Costco’s food court is changing again, and this time the replacement for the combo calzone appears to be chicken strips. The new item has already shown up at warehouses in the Chicago area, with a wider rollout expected to follow.
The order costs $6.99 and comes with five breaded chicken breast strips, a dipping sauce and 1,640 calories. The strips are reportedly baked, not fried, and the sauce has been compared to Chick-fil-A sauce. That has not stopped the first wave of reaction from sounding familiar: members are already calling for the return of the combo pizza.
Costco had discontinued the combo pizza at the food court before bringing in the combo calzone, a swap that never fully won over shoppers online. The calzone had already drawn disappointment from members before reports emerged that it was being pulled as well. The new chicken strips now appear to be the next test in that cycle, part of the company’s effort to adjust its food court menu in Chicago before moving it more broadly.
The early reaction has been split between curiosity and backlash, but the loudest message is easy to hear. One commenter said Costco food courts overseas get “adult food” like sushi and rice bowls, while U.S. shoppers are left with “more ultra-processed kids food.” Another member who tried the new strips in Canada said, “I got them today. They’re huge. Really good.” At Canadian warehouses, shoppers can get four chicken strips and fries for $6.99 CAD, a comparison that has only sharpened complaints about the U.S. version.
Food writer Dennis Lee, who compared the dipping sauce to Chick-fil-A’s, said the breading was so thick and heavy it had an almost grainy texture. He said the meat was fairly moist, but the meal as a whole was too salty. “I was only able to eat one strip before my instincts told me eating any more was a bad idea for my health,” he wrote. The order also contains 1,640 calories, a figure that makes it 350 more calories than some shoppers say they would expect from a quick food court lunch.
That is why the response online has been so immediate. The chain is not just swapping one menu item for another. It is replacing a beloved pizza, then a divisive calzone, with a chicken strip meal that some members see as heavier, saltier and less appealing than what came before. For now, the Chicago-area rollout is the clearest sign of where the food court is heading, and the next stop is likely to be a national one.
What remains unresolved is whether Costco will actually win over enough members with the chicken strips to make the change stick, or whether the company has only given shoppers a new reason to keep saying the same thing: BRING BACK THE COMBO PIZZA.
