Costco's Mission Hill Burnt Ends Are Getting Customer Praise

Costco might be one of the last places you'd look for some top-quality smoked meats. But this might change your mind: customers have recently been praising an item that seems to be an ingenious shortcut to some authentic Kansas City barbecue.

This highly-praised barbecue item is the Mission Hill Bistro Smoked Beef Brisket Burnt Ends, a refrigerated product that Costco sells in 1.5-pound packages. For those who aren't very familiar with the dish, burnt ends are intensely flavorful pieces of smoked meat trimmed from the fatty "point" end of a brisket. Mission Hill Bistro's take on this classic barbecue staple is already fully-cooked and comes with a packet of barbecue sauce on the side so customers can control how much they add.

Costco has been selling this Mission Hill Bistro product for years, but the burnt ends received a fresh wave of praise this week when a shopper admitted on Reddit that they were "really good" despite having very low expectations for them. That post has now received more than 130 comments from fellow shoppers, many of whom raved about the burnt ends or agreed that they were much better than anticipated.

I had incredibly low expectations for Mission Hill Burnt Ends but they're really good!
by u/RayTracingOn in Costco

"I thought they were surprisingly good for this sort of thing. I still prefer to smoke my own–but these make a quick dinner for us really easy and it is quite tasty," a customer commented.

"This product is good… Like too good! We get it once in a while as a treat," another said.

Though the Mission Hill Bistro product packaging directs customers to heat up the burnt ends in the microwave or on the stovetop, Costco members reported getting even tastier results by popping them in the air fryer or cooking them directly in the barbecue sauce.

Customers also offered several suggestions on the best ways to serve the burnt ends, including packing them onto a brioche bun for a barbecue sandwich and using them as a topper for baked potatoes and mac and cheese.

While prices for the burnt ends were not immediately available on the Costco website, a review of the item published last year stated that they cost $11.99 a pound. Assuming the price hasn't changed, a 1.5-pound package would come out to around $18.

This is only the latest Costco product to garner major hype from customers in recent months. Members have also recently raved about Costco's new Four Berry Pie, sweet and salty dark chocolate caramels, and frozen brown sugar ice milk bars speckled with boba.