Sam’s Club, like most of its contemporaries, has a bustling food court for anyone looking to snag a bite after the arduous task of shopping (or anyone looking for a cheap, quick lunch even without having a membership card). You won’t exactly find the next Michelin guide offering within its halls, but you can at least find something that pleases your taste buds and keeps your stomach full. We’ve gone ahead and tried the whole selection so we could create a list of every Sam’s Club food court item, ranked worst to best. And our opinion is that the good ol’ salted pretzel is one of the biggest letdowns on the menu.
When you buy an original salted pretzel, you’re probably looking for a few things. First: Does it have those delicious, notable little salt crystals sprinkled over the surface? Second: Is the dough soft, moist, and bouncy, with just the right amount of chew? Third: Is it nice and warm, fresh from the oven? While these pretzels are served warm, that’s about where the similarities end. Our pretzel was dried out, chewy, and stuck to the serving paper, making for an all-around subpar dining experience we’d rather pass up on than repeat.
Is the salted pretzel worth your money?
The thing is, Sam’s Club food court offerings are built on being affordable. You can grab a pretzel for around a buck, which isn’t a big ask for many. But is it worth spending a dollar for a pretzel that just isn’t good? To us, the answer is no. Sam’s Club doesn’t bake its pretzels on site, but rather, food is often delivered frozen, and the food court employees warm most items up in an oven. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it does mean your pretzel could be sitting around in a warmer for a while, or that you run into problems like we mentioned above with dryness. Really, you could just use this soft-baked pretzel recipe to make your own pretzel at home and probably be happier for it, even if it’ll cost you more in time.
This isn’t to say every item in Sam’s Club’s food court is a miss, though. The one food court item you should always order at Sam’s Club is the Sam’s Swirl: A swirled combo of their chocolate and vanilla frozen yogurt, which has top-tier creaminess and sweetness. There are even other pretzels that we liked better, like the pizza pretzel, which is covered with cheese and pepperoni and put through the pizza oven for a fresh, ooey-gooey cheesy experience. As long as you give the salted pretzel a pass, you’re bound to find something you enjoy.
