It’s just before noon and the line is starting to grow in Costco’s food court. The smell of freshly baked pizza is wafting out of the kitchen, and you see shoppers walking away from the counter with the iconic $1.50 hot dog combo in hand. You feel like you should avoid the forming crowd, but the craving for an ice-cold fountain soda and the pull of the chicken bake aroma is too strong. While you spend more time than you’d like in line, this is actually one of the best times to order at Costco’s food court.
You might already be knowledgeable about Costco food court tips and tricks, including the ordering hack for better pizza, but it may not have crossed your mind that it’s ideal to hit up the food court when it’s busiest. During slower hours, food is kept hot under heat lamps to keep it warm. But, when most people head to the food court, Costco employees are prepared to keep churning out the menu items to ensure nothing runs out. This means you’re getting the freshest slice of pizza, the hottest hot dog, and the softest cookie — straight from the oven. While food sitting under a heat lamp is not exactly a bad thing, some items may lose their preferred texture or flavor. Aside from weekday mealtimes, weekends are consistently busy for most of the day in the food courts.
How to minimize wait time and get fresh food at Costco
For those willing to brave the crowds, here are the Costco food court items worth waiting in line for — but there are ways to minimize your wait time. For starters, you can pre-order your pizza. There are two ways to do this: Order at the food court and schedule it for when you’ve completed your shopping, or simply call and place your order in advance. These methods can be synchronized by ordering or calling right before it’s going to get busy.
Costco has also introduced self-order kiosks at many of its food court locations. At the kiosk, you can place your order, pay with a credit card, and get in line to pick up the food. This has had some mixed reactions; the idea was to reduce wait time, but some shoppers say it’s more inefficient. A hack for reducing wait time in this situation is paying with cash; there’s often no line for those paying with cash since this is less common than paying by card. If ordering something such as a hot dog, chicken bake, or just a slice of pizza, you may be able to pay with cash and get your food instantly. And, if you ever find the food you’ve ordered is cold, you can return it to the food court with a receipt and ask the employees for something fresher.
