We love shopping at Costco, especially when traveling. Recently, we visited several Costco food court Australia locations. We wanted to discover if there are any regional food court menu options and products in the store. While traveling, we always search for unique items not available in Texas. You just never know what you’ll find. I’ve already posted on our visits to Costco Canada, Costco France and Costco Honolulu. I’ll now add Costco Australia to our list. There are 15 stores here in Australia with more planned in near future.
Costco Canberra
The first Costco we visited is in Canberra. The first local product I noticed is a kangaroo shaped potato snack called Jumpy’s. This one is chicken flavored. Interesting. We also spotted Australian olive oil. Speaking of chicken, there’s chicken flavored salt too. I’m not sure what is going on with chicken flavoring. We find it in everything, from chips, crackers and biscuits to seasonings and even chicken salt mayo for your fries. I didn’t see it in ketchup, but may have just missed it.
Nice that they sell both hard liquor as well as beer and wine in the store in Australia. It’s just like in Louisiana, though not Texas. They also carry American vodka, though we thought it pricey. Current exchange rate is $1.5 Australian dollars to $1 US. I also thought it a good idea to keep the herbs and flowers cool in the refrigerator aisles.
They also had lots of great seafood and meat. The shrimp are huge. There are only 7 shrimp in this 3 pound pack. There are also local mussels, freshly shucked oysters and soft shell crabs. The soft shell crabs must be popular here. We see them often on the menu. We had them once and they are delicious.
The lamb is available in multiple different cuts. We usually only see chops and roasts at home. We also saw cases of meat pies. They are a favorite comfort food you see everywhere here. They also have a couple different pizzas from what we have at home. One is a peri-peri chicken and the other is BBQ meat lovers. These would sell really well at home.
Costco Food Court Canberra Australia
Besides the standard menu items we find in Texas, there are four items on the menu here that are unique. I’ve already mentioned the BBQ meat lovers pizza, but they also offer chicken tenders and fries. Of course there’s the ubiquitous Aussie steak pie and their hot dogs are all pork, not beef. I’ll bet these are the polish dogs they used to sell at home that are no longer available. We still miss those.
Costco Food Court Sydney (Crossroads) Australia
This Costco food court has the same menu items and local products as the one in Canberra. With the current exchange rate, it makes the hot dogs and soda about $1.30 US. The liquor and wine department is at the front of the store near the registers instead of in the back. I also noticed a sign that said liquor must be paid for in that area. So that’s different from our stores and even the other Australian locations. I guess things differ between the Australian states just like in the US.
Costco Food Court Melbourne (Docklands) Australia
This location is the first store to open in Australia in 2009. It’s in a beautiful and scenic location with great views. The store is upstairs with parking underneath. You’ll notice the large dining room windows behind us in the photo.The food court is packed today. But the dining room is huge compared to the states and what a view out the windows. I took the last two pictures from the dining room. One is of the Melbourne Star across the street. The other is the skyline.
Food Court Menu
The Costco food court Docklands has the same menu items as the others, with one exception. Here the chicken tenders and fries are replaced by a chicken burger with cheese. Sorry to say, you can’t have fries with your burger, as they aren’t offered at this location. So, there are some differences not only from what we have in Texas, but throughout Australia too.
Like the other stores, they do sell both wine and liquor. It’s located in the back of the store here unlike Sydney. Now for a few unique products we don’t have. There are two unique desserts: a biscoff cheesecake and Portuguese custard tarts (think crème brûlée in puff pastry…yum!). I had no idea what a Piel de Saco Australian melon is. When I looked it up it’s also called a Christmas or Santa Claus melon. Seems appropriate for the season.
The other unusual bakery item is the cheese and bacon pizza scrolls. Think of a pizza that is made like a cinnamon roll. Roll out the pizza dough, top with sauce, cheese and pizza toppings. Then roll, cut and bake. They look just like a cinnamon roll. I’ll bet they’re delicious. I buy a lot of salad from Costco in the plastic tubs. But the tubs here are 2.2 pounds! That’s a lot of salad greens.
They must love bacon!
I am surprised to see Louisiana Fried Chicken fillets. But, even more surprised to see so many options for bacon. There is fully cooked American bacon, American style turkey bacon and Canadian bacon. Then, there are types of bacon I’ve never seen before. These include rindless middle bacon, streaky bacon, maple streaky bacon and shortcut bacon. And wait for it…cracked pepper beef bacon made from 100% Australian beef. Hmm, I wonder if you overcook the beef bacon does it turn into jerky? 🤪
I’m sad to report that this store will permanently close in December 2024. I mentioned that this harbor area is now super trendy. The luxury apartments and upscale real estate here have increased prices 500% since Costco opened. It’s no longer affordable. However, they are building a new $110 million store to replace this one, about 20 minutes away. Costco Ardeer is on 15 acres with 760 parking spaces, 162,000 square feet of retail and 32 gas pumps. It’ll be Costco’s largest fuel station in Australia. I’m glad we had the chance to visit the Docklands store before it closes next month. But clearly we need to return, as there are more stores to discover in the “land down under”.
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