Costco’s pre-made meals are usually super convenient, but this Kirkland Signature Ginger Beef Stir Fry had a couple more steps than I was expecting! You have to pre-cook your beef and soak your noodles before you stir-fry it all together. Is it worth the extra effort? Read on to find out!
Other pre-made meals from Costco are the Kirkland Signature Chicken Chow Mein, Kirkland Signature Beef Tenderloin Chow Mein, Kirkland Signature Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes, Kirkland Signature Yakisoba Stir-Fry, Kirkland Signature Chicken Quesadillas, Kirkland Signature Enchilada Bake, Kirkland Signature Chicken Tacos and the Kirkland Signature Chicken Pot Pie.
Location in Store
You can find this in the pre-made meal section at Costco. The item number is 22465.
Taste
The stir fry has a nice strong ginger flavor, but I didn’t see ginger on the ingredients list, so I guess it’s not a real ginger flavor! Definitely a little odd. The stir fry also has a moderate amount of heat to it – maybe enough to turn off sensitive mouths, but I enjoyed it.
I have two main complaints about this stir fry. One is that it’s very noodle-heavy. There’s a reasonable amount of meat, but after cooking it, the vegetables were kind of non-existent.
The second problem is the meat. The beef is very tough and gristly. I wouldn’t say there were any really good pieces, but some were definitely worse than others. I cooked my beef for 15 minutes in the oven, but kind of wished I’d done it in the air fryer as it probably would have been better if it were crispier.
Overall the stir fry is edible, but it’s not very convenient, the noodles make it quite heavy and the star (ginger beef) is too low-quality to be good. It’s too bad because the flavors are enjoyable enough.
Cost
The cost is dependent on the weight of the tray. It costs $13.99 Canadian per kilogram. My tray cost $22.66. After trying the ginger beef I think that’s totally overpriced. I’d rather pay a bit more for takeout.
Convenience
I soaked the noodles for about half an hour in cold water but they didn’t seem to be loosening up. I switched to warm water and that worked better so I recommend doing that.
This isn’t really that convenient of a pre-made meal. You have to soak the noodles, cook the beef then throw everything together.
The ginger beef stir-fry has a best before date that’s three days from when it was purchased and it needs to stay refrigerated until it’s made.
If this tasted better it could have made a nice main to have with some appetizers or sides like the Bibigo Steamed Dumplings or Minh Egg Rolls.
Nutrition
Calories
One-seventh of a container contains 410 calories, 13 grams of fat, 60 grams of carbohydrates, three grams of fibre, 14 grams of sugar, 16 grams of protein and 820 milligrams of sodium.
That’s quite a bit of sodium and carbohydrates! I think the average adult would eat more than a seventh of the container as well.
Ingredients
The ingredients list is very long with a few ingredients I don’t love seeing like sugar and vegetable oil. One thing that had both my husband and I scratching our heads is how we don’t see any actual ginger listed on the ingredients but the dish has a noticeable ginger flavor.
The ginger beef stir-fry contains wheat, sulfites, soya, anchovy and sesame. It may contain milk, egg, other fish, molluscs, crustaceans, tree nuts, peanuts and mustard. Also the beef in the dish has been previously frozen.
Scoring
Taste: 3/10
Cost: 6/10
Convenience: 5/10
Nutrition: 2/10
Overall
Walk on by!
I wouldn’t repurchase this and am disappointed in the quality of the beef. I shared this dish with my laid-back, like-everything parents and they didn’t like it all. They found the beef tough, gristly and mushy just like we did.
Have you tried the Kirkland Signature Ginger Beef Stir-Fry? What did you think of it? Drop a comment below!
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
This turned out great for me! Only because I read these comments before I cooked it.
Here is what I did:
1) Started soaking the noodles as the first step. I used warmish tap water and soaked them until they fell apart (about 30 minutes).
2) While the noodles were soaking I sliced the beef into slim strips.
3) I added an extral bell pepper I had in the fridge.
4) I used the air fryer to cook the beef.
Other than the above, I followed the package directons.
Make sure the beef cooks long enough so it is extra crispy. Mine was about 13 minutes.
Really enjoyed it, and will buy it again.
Where do you get the nutrition info from? Could you share the link? been looking everywhere online. Interested in more macro info
Hi Mel. I get it directly from Costco.
I got half way through cooking mine only to realize that there was no sauce provided in the package! Thankfully I had a bottle of teriyaki in the cupboard to save the meal, but definitely was not impressed at all. Having to provide my own sauce certainly cut the $7 savings down to about $1.
There is no way that a seventh of a trey is 410 calories. Where did you find that info?
Costco directly.
Any idea of the saturated fat?
Very accurate review! This Ginger Beef Dinner was Terrible, with a capital “T”. We would never buy this item again. Even with the $7.00 off sale price, not worth it. A definite Oner!
I find those beef pieces to be way too big so I cut them into thin strips before cooking in the air fryer and thought they came out pretty good! I didn’t notice a toughness but I think I would if I had left them whole.
You totally hit the nail on the head. Really really disappointing dish from Costco. I was happy only that I didn’t pay full price for it, and will never purchase it again. Makes me very timid to purchase other ready to heat and serve beef dishes from Costco.
We love the ginger beef! It is a bit more to put together, and we did cook the beef in the air fryer first, but well worth it! Our beef was fine, and I definitely wouldn’t have repurchased if we just had grisly bits. I agree that the veggies are pretty non existent, which I learned the first time, so I cut some extra peppers into it the second time we had it. There is some heat, but we didn’t find it overwhelming.
You hit this dead on. All of our thoughts exactly! Was it meat or just gristle? Not Costco’s usual quality product. Very disappointing.
Just tried this and I agree, not a great purchase. The worst part was the beef. I normally love ginger beef, but his was so so tough. I wanted to salvage what I could so I tossed most of the beef, and kept the rest which did taste decent. Waste of $23. As well, there are 3 noodle squares included. Found that to be too much. Used 2 squares only. Also, I didn’t taste a strong ginger flavour, and for me there was zero heat.