Costco’s food court is a place of lure and legend. A members-only hub for the inflation-proof $1.50 hot dog and soda combo, slices of pizza, and the beloved chicken bake, which is chicken breast, cheese, bacon, and Caesar dressing stuffed into bread. It’s a place for good deals and satisfying food in a pinch when that pesky mid-shopping hunger strikes. And who doesn’t need a little extra fuel when buying and schlepping all those industrial-size bags of chips and tubs of dip?
Though Costco’s Food Court menu remains relatively consistent, the chain will occasionally stir up its fanbase with an addition. And fans are ready to be as brutally honest about it as possible. This leads us to the latest creation to land on the menu: the Chicken & Bacon Sandwich.
Served cold on ciabatta, the $6.99 sandwich features slices of oven-roasted chicken bread, cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, bacon jam, and a mayo-mustard sauce. But at 920 calories per sandwich, the seemingly bland menu item is raising some eyebrows.
“It’s like they don’t even try with our US food court anymore,” one shopper commented on a Reddit thread about the new sandwich.
It’s true. Costco’s food courts around the world are a bit more, well . . . worldly. Australian Costcos are known for serving banh mi and Aussie beef pies, and South Korea’s version of the chicken bake is a bulgogi bake full of beef. Of course, the hot dog is universally beloved.
An Instagram video featuring the new sandwich racked up more skepticism than enthusiasm.
“Does it taste as dry as it looks?” someone asked. Consensus: Yes. And it’s not dissimilar from the recently retired Turkey & Swiss Sandwich, also served cold and crumbly.
“Ugh that bread looks so unappetizing. Why can’t they just put things in a wrap so we don’t have to worry about dry bread?” another food-court-goer suggested. Other users agree that a slight change in bread, perhaps even toasting the existing bread, or using a croissant, could save the sandwich.
A few new Reddit threads have emerged for Costco shoppers to discuss this latest addition.
“920 calories is crazy. America is a wild place,” one Redditor wrote. Another shared the full nutritional details on the sandwich: 45 grams of fat (16 grams of saturated fat), 170 milligrams of cholesterol, 2,490 milligrams of sodium, 50 grams of protein, 79 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 18 grams of sugar. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sandwich with 2,490mg of sodium,” replied another Redditor. “I’m sure there are some that just aren’t measured but still, that is insane if accurate. That’s 2.5x a Big Mac.”
A standard Big Mac has about 1,000 grams of sodium, which is already quite a lot when 2,300 mg per day is the recommended nutritional intake. Yes, Costco’s new sandwich contains more sodium than any adult is supposed to eat in a day. Concerning, and not just for your jaw trying to gnaw through it.
Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner
Melissa is a writer and recipe developer based in Brooklyn, where she lives with her wife and rescue dog. Read more about Melissa
