if they're not available at your store already.

With that in mind, I'd suggest calling your local warehouse and asking about the BBQ platter from the deli. I couldn't find any information about a set window for how long these would remain available, but it's clearly a summer-centric item.