🍕 Costco Deli: Menu
Deli and Salads: Menu, Prices, and What’s the Difference?
If you have searched for “deli” hoping to learn about the food court, you are not alone. It is helpful to understand that the deli section and the quick-service dining area are two separate parts of the store. In this Deli & Salads guide, we explain exactly what each one offers, explore the Caesar salad selections in detail, and help you understand where to go depending on what you’re looking for. Whether you’re interested in ready-to-eat deli meals or fresh salad options, this guide covers everything you need to know.
Rotisserie
Caesar Salad
Caesar Salad Kit
Deli & Salad Menu (Quick Reference)
| Item | Where to Find It | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad | Food Court | $6.99 |
| Rotisserie Chicken Chef Salad | Food Court (select locations) | $6.99–$7.99 |
| Whole Rotisserie Chicken | Deli/Prepared Foods Department | $4.99 |
| Kirkland Signature Caesar Salad Kit | Deli/Prepared Foods Department | ~$13 (feeds 3–4) |
| Party Platters, Pre-Made Meals | Deli/Prepared Foods Department | Varies |
Whole Rotisserie Chicken
$4.99, from the deli, not the food court
Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad
$6.99, from the food court counter
Caesar Salad Kit
$13, deli department, makes about 4 salads at home
What Is the Deli?
This is the single most important thing to understand if you have landed on this page searching for a deli. The deli, sometimes called the prepared foods department, is a separate section of the store from the quick-service dining area. It is not a counter you order from on your way out the door. Instead, it is a section of aisles and refrigerated cases inside the store where you shop for pre-made food to take home, the same way you would shop for any other grocery item.
The deli menu in this department includes things like whole rotisserie chickens, large pre-made Caesar salad kits, party platters, mac and cheese, meatloaf, prepared soups, and a wide range of deli meats and cheeses sold by the pound. These are items you pick up while shopping with your cart, pay for at the regular checkout, and either eat right away or take home to prepare.
This is very different from the food court, which is the walk-up counter near the entrance or exit where you order items like pizza, hot dogs, and the chicken bake to eat immediately, usually without needing a cart at all.
Why the Confusion Happens
A lot of the confusion between the deli and the food court comes from the fact that some food court items, like the newer cold sandwiches, are deli-style in format, even though they come from the food court counter rather than the deli department itself. Shoppers searching for deli options are sometimes looking for one of these food court sandwiches, while others are genuinely asking about the prepared foods department and its rotisserie chicken, party platters, and grab-and-go meals.
If you are looking for a quick bite to eat right now while shopping, you want the food court. If you are looking for food to take home and serve later, you want the deli or prepared foods department.
What’s in the Deli (Prepared Foods Department)
The deli department’s lineup can vary by location, but here are some of the most commonly available items:
The rotisserie chicken is by far the most famous deli item, priced at $4.99 for a roughly three-pound bird, including the bones. It is cooked continuously throughout the day, and many locations ring a bell or use a similar signal whenever a fresh batch comes out.
The Caesar salad kit, sold under the Kirkland Signature label, comes as a large, separated kit with romaine lettuce, dressing, parmesan, and croutons packaged individually to stay fresh. It typically costs around $13 and can make three to four full salads, making it a popular choice for shoppers who want to combine it with a rotisserie chicken for a quick homemade Caesar salad with chicken.
Party platters and pre-made meals round out the deli department, including options like meatloaf with mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and a rotating selection of soups, all designed for convenience rather than immediate, walk-up eating.
If you specifically want deli prices for any of these items, expect rotisserie chicken to remain one of the best deals in the entire store at $4.99, while party platters and larger pre-made meals vary more widely in price depending on size and ingredients.
More Deli Department Staples
Beyond the rotisserie chicken and the Caesar salad kit, the deli department generally carries a rotating lineup of additional prepared items worth knowing about. A tray of mac and cheese, often made with a creamy alfredo-style base, is a common pick for families looking for an easy side dish or main course. A meatloaf with mashed potatoes tray offers a heartier, homestyle option that requires little more than reheating in the oven. Prepared soups also rotate seasonally, with heartier options appearing more often in colder months.
Deli meats and cheeses sold by the pound round out the department, covering classics like turkey, ham, roast beef, and salami, along with a selection of sliced and block cheeses. These are popular for shoppers building their own sandwiches at home or putting together a party platter from scratch rather than buying a pre-made one.
Party platters themselves are a major draw for shoppers hosting gatherings, with pre-made trays covering vegetables, fruit, cheese and crackers, or a mix of deli meats, all sized for a crowd and priced well below what a comparable platter would cost from a dedicated catering service. Many of these can be ordered ahead of time at the deli counter for a specific pickup date, which is especially useful around holidays when demand is high.
Salad Options
Now let’s turn to the actual Costco Food Court, where the salad options are more limited but still popular, especially for shoppers looking for something lighter than pizza or a Chicken Bake. If you’d like to explore everything the food court has to offer, check out our Costco Food Court: The Complete Guide. For calorie counts, ingredients, and healthier choices, visit our Nutrition & Calories guide. If you’re deciding between a salad and one of most popular hot meals, don’t miss our Chicken Bake & Sandwiches guide for prices, nutrition facts, and menu details.
What’s in a Costco Food Court Caesar Salad?
If you are wondering what’s actually in the Caesar salad at the food court, the typical ingredient list includes romaine lettuce, rotisserie chicken breast and thigh meat, shredded parmesan cheese, croutons, and a packet of Caesar dressing served on the side so you can control how much you use.
The portion size is generous, often weighing in around 20 ounces once the dressing and croutons are included, which is large enough that many shoppers split it into two separate meals or share it between two people.
Rotisserie Chicken Chef Salad
Some locations have also introduced a Rotisserie Chicken Chef Salad, a heartier option that adds cherry tomatoes, crumbled bacon, a hard-boiled egg, and shredded cheddar cheese to the same romaine and rotisserie chicken base, served with a peppercorn ranch dressing instead of Caesar. This item is newer and not yet available at every location, with pricing generally falling between $6.99 and $7.99 depending on the warehouse.
The Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad
The main salad option available in the quick-service dining area is the Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad, priced at $6.99. This represents a notable recent update. Previously known simply as the “Caesar Salad,” the item was priced at $3.99 and featured grilled chicken breast strips. In 2025, the salad was renamed and updated to include rotisserie chicken from the prepared foods section, along with a new price of $6.99.
This price increase did not go unnoticed. Many longtime shoppers expressed frustration online when the new pricing and rotisserie chicken upgrade rolled out, with some feeling the near-doubling in price was a steep jump for a salad, even with the upgraded chicken. Others felt the bigger portion and the switch to rotisserie chicken justified the new price. Either way, it remains one of the pricier individual items on the entire food court menu, second only to the sandwiches at the same $6.99 price point.
The Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad in Depth
Since this is the most searched salad option among the available selections, it is worth exploring in more detail.
Nutrition Snapshot
This is an area where it helps to clear up some confusion. When people search for protein bars or protein shakes, they are usually not looking for items sold at the quick-service counter. The counter offerings do not include protein bars or ready-made protein shakes.
Instead, these products are available in the regular grocery aisles, separate from the quick-service dining area. The Kirkland Signature brand offers several protein bar varieties, typically providing around 10 to 22 grams of protein per bar depending on the type, along with protein powder sold in large containers for making shakes at home. These items are popular choices among shoppers, but they are grocery products purchased during a shopping trip rather than items ordered from the counter.
Is the Caesar Salad a Good Value?
This depends on what you are comparing it to. Against most sit-down or fast-casual restaurant salads, which often run $9 to $12 for a comparable chicken Caesar salad, the $6.99 version still comes out ahead on price and portion size. Against the rest of the food court menu, however, it is one of the more expensive individual items, more than three times the price of a hot dog combo and noticeably more than the chicken bake, while not necessarily providing more total food.
Some shoppers have pointed out a clever workaround: buying a whole rotisserie chicken for $4.99 from the deli department, along with a Caesar salad kit for around $13, can make three to four homemade salads, working out to a lower cost per serving than buying multiple food court salads, if you do not mind assembling it yourself rather than getting it ready-made.
A Look Back at the Price Change Reaction
When the salad’s price and recipe changed in 2025, the reaction among regular shoppers was strong enough to spread widely across social media. Many longtime customers were caught off guard by the jump from $3.99 to $6.99, especially since the increase happened all at once rather than gradually. Online discussions at the time captured a wide range of reactions, from shoppers who felt the upgraded rotisserie chicken justified the new price to others who felt the change priced the item out of being a casual, quick lunch option.
This type of reaction is not unique to the salad. Whenever the price or recipe of a long-standing item changes, it often creates noticeable discussion among the brand’s loyal customer base. Similar conversations happened when the chicken bake price increased from $2.99 to $3.99 and when the original Caesar Salad was introduced years ago at a lower price point.The reputation for keeping familiar favorites consistent means that even reasonable updates tend to attract more attention than they would at a typical restaurant chain.
Comparing the Two Salad Sources
If you search for salad food court or salads food court, it helps to know that you are really choosing between two different paths to the same general idea, a Caesar salad with rotisserie chicken.
The ready-to-eat option provides a fully assembled Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad for $6.99, making it ideal if you want a quick meal with no preparation required. The prepared foods option involves purchasing the chicken and salad kit separately and putting the meal together at home. However, this approach can offer better value when serving more than one or two people, as a single shopping trip can realistically provide three to four servings.
Neither path is wrong. If convenience and immediacy matter most, the food court version wins easily. If you are stocking up for the week or feeding a family, the deli route is generally the smarter financial choice, even with the extra step of putting it together yourself.
If you are specifically searching for rotisserie chicken salad, this refers to the same Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad discussed throughout this page. Rotisserie chicken is now the standard protein used in this Caesar salad following the 2025 update to the available selections.
A Note on Regional Pricing and Availability
Pricing on both the food court salad and deli items can vary somewhat depending on your region. The $6.99 figure for the chicken Caesar salad food court item reflects typical United States pricing as of 2026, though Canadian and other international locations may price it slightly differently due to currency and local cost differences. Similarly, the Rotisserie Chicken Chef Salad mentioned earlier in this guide has not rolled out to every warehouse yet, so it is worth checking your specific location’s menu board if you are hoping to try it.
Healthier Choices: What to Order
If you are specifically looking for lighter or more calorie-conscious choices, the salads discussed on this page are generally considered some of the better options available. However, the idea of being “healthy” is relative in a quick-service dining setting known for items like pizza and hot dogs.
The Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad, especially with the dressing reduced or served on the side, offers a solid amount of protein with fewer carbohydrates than most other menu items. The Rotisserie Chicken Chef Salad offers similar benefits but tends to run slightly higher in calories due to the added bacon, egg, and cheese.
Beyond the salads, the açaí bowl, where available, is generally considered the single lowest-calorie option on the entire menu, while the soft serve ice cream cup, eaten plain without sundae toppings, remains one of the lighter dessert choices.
For a complete comparison of every available item by calories, protein, and sodium, our dedicated nutrition guide provides a full breakdown of the options. This can be helpful if you are planning a lighter visit overall rather than focusing only on the prepared meals and salad choices covered here.
Ordering Deli Items Ahead for Events
If you are planning a party, office lunch, or family gathering, the prepared foods section is usually the better place to start, as many of its items are designed for advance ordering and serving larger groups.
Many warehouses allow you to fill out an order form at the deli counter, specifying a pickup date and time for items like party platters or larger quantities of rotisserie chicken. This is especially useful around busy periods like holidays, when same-day availability for fresh rotisserie chicken or pre-made platters can become limited due to high demand.
If you need a Caesar salad to serve a group, purchasing multiple rotisserie chickens along with several Caesar salad kits and assembling everything fresh before your event is usually much more cost-effective than buying multiple individual $6.99 salads. This method does require extra preparation, such as shredding the chicken and combining the ingredients, but it can significantly lower the overall cost per serving when feeding a larger group.
For smaller, last-minute gatherings, picking up a few whole pizzas and hot dog combos remains the quicker option. These items usually do not require advance ordering and can often be purchased the same day, especially when visiting outside of busy weekend hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Final Thoughts
The line between the Costco deli and the Costco food court trips up a lot of shoppers, but once you know the difference, both sections become much easier to navigate. Head to the deli department for take-home staples like the famous $4.99 rotisserie chicken and party-sized platters, and head to the food court counter for ready-to-eat items like the Rotisserie Chicken Caesar Salad, sandwiches, and the rest of the classic menu. Whichever one you are after, Costco continues to offer some of the best value in the entire grocery and fast food world for both.
If you want to explore more of what the Costco food court has to offer, including pricing and details on other popular items like the pizza, hot dog, and chicken bake, check out the other dedicated pages on our site linked throughout this guide.