If you’ve ever wondered whether Costcos across the globe offer the company’s famed hot dog and soda like its U.S. food courts, go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief. The combo is available abroad. However, the menus are not uniform, which means delightful surprises await at international locations, including at least three items in Mexico that you can’t regularly find in American Costco cafeterias.
For starters, the quarter-pound franks south of the border have more garnish options. Most notable are the hand-cranked jalapeño dispensers, which Costco customers use to give their hot dogs a mild kick. The stores in Mexico also seem to provide pumps not just for ketchup and mustard — typically the only two sauces stocked at U.S. Costcos — but also mayonnaise.
Fruit smoothies have been a Costco food court staple for years. In the U.S, they are made with a medley of real berries (such as strawberry, blackberry, and açaí). But in Mexico there is also a mango option. The flavor made a brief appearance at U.S. warehouse stores in 2023 to mixed reviews, with a number of Reddit users criticizing its strange brown hue. Whatever they’re doing in Mexico, however, has resulted in a smoothie that’s a cheery shade of marigold. YouTuber Mike Chen tried it on an episode of his review show, “Strictly Dumpling,” and it apparently tastes like a fresh mango.
Peeling back the layers
Card-carrying members of the chain may recall that Costco’s U.S. condiment stations used to also have hand-crank dispensers. They weren’t shooting out jalapeños, but rather rained confetti shards of onion. Those quietly disappeared during the pandemic, however, some Reddit users have hailed the return of alliums in some locations over the last two years, while Business Insider reported that small plastic cups of diced onions would be available upon request starting in 2023, so it appears as though the all-you-can-eat onion supply has come to an end in the States.
Various sandwiches have come and gone from the food court lineup over the years. There was a popular barbecue beef brisket option, now gone. Oven-browned slices of turkey were once layered with provolone on a toasted roll — it, too, was discontinued. In Mexico, you can find a somewhat similar cold version of the latter, but as it turns out it’s not unique to that country. The sandwich is the same as the American turkey and Swiss erupting with a tomato spread, which was one of our least favorite Costco cafeteria dishes in a comprehensive ranking. But the good thing about the company’s food court menu is that it’s not immune from change — save for that rock-bottom price on the hot dog and soda.
