14 Of The Most Expensive Pre-Made Foods At Costco

With 838 stores across the world, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the U.S., trailing only Walmart and Amazon. That's some pretty lofty company. That shouldn't be surprising because the discount chain offers competitive prices on all kinds of items, and you can buy in bulk. You do have to be a Costco member to shop there, but the store rewards loyalty, and this approach has been a major contributor to its success.

Among the many things the wholesaler offers are groceries. Who couldn't use some savings in that area these days? With a chest freezer and a good-sized pantry, stocking up is a great way to reduce grocery bills. However, tariffs are impacting Costco prices. Costco has plenty of pre-made foods that are tasty and don't involve extensive cooking. Many are low-priced, but some are quite expensive — although out of fairness, they are generally upscale quality items. Here are the 14 most expensive pre-made foods that you can find at Costco.

A tasty smoked brisket is a wonderfully flavorful protein that suits many occasions. Serve it with some potatoes and vegetables, or use it to make delicious sandwiches. Smoking and cooking it can be a hassle, though, so you may look for a pre-made version. Costco's Kirkland Signature burnt ends sell for around $18.27 per pound. With an average package size of about 1 ½ pounds, you're looking at around $29 per package.

That is a pricey piece of meat, but it doesn't contain chemical ingredients — just the brisket, water, salt, brown sugar, sugar, maple syrup, coffee, white pepper, onion powder, black pepper, modified rice starch, garlic powder, yeast extracts, citrus extracts, and dried vinegar. It's fully cooked, so you just heat it up and add the sauce of your choice. Reddit shows mixed reviews, but it seems enough people like this brisket to make it worth a try. One poster even offered a recipe, although that does tend to negate the heat-and-serve convenience.

Should you not find that this item lives up to its price, Costco does have a refund policy that allows you to get your money back. So really, trying this brisket is almost risk-free. 

Smoked salmon is not cheap, especially if it's of good quality, but it is versatile, healthy, and delicious. The classic salmon on a bagel with a schmear of cream cheese, red onions, and capers alone makes it a worthy ingredient. You can also serve it with eggs, use it in a pasta dish, make a pâté, or put together a party plate with crackers. Loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, which are beneficial for heart and brain health, salmon is good for you as well. 

Costco has a double package of smoked salmon, each containing 12 ounces of the tasty fish. At around $29.34, it's expensive, but still a competitive price for a high-end food item. The salmon is raised in Norwegian fish farms, long-smoked, and comes pre-sliced and ready to eat. 

The product seems well-regarded. A reviewer on the Cruising Costco site said, "The lox is sliced relatively thinly, eliminating the gummy texture of more thickly cut varieties [...] It has a smoky and salty flavor but is not overwhelmingly strong." Despite the price, it's definitely worth a try if you are a fan of smoked salmon. It would be great for entertaining, just like Costco's party platter that outshines spreads from fancy places.

Salmon is an excellent choice of protein for an elevated meal, with all the health benefits of the smoked variety. There are many ways to prepare it, and one is a salmon with pesto butter, which may sound like a tricky dish to prepare — but Costco has its Kirkland Signature Salmon Milano that comes with a ready-made savory basil pesto butter. It comes in a disposable aluminum pan that you can just pop in the oven to bake and serve.

As you might expect, a prepared food of this caliber is on the pricey side. It costs $17.40 per pound, and the average package weighs about 2 pounds for a total cost of around $31. Customers seem to enjoy it, with one Redditor saying, "Bakes in about 30 minutes. $28, just a few dollars more than if I prepared it myself." Other comments agreed, stating that their families enjoy the meal, and several recommended serving it with rice. It's expensive, but it seems you get value for the money with this item.

Brisket is one of those delicious meats that you might expect Costco to have more than one brand of, and you'd be right. The Mission Hill Bistro smoked sliced beef brisket is priced around $16.16 per pound, and the average 2-pound package will cost about $31. It's pricey, but it is brisket, and it is USDA choice with no preservatives – along with the beef and water are dextrose and several different seasonings, mainly from vegetable powders.

The brisket is sliced and already cooked, so you can just heat it in a microwave or oven. You can also pan-sear it for a nice crust. Serve it with vegetable sides or make delicious, smoky sandwiches. After microwaving it, one reviewer says in a YouTube video, "Smoky, meaty ..." and his young daughter also enjoyed it. He then tried it pan-seared but felt the extra cooking was unnecessary. That makes this item pretty convenient. Despite the high price, this appears to be a good option for brisket fans.

Sirloin is a fine cut of beef, and Costco's Cuisine Solutions sliced grass-fed sirloin is available ready to eat. It sells for around $16.16 per pound, and packages average 2 pounds for a cost of $32. Although research has not shown that grass-fed beef is healthier, it does tend to have less fat and fewer calories than grain-fed meat. This beef has no preservatives, just sirloin, salt, and pepper. It's fully cooked sous vide — a great way to cook thicker steaks — and sliced, and comes ready to be heated and made the protein component of a tasty sandwich or salad.

You can freeze the beef for up to 18 months and heat it in a water bath, microwave, or convection oven. Shoppers approve, as one Redditor said, "I liked it and was surprised at the amount of beef you get." Another commented, "It is excellent both for its quality and convenience." Other people comment that they use the product to make steak quesadillas and steak tacos. If you can spend a few extra bucks, this seems like a good item to buy.

Short ribs are a delicious meat that can make your mouth water, but it takes a lot of cooking time to get them tender. Using a low and slow method, it can easily take 4 or 5 hours. If you want a meal with this tasty protein, but not the extended cook, Costco has the answer: the Ruprecht fully-cooked braised beef short rib. 

The ribs are USDA Choice Beef, seasoned, and braised for 12 hours in a sesame BBQ sauce, making them flavorful and very tender. The cost is $11.18 per pound, and the average package is about 3 ½ pounds and will run you about $40. According to the packaging, these ribs are restaurant-quality.

A thread on Reddit has many expressing praise, with one commenter stating, "These are a winner in my house, and my 9-year-old often asks for THIRDS. This from a kid who rarely likes anything. I buy them every time I see them." Another Redditor uses the short ribs to make a delicious galbijjim, a slow-braised Korean dish. So, despite the high price, this appears to be another Costco item worth trying.

Dungeness crab is a Pacific Ocean crustacean with a sweet flavor that is craved by seafood lovers. Expensive? You betcha. It generally sells for $20 to $30 per pound live, and more if it's freshly picked. Dungeness yields a higher percentage of meat than most other crabs. If you'd like to pick up some of this delicious seafood, Costco to the rescue once again with a ready-cooked version.

The wholesaler has Kirkland Signature wild whole cook Dungeness crab that sells for a reasonable $17.40 per pound. With an average package size of around 3 pounds, you're looking at about $50. While that's a large sum, it's a good price for Dungeness. The crab has been previously frozen, and although you can refreeze seafood, it is not recommended as the quality suffers. The crab is cooked, and the best way to heat it is by steaming. In just a few minutes, you'll have a delicious protein you can serve with herbs and lemon. 

Folks on Reddit have debated whether it's better to buy the whole crab or just the legs that Costco also has. One Redditor said, "The flavor of the meat inside is far superior to just the claws." Either way, you can save money by picking up Costco's Dungeness crab. 

The make-your-own-pizza was one of Cosmo Kramer's many ideas on the hit sitcom, "Seinfeld." That may have been fiction, but, of course, you can make your own pizza at home. Making a crust, cooking a sauce, and assembling and baking a pie can be time-consuming. But Costco sells a Borgo de Medici truffle pizza kit. At $29.99, it's on the high-priced side for a pizza kit, but you can easily spend that much at your local pizzeria for a large pie with a couple of toppings. This is not, strictly speaking, a pr-made food as it does require some actual cooking, but it does make it easier to make your own pizzas at home.

The kit gives you the full pizza experience. You make your own dough from the included flour. It comes with a black truffle and tomato sauce, a black truffle sauce, and black truffle-flavored dipping sauce, so you get plenty of truffle. The ingredients are imported from Italy, and the kit even includes a pizza cutter.

This item has a rating of 4.5 stars based on over 85 reviews on the Costco website. Although most customers really liked it, some complained about having to make the crust yourself and the fact that yeast is not included. If you're up to the challenge of making a pizza from scratch, this is a pretty good deal.

Tex-Mex cuisine is popular for good reasons: Fresh flavors and some heat make for a good meal. Tamales are a favorite in the U.S., but the filled corn husks do take a fair amount of effort to prepare — unless, of course, you opt for Costco's Texas Tamale Co. hatch chile tamales. The six-pack is expensive at $99.99, but you get a dozen tamales in each package, and they are fully cooked, so you just have to heat them up. Costco's Texas tamales are not the same as Mexican ones in terms of ingredients. They're also smaller, so you may be glad you get so many in a pack.

The Hatch green chiles are mild, so they are great if you don't like excessive spice. If you enjoy a high level of heat, you can always add some Tabasco or other hot sauce. The corn husks are authentic, and the tamales have a perfect 50/50 ratio of masa to filling. 

This is a great option for entertaining, as you can feed up to 20 people, so these tamales seem to be a good buy. If you need an appetizer to serve with them, look for the subtly spicy Costco meatballs customers like for the holidays.

You may sometimes want a convenient pizza from home, but don't want to go through all the hassle of making dough, assembling the pie, and baking it. Instead, take a look at Costco's Pizzeria De Luna authentic Italian stone-fired pizza pack. It's pricey for sure at $99.99 for six pizzas, but you do get a nice assortment with two cheese, two pepperoni, and one each of meat amore and mushroom mascarpone. 

Each pizza is hand-stretched with a thin Neapolitan-style crust, and is 12 inches in diameter. Finished with fresh rosemary and oregano, they have an herbaceous flavor. They're stone-fired and par-baked for a perfectly crispy crust. You just pop them in a standard or convection oven, frozen, and in minutes, you get a delicious pizza. 

The product seems to be a hit. Some reviewers appreciate the slightly spicier pepperoni compared to other frozen pizzas, while one reviewer on the Costco website said "wow they are hands-down the best I've had since my trip to Italy." A hundred bucks is a lot to spend, but these pizzas seem to be worth their cost.

If you like Asian cuisine, you should try Xiao Long Bao soup dumplings if you haven't already. Invented in Shanghai in the 19th century by accident, these tasty treats reverse the standard soup and dumplings by having the soup inside. You can get them at a good restaurant, but making them at home is not easy. However, you can stop by your local Costco and, for $99.99, pick up a variety pack of Mila soup dumplings. 

A c-note is quite a sum, but you get a bag of beef pho flavored, one pork flavored, and one shrimp and pork flavored. Each of the three bags contains 50 dumplings, so they're around 66 cents per dumpling. When you break it down like that, it's actually a good deal.

Cooking is easy, as you just take them out of the freezer and steam them. The dumplings are made with high-protein flour, locally-sourced beef, and chicken and pork broth, seasoned with rice wine. On the company's website, the dumplings have a 4.6-star rating, and one reviewer said, "... have eaten XLB all over the world. Best at-home option by a long shot." The initial outlay of cash may be high, but you'll have plenty of delicious dumplings for family and guests.

Empanadas are a great snack, appetizer, or light meal. The crunchy pastry shell combines with the softer texture and flavors of the beef, chicken, cheese, or other fillings for a delicious hand food. They are often considered a food that is time-consuming to prepare, but Costco has yet another product to help. The Nuchas empanada veggie combo comes with four boxes of six tasty treats each. You get one box of portobello, spinach, and mozzarella, one of spicy cheese, one of vegan pinto bean, and one of shiitake curry for $119.99. 

We are now over the hundred-dollar mark, but this brand, which appeared on "Shark Tank," uses premium ingredients. The empanadas are baked, which makes them lighter and less greasy than the deep-fried kind. Nuchas is also one of the Costco grocery finds that are made in the U.S. 

The empanadas are sold frozen and are heated easily in a 375-degrees Fahrenheit oven in under 20 minutes. They will last up to a year in the freezer, so they are a good item for stocking up. Pricey though they are, they do seem to provide value.

If you're a fan of deep-dish pizza, thanks to Costco, you don't have to travel to the Windy City to get some. For $124.99, you can pick up a 12-pack of Giordano's Chicago frozen single-serve deep-dish pizza. That's as big a mouthful as a slice. 

The pack comes with four each of cheese, pepperoni, and sausage. These 6-inch frozen pizzas are perfect for one person or for two to split if you're not that hungry. Giordano's is an American company that makes its dough in-house, and these pizzas are made by skilled chefs in Chicago. You can't get more authentic than that. 

The company website shows rave reviews with one customer commenting, "These personal pizza-sized pizzas are the best on the go!! I certainly recommend them for your children. Although I am a senior, I love them." These are some pretty expensive pizzas, but if you like the Chicago style, they seem to be worth every penny.

We have reached the pinnacle: The highest-priced premade food item available at Costco at the time of publication. This one is an entire meal. Rastelli's black angus beef tenderloin roast meal costs between $159.99 and $199.99. Included with the meat are two gourmet sides (2 pounds of au gratin potatoes and 2 pounds of creamed spinach) for 8 pounds of food that can feed six. 

The meal is uncooked, but the tenderloin is seasoned and comes in a sealed bag. Everything is ready to pop into the oven for an easy-to-make gourmet-style meal. Complete instructions are included.

Although this is the item with the highest price, it comes to about $27 to $33 per person. You'd easily pay much more than that at a high-end restaurant, and you don't have to leave home to enjoy this meal. A reviewer on the Costco website gushed, "The meat was perfectly cooked as long as you followed directions. So tender, you almost didn't need a knife to cut it." Another happy Costco member said, "Fabulously delicious, convenient, and a great value." Seems we have another product that lives up to its price.