11 Tips Every Costco Shopper Should Know Before Visiting The Food Court

Disney World may call itself the happiest place on Earth, but in our opinion, it pales in comparison to the Costco food court. Can't you see and smell it now? The heady scent of fresh-baked pizza wafting through the organized chaos, mixing with the sweet tinge of vanilla soft serve and chocolate-chip cookies. Somehow, those shiny red and white tables have the same inviting energy as a wooden picnic table in the park. But that glorious food court is also famously hectic, possibly even more so than the store itself. So if you want to have the best possible experience, there are a few helpful tips to be aware of before visiting.  

Costco is incredibly popular for good reason. It's your one-stop shop for everything, and it has a delicious and economical food court to boot. But that popularity also means the crowds get intense, especially during peak times, like weekend afternoons and weekday evenings. Those are also, of course, common meal times, and therefore exactly when you might want to head to the food court for a tasty treat. These tips will be especially useful if you're going during peak hours, but they'll all help make your visit to the Costco food court a smoother experience. 

Although the food court used to be accessible to everyone, whereas shopping at Costco required a membership, the rules recently changed. In 2020, Costco started requiring an active membership for those who want to eat at the food court, and in 2024, stores around the country began enforcing the policy more seriously, with signs informing customers about the change.

If you don't have any need to buy everything from pretzels to toilet paper in bulk but want to eat at the food court every once in a while, there is a sneaky way to break this particular rule. Just go to the food court with a member. Walk in together, let them flash that all-powerful membership card, and tell them what you'd like to eat. They'll order, the food will arrive, and you'll finally get to try that famous hot dog. 

Another tactic also involves knowing an existing member, but it could be considered a little sneakier. Costco sells gift cards called Costco shop cards. Only members can buy them, but you don't have to be a member to use one, and they grant you access to all parts of Costco, including the food court. One could conceivably use it to get into the food court, then pay with a different card at the kiosk, allowing you to use the same gift card for limitless food court delights. You may just want to avoid going too frequently so you aren't recognized.

The Costco food court is known for being crowded, especially on weekends and weekday evenings, when the highest volume of people come to shop and eat. It's often tough to find a table during these peak times. There's a simple strategy if you're shopping with at least one other person: divide and conquer.

There are two possible scenarios here. The first applies to anyone who's eating after grocery shopping. One person should get in line to check out, taking everyone else's order. That person can place the order at checkout — more on that later — or at the food court itself. The others will go straight to scouting the area — who's nearly done eating? Are there any empty tables? You might have to linger in the distance, watching and waiting until someone gets up, but sometimes you'll get lucky and be able to glide right to a table. Then, start setting up. Grab napkins and condiments, wipe down the table if needed, and sit back and relax. 

If you're only going to the food court or going before doing your grocery shopping, follow the same basic system minus the groceries. It's simple, it's efficient, and it gets pizza into everyone's belly more quickly.

This tip is mandatory. Costco is famous for the wide variety of free samples that you can find throughout the store. Depending on what time you go, you might find mini paper cups with electrolyte beverages, bites of pasta, or a chip and a dip every few aisles, or the samples might be more sparsely scattered around the warehouse. But unless it's the very beginning or very end of the day, you're likely to find at least one or two, and everyone knows that free samples are the perfect way to whet your appetite for the food court. 

In fact, some people treat the free samples as an entire meal by going back for more, though that isn't exactly recommended. At the end of the day, it's free food, though, so if you're already going to pay for food, why not enjoy a little pre-meal stroll around the aisles to pick up some samples and prepare your palate for the deliciousness it will soon experience?

As we've already established, the Costco food court tends to be busy, crowded, and chaotic. There's nothing worse than trying to navigate to your table with a giant pizza box, a soda fountain drink, and three plates of food — and then bumping your knee on someone's cart, left carelessly in the middle of the court. If you're driving, you should always take your packed boxes out to the car before sitting down at the food court. And if you're walking, biking, or taking public transportation, you should find a corner to tuck away your groceries while you eat. 

Whatever you do, absolutely do not bring your shopping cart with you to the food court. Those shopping carts are massive, and leaving them by your table will mess with the flow of foot traffic and inconvenience both your fellow food court patrons and employees. Just be considerate and follow the golden rule (treat others as you'd like to be treated), and you'll be, well, golden. 

While staples like the pizza and hot dogs have been available at the food court for decades, Costco is always adding new dishes to the menu (and sadly, as in the case of the iconic churros, taking some off). Just this fall, the warehouse introduced two: a combo calzone (which some see as a substitute for the absence of the combo/supreme pizza) and a caramel brownie sundae. As long as they fit into your dietary restrictions, being a loyal customer of the Costco food court means trying all the new dishes as they're released. 

Costco tends to value customer feedback; the $1.50 hot dog and drink combo has been around since 1985, for example, even though the company no longer makes a profit on it. The item has remained on the menu simply because customers love it, and it keeps them coming back. The same can apply to the newer additions, but you have to try them to know whether you're going to love them. And if you're not happy, you can make that known, too. Unpopular menu items never seem to last very long.

If you are, let's say, a lactose-intolerant pescatarian, Costco's food court unfortunately doesn't have a ton to offer. On the current menu, you can order a berry smoothie and a soda. If you bring Lactaid or take away the lactose-intolerant part, your options increase to include cheese pizza, chocolate-chip cookies, and ice cream sundaes. Of course, the reason for the basic selection is straightforward: The top priority of the Costco food court is to offer delicious food at extremely low prices, and unfortunately, things like seafood, meat replacements, and plant-based cheeses tend to be expensive. 

Perhaps someday, Costco will introduce cheap and restriction-friendly options like rice and beans or chili oil-topped tofu — or at least bring back the churro — but as it stands, the only rule a person with dietary restrictions can faithfully follow here is to come prepared to watch everyone else enjoy cheesy, carby deliciousness, while they sip on a (very tasty and reasonably priced!) smoothie. This is likely going to be the case for vegetarians, people with gluten allergies, and most other dietary restrictions. Don't skip the food court completely; most people will be able to find at least one item they can eat without any issues. But do set your expectations for the limited selection you'll find when you get there.

For years, one of the most delicious menu items to order at Costco's food court was a loaded slice of supreme, or combo, pizza. It had mushrooms and black olives, as well as a symphony of additional flavors and textures: crunchy green bell pepper and onions, savory sausage, greasy pepperoni, and of course, that stretchy mozzarella cheese. It's been a crowd favorite for years, but in 2020, it was sadly discontinued and hasn't made a reappearance except as a take-and-bake pizza from the grocery section of the store.

However, earlier this year, Costco introduced what could be seen as a replacement for the combo pizza, the combo calzone. It's $6.99 and contains all the same elements that topped the original slice: mushrooms, olives, peppers, onions, sausage, pepperoni, cheese, and tomato sauce. It's also topped with a thin layer of cheese, adding a bit of extra crunch to the outer crust. It's gotten mixed reviews, but it's worth trying if you're missing the combo slice.

Once you learn this hack, you'll feel pity, superiority, or perplexity — depending on your personality — as you witness the many Costco-goers who stroll straight from the long checkout line to the long food court line, waiting to order their food. Don't ever be one of them again. Instead, many locations allow you to place your food court order as you check out after grocery shopping. All you have to do is tell the cashier what you'd like to order from the food court. They'll ring it up along with your items and print out a separate food court receipt, which you'll use to pick up your order when it's ready.

If you're not grocery shopping, you can also skip the line by calling ahead and placing your order over the phone, so that by the time you arrive, it's ready and waiting for you. Why wouldn't you want to streamline the process and skip the line? It makes everything move more quickly and efficiently, especially when you consider the updated ordering system that many stores have now implemented, which we'll expand on when we discuss the next tip ...

In the past, ordering at Costco's food court was simple; you'd just walk up to the counter, tell the cashier what you wanted, pay with cash or card, and then wait for the number on your receipt to be called. But times, they are a-changin' — in recent years, many fast-food spots have rolled out digital ordering kiosks where you select your choices on a touch screen and pay with a credit or debit card without ever interacting with a person, and Costco has followed suit. While not all locations have digital kiosks yet, many do, meaning your only payment option is a card.

In 2025, Costco edited the ordering process once again. When the food courts first started using digital kiosks, the pickup process didn't change; you'd order at the kiosk, then an employee would announce your number out loud when bringing your order to the pickup counter. Now, customers are directed to go straight to the counter with their receipts, get in line, and hand their receipts to an employee who gives them their order on the spot.

Costco's longstanding policy of unlimited free refills is just another reason the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo is too good to pass up — especially now that Costco is slowly switching back to Coca-Cola products after only offering PepsiCo since 2013. But that unlimited refill policy applies to all soda orders, so if you don't take advantage of at least one refill, you're basically leaving money on the table. 

Sure, that might seem like a lot of soda, but it quickly dwindles when you decide to share one soda among multiple people, which you can totally do with this policy. You can also use it to try all the sodas, or to drink one and then switch to lemonade or simply soda water for your refill. The possibilities here are truly endless. If you're feeling especially adventurous (and have a strong stomach), you can act like a middle schooler on a field trip and try mixing every single beverage on offer into a single cup. Or just mix two — lemonade and Sprite are a particularly nice combo.

Costco food courts have one unfortunate stain on their otherwise flawless reputations: They're known for getting really messy, really fast. The simple reason is that many of the patrons seem to believe that a fairy will magically appear to take their trash away — even though there are always, without fail, several large trash cans stationed conveniently around the food court, never more than a few steps away. If you only choose to follow one single tip on this list, make it this one: Clean up after yourself. 

It's easy, as we've established, and the job of food court employees is supposed to be making and serving food, occasionally wiping down tables, and taking out the trash — not cleaning up after every single group that sits down to eat. With how busy the food court gets, it can be difficult to even manage that. So please, do your part to make the Costco food court experience that much more pleasant, and take out your own trash. Maybe even use a napkin to wipe down your table?