Costco's Unhealthiest Food Court Orders (The Hot Dog Isn't One Of Them)

No trip to Costco is complete without a stop at the food court. The pizza slices are stunningly large and delicious, the hot dog is forever cheap, and the chicken bake got turned into a freezer aisle item, it's so good. That's quite the big three, and the deliciousness only continues as you dive further into the selections. The downside comes when you look at the nutrition facts. No one expects food court items to be healthy, exactly, but some of these nutrition numbers are pretty eye-popping. These seven items really stand out as the most unhealthy offerings on the Costco menu. 

Not every food court menu item is on this list. You could make a case for almost everything, but we wanted to stick to the heavy hitters. For example, the amazing quarter pound Costco hot dog is comparable to a Quarter Pounder With Cheese from McDonald's, which is unsurprising. Some of the items here might not set off the same junk food alarm bells as a hot dog or slice of pizza, yet we still consider them more unhealthy. These are the dishes in Costco's food court that you want to think twice about.

Given that turkey is a leaner cut of meat, you might expect lower numbers than these. Not so fast. The hot turkey & provolone sandwich is bursting with 820 calories, 41 grams of fat, 70% of the daily recommended saturated fat, 45% of the daily recommended cholesterol, and 85% of your daily recommended sodium. Makes for quite the loaded sandwich, in more ways than one.

It might not command the same cultural cache as the flashier stars like hot dogs and pizza, but the hot turkey & provolone sandwich is a fan favorite and a delight. The bread is thick and hearty. The way the provolone will fuse to the bread during toasting, leaving those crispy, savory bites? Divine. This sandwich was gone for a while, languishing in the purgatory of discontinued Costco items. Finally, in 2025, it was added back to the menu. Posters on Reddit were beside themselves with excitement. We get it: There's nothing quite like a beloved discontinued menu item coming back. We all love a deli meat lunch indulgence, but it's helpful to be aware of the nutritional content before deciding to dive in.

If cooking is art and baking is science, then the Costco double chocolate chunk cookie is alchemy: simple ingredients coming together to make gold. Let's check the nutrition stats, though. This delicious dessert packs a whopping 65 grams (or 130%) of the daily recommended added sugar. That makes sense for a cookie. As late-night infomercials say: But wait, there's more. The cookie also has 100 milligrams or 33% of the daily recommendation of cholesterol, plus 20 grams or 100% of the daily recommendation for saturated fat. At 750 calories, it's also a big, ahem, "chunk" of the daily caloric goal, too.

The chocolate chunk cookie is a classic for a reason. What's more nostalgic than biting into a warm cookie? That buttery softness and tingling sweetness is a mouth-watering combination. Unfortunately, butter brings the cholesterol and saturated fat, and those big chunks of delicious chocolate bring the sugar. If you have a food court ritual at the end of every Costco run? It's definitely good to be aware of what the cookie brings to the table, nutritionally.

It's a double meat sandwich, and one of those meats is bacon. Can't expect it to be too healthy. Let's read some stats: 920 calories, 45 grams of fat, 80% of the daily recommendation of saturated fat, 57% of the daily recommendation of cholesterol, 108% of your daily recommended sodium. This one comes with a twist, too, with 15 grams or 30% of the daily recommendation of added sugar on top of those other numbers. That's because the bacon is actually a bacon jam, which had one person on Reddit saying the sandwich was too sweet to finish. If your double meat sandwich is too sweet, you're probably not in health-food territory. 

Fast food chicken sandwiches often come with bacon. It's easy to see why. Bacon packs a major flavor punch, adding fat and saltiness. This is especially useful for white meat chicken, which lacks the fattiness and flavor of other cuts. You have to be aware of this combo's resulting nutritional readings, though, and this sandwich is a perfect example of why. It has nearly half the day's recommended calories and more than a day's worth of sodium.

You might think that a salad would be a healthy option. This 840-calorie salad, though, has 75% of your daily recommended saturated fats. The fun doesn't stop there. The rotisserie chicken chef's salad also packs 123% of the daily recommended amount of cholesterol and 113% of the daily recommendation for sodium. Two percentages over 100 in the same food item? That's a tough look.

Reading the nutrition label on this salad is a good reminder that the food court's mission, first and foremost, is to make something that tastes good. That means well-seasoned rotisserie chicken and plenty of dressing, of course. There's also tons of crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, croutons, and an egg. Even with lettuce as a base, any health benefits are incidental. Maybe it's best to think of the rotisserie chicken chef's salad at Costco as a sandwich that you have to eat with a fork.

Few things are better than an ice cold lemonade on a hot summer day. If it's frozen and has strawberries? Even better. Of course, a frozen treat at a food court won't be quite as health-conscious as fresh-squeezed, homemade lemonade. The frozen strawberry lemonade at Costco has 250 calories — 130 more than a 16-ounce lemonade at McDonald's — but the number that really gives us pause is the added sugars. There are 58 grams of added sugars here, or 116% of your daily recommended value. Granted, we expect a little extra sugar in a frozen drink. Still, a fully daily value in one drink is something to be aware of.

Yes, sugar in lemonade tastes good, but it is not what your body is craving on a hot summer day. All of that sugar is why lemonade isn't good for hydration. Sugar can displace water from your cells, and metabolizing sugar in the first place requires plenty of water. If the frozen strawberry lemonade is something you're thinking of reaching for on a sweltering August afternoon, consider supplementing it with a bottle of water. 

Maybe ice cream isn't exactly a light dessert. True, it's not as obviously filling as something like cake or a cookie. Still, some people are surprised at how ice cream can be quite calorie-dense. One chocolate ice cream is 570 calories. It will also run you 44 grams, or 88% of the daily recommendation of added sugars. Use chocolate ice cream as the base of a chocolate or berry sundae, and those numbers jump to 128% and 122%, respectively. It's hard to look at any dessert and not get sticker shock at the sugar content.  

Consuming too much added sugar can lead to a whole host of health problems, from Type-II diabetes to heart disease. Added sugar is tricky, too, because it shows up everywhere. It's worth it to be vigilant about nutrition labels, and to check underneath the regular sugar listing for added sugar. This advice especially applies to ice cream. A little bit goes a long way, when it comes to frozen treats.

In name alone, the Combo Calzone sounds like something you'd buy in a food court. The item is essentially a pizza turnover, and its nutrition facts may make you take pause. It has 1080 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat (or 100% of the daily recommended value), 115 milligrams (or 38%) of your daily cholesterol, and 2500 milligrams of sodium, 109% of the daily recommendation. The combo calzone is like the Wilt Chamberlain of food, putting up numbers previously thought impossible.

However, we'd be remiss not to mention that the combo calzone also contains nine grams of fiber and 46 grams of protein. Is that enough to offset the other stuff? Ultimately, that's up to you to decide. The food court is not a place you go to remain faithful to a diet — the only question is how far you want to stray. The combo calzone takes the top spot on our "most unhealthy" list, yes, but we can practically taste that first bite. A little too hot, because it's impossible to be patient enough for calzones to cool. Cheese oozing everywhere, filling slightly spicy and plenty savory. Yeah, the combo calzone sounds worth it.