While there are many things that Costco does amazingly well — from its inflation-proof $4.99 rotisserie chickens to its Julia Child-approved food court hot dogs — not everything you can buy there is created equal. For example, one Reddit thread posed a simple question: What’s one Costco item that you’d never buy again? The responses were brutally honest, with one item emerging as the best of the worst: the Snapdragon Chicken Pad Thai. According to one commenter, it’s “truly awful.”
While we generally don’t expect our frozen meals to taste like restaurant-quality food, the Snapdragon Chicken Pad Thai, available only at select Costco locations, completely misses the mark. One Reddit comment said the frozen rice noodle dish “tastes like someone described pad [Thai] over a cup and string [kids’] telephone while drunk and craving Mexican food.”
Traditional pad Thai sauce is made using a blend of tamarind paste, palm sugar, and fish sauce. However, according to people who’ve tried the Costco version, it’s overwhelmingly fishy. One Reddit comment says it tastes “like they dumped a whole bottle of spoiled fish sauce in one tiny container!” Redditors have also noted that it has an unnatural “neon orange” hue and that warming it up makes your whole house smell like fish. Yikes.
Pad Thai benefits from being made fresh
In addition to taste issues, Redditors claim that Costco’s pad Thai leaves much to be desired in terms of texture. Ideally, pad Thai shouldn’t feature a heavy clump of noodles or taste overly saucy. However, one Reddit comment describes the Costco version as a “SOGGY mess.” And if you think dousing your pad Thai with hot sauce from Costco’s 12-Pack Hot Sauce Challenge gift set will help, think again. According to Reddit, these hot sauces are also a disappointment. One Redditor even commented, “I work in a thrift shop. We get those sets donated regularly.”
Part of the problem is that great pad Thai is made by quickly stir-frying rice noodles in a piping hot wok. In a separate Reddit thread devoted to discussing Costco’s Snapdragon Chicken Pad Thai, one comment suggests that pad Thai “is really one of those dishes that need to be prepared to order — not really something that lends itself to prepared package or frozen.” So, if you’re looking to enjoy this dish, making your own chicken or shrimp pad Thai from scratch might be worthwhile.
