For Costco Food Court Pizza Without All That Grease, Order It This Way

The pizza at Costco's food court is iconic — albeit sometimes a bit too greasy. But luckily, you can enjoy the taste of a convenient slice without all that grease on the surface by going up to the counter and ordering it with less cheese. Sometimes, the hefty cheese can cause fat to pool. Using lots of high-fat shredded cheese or factors like overcooking can also cause fat to pool or separate out on pizza. By reducing the cheese by up to half the normal amount, you'll also reduce the amount of fat. Then when it melts, not as much grease is present. To ask for less cheese, simply request the change at the Costco food court counter or register before paying.

It's a somewhat lesser-known trick, but generally you can ask Costco food court employees for customizations, or even not to slice whole pizzas. In a recent r/Costco subreddit thread, one customer shared that ordering their pizza with less cheese was a game-changer. "Asked for 50% less cheese and cooked well done. Basically no box grease or flop, don't think their pizza gets better than this," they wrote, also giving a nod to apizza, a style of pizza from New Haven, Connecticut, known for being crispy and made with less cheese.  While the Costco food court pizza, large slices and all, is a style all its own, ordering it light on the cheese can certainly make it cleaner to eat (read: no oily mess or pile of napkins needed). 

When it comes to ordering hacks to make your Costco slice less greasy, it's also important to consider your preferred taste and texture of the pizza. Less cooking time or lower temperatures and cooking pizza too close to the heat source in an oven can also cause grease to pool. Hence why the "well-done" Costco pizza order also worked for the customer in the aforementioned Reddit post. So, if you notice your Costco food court makes the pizza a bit less crispy, it may be worthwhile to ask them to leave it in the oven a bit longer to make the slice a bit more crunchy and less greasy.

In addition to lots of cheese making for a greasy Costco pizza, the other toppings matter too. For instance, if you like ordering your food court pizza with pepperoni, this is also a higher-fat ingredient that is known to release grease when cooking in the high temps of the pizza oven. For a cleaner slice with fewer pools of grease, cut back on the cheese and avoid or reduce the amount of pepperoni. Generally, these customizations work best for whole pizzas, as opposed to individual slices. And of course, if you don't want to sacrifice the flavor that the regular amount of cheese and pepperoni impart, you can always blot greasy pizza (a surprisingly debated move) with a paper towel or napkin to remove some of the surface grease.