Costco Customers Avoid This Hot Food That's Sold Near The Rotisserie Chicken

When it comes to hot food, Costco has earned a reputation for its food court hot dogs as well as its rotisserie chickens. Based on the popularity of each, you might assume that any hot food sold at a Costco is just as popular, but that's not always the case. You can usually find barbecue ribs for sale near the rotisserie chicken, and numerous Costco shoppers have expressed their disappointment with them.

Personal tastes vary, but the dislike of Costco's ribs is quite well-documented. One Redditor recently said, "The hot ribs they sell by the rotisserie chicken are inedibly bad." A different thread from several months ago had other Redditors warning that the ribs were "dry and not tasty." A year ago, another poster summed it up by saying, "Too tough and not good." When our own taste tester reviewed the Costco BBQ Platter, they had many of the same complaints about the ribs.

The history of disappointment with Costco ribs goes back years. In a thread from 2024, a Redditor claimed they weren't fit to eat. "Meat was extremely tough and I could barely separate it from the bone," they added. The top reply was from someone with a similar experience. Four years ago, another Redditor who was excited to try the ribs since they liked Costco's other offerings said, "Absolutely terrible. Overcooked and chewy meat with zero smoke flavor." A poster on a different forum back in 2019 said, "This was not good. Over cooked and greasy."

So did the rib recipe change at some point? Did something happen to make them unpopular? Ten years ago on Reddit, someone asked if the ribs were any good and got the reply, "They are usually gross. Dry and hard to eat. I tried them a number of times and gave up."

More people seemed to like them in the past than these days. That thread from 10 years back had more fans than haters, with one person saying, "I only tried them once and was very surprised at how good they were." A common theme among those who had positive feedback is that they often recommended adding your own BBQ sauce, like our quick and easy BBQ sauce recipe. Another tip repeated in multiple threads is that they need to be fresh. "They're good if you get them before they've been sitting out forever and turned dry and crusty," someone noted.

One fan of the ribs on Reddit suggested taking them home and cooking them longer. "I put them in the oven when I get them home covered with foil at 275 [degrees Fahrenheit] for a couple of hours. Fall off the bone tender." Along with some added sauce, it may be a good way to achieve the texture and flavor you want. But, at that point, it may also make more sense to buy fresh ribs and just cook them yourself. The price of a single precooked rack varies by location and size, but you can expect to pay around $8 per pound, totaling anywhere from $16 to $22. You can get Kirkland Premium Pork Ribs raw for less than $5 per pound and then try our baked St. Louis ribs recipe instead.