Kirkland Signature, from Costco

I've never been to Costco.  I've never had a membership, nor really known anyone else who did.  And yet, like most, I am quite familiar with Costco.  

Sometimes their items show up at potlucks or parties when another guest clearly takes the easy route, grabbing a dessert or pizza on their way out the Costco door.  Sometimes Costco items, particularly the baked goods, show up at cafes or small establishments around town, when merchants know they need muffins and bagels on the menu, but don't want to produce them themselves (which, I am not critiquing, you know how much I love those Costco muffins, and their shelf life makes this very practical!).

Today I am focusing on Kirkland Signature, the house brand of Costco.  They produce nearly every category of item under this brand, ranging from snack foods to vitamins to cleaning supplies, but today's focus is my real interest: food.

Pizza

Original Review, November 2021

Even without ever venturing to Costco, I certainly know about their pizza, the most popular item in the food court.  Available in cheese, pepperoni, or combo.

Signature Pizza Boxes. $9.95 Each.

Pizza comes available in a take and bake form, or ready to eat, always in their branded pizza boxes.  Spot the boxes, and you'll know where you host decided to get pizza from ...

I attended an event where we were supposed to be getting pizza from a nearby well known pizza place, but ... somehow this happened instead.  I was pretty disappointed, but, hey, pizza is pizza, right?

Combo Pizza

I opted for the combo, with pepperoni, sausage, green pepper, onion, mushroom, and olives.

I'll admit ... it wasn't bad, for this style of pizza.  It isn't fancy artisanal crust, the toppings aren't particularly high quality, but the crust had a good chew, the sauce wasn't too sweet, the cheese was nicely melted, and it was loaded with toppings.

Would I go out of my way for it?  Of course not.  Would I be embarrassed to serve it at a party?  Yes. But it did the trick, a notch about frozen pizza.

***.

Update Review, March 2024

Costco Pi Day!

March 14.  One of my favorite days of the year.  In some ways, a better food holiday than the traditional heavy hitters like Thanksgiving.  After all, I do love pot pies, shepherd's pie, macaroni pie, and the like, and obviously, basically *all* the sweet pies.  It is also a glorious day to be in my office, as each team celebrates with their pie of choice, and inevitably has leftovers.  Generally they are from great local bakeries and pie shops, or sometimes Whole Foods or other more curated grocery stores, so I had to laugh when the e-mail came out that a team had tons of extra Costco pie: pizza and sweet pies.

And yet ... I still went running (ok, power walking?) even though I'd had 11 other pies already that day ...  I arrived to find quite a bounty still remaining, the pizzas were untouched, and there were additional sweet pies not pictured here too.

I dug right in. 

Overall?  It honestly isn't bad.  I'd never seek it out, and it is nothing like "real" pizza from a pizza place, but, the price is remarkable, and there is nothing wrong with it, for its style of pizza.

Cheese Pizza. $9.95.

First up, basic cheese pizza.  A very large one at that (18").  Cut into 12 uneven slices.

This is, well, Costco cheese pizza.  It reminded me of my memories of Little Caesars, although it has been a very long time since I've had that.  Or Dominos, Papa John's, or the like.  But again, been many years since I've had those kind of pizza.

Puffy crust with a decent chew.  Soft, bready style, but it wasn't bad.  I actually kinda liked the crust edges, as they had cheese on them too, and it was kinda like getting cheesy breadsticks (or Crazy Bread, in Little Caesar's terms) and pizza all in one, although I did want some ranch or blue cheese to dunk them into too.

Sweet and lightly tangy sauce, slight acidity, plenty of it.  Standard mozzarella cheese, plenty of it too, well distributed.  Light burning of the cheese on top that wasn't a problem.

The kind of pizza you generally want to eat cold.  No frills, but nothing wrong with it either.  ***.

The fact that it is only $9.99 for such a big pizza really is mind-boggling.  I see why people get it for events.

Pepperoni Pizza.

Next up, add pepperoni.  Same price (!).

The foundation of this is the same, although I think it has slightly less cheese (if you look at the nutrition info, the pepperoni pizza is lower calorie than the cheese, which implies it must have less cheese?).  But otherwise, same pizza.

The pepperoni is basic no frills pepperoni, large slice pieces that were well distributed.  Not "cupping" pepperoni, and lacking any char, but, basic pepperoni, no more, no less.  Slightly more interesting than the cheese pizza.  ***.

Sweets

Milk Chocolate Crepes.

"Kirkland Signature™ Crepes are delicious biscuits from the Brittany region of France.  These crispy delights are a combination of a traditional Crepe Dentelle and fine Belgian milk chocolate.  This recipe has remained unchanged for more than a century and has gained devotees all over the world. 

They can be enjoyed alone or as an accompaniment to your favorite coffee, tea, or ice cream or great idea for a gift."

The holiday season is always a wonderful time for me to try all sorts of new products, as everyone brings their rejects into the office.  One man's trash is another food blogger's treasure, right?

These holiday decorated boxes came from Costco, filled with "milk chocolate crepes", a rather unique, but tasty, item.

Milk Chocolate Crepe.

Inside the box was rows of the "crepes", thin, super crispy cookie wafers, enrobed in mediocre milk chocolate.

This doesn't sound like a recipe for success, but, I really liked them.  Partially I think I liked the element of surprise, I wasn't expecting the whispy cookies inside.  The chocolate wasn't *good* chocolate, and it was sweet rather than actually complex, but again, it worked.

I enjoyed these, I love how crispy they are.

****.