Apple pie filling underneath the ice cream is a small detail with a big payoff. Costco’s new Apple Pie Sundae puts fruit below the vanilla soft serve as well as on top, so the final spoonful doesn’t have to be plain.
Add pieces of pie crust and a reported price of $2.99 before tax, and you have a dessert that makes a convincing case for extending your food court stop. The idea is familiar, but the execution raises a few worthwhile questions.
Does the apple flavor hold its own against all that vanilla? Is the filling warm?
And can you actually find the sundae at your neighborhood warehouse? Early reviews offer useful answers, along with one recurring suggestion for improvement.
Before this seasonal treat joins your usual order, here’s what to know about its ingredients, portion, price, and the difference between an appealing menu photo and the dessert reviewers have actually tasted.
What’s in Costco’s New Apple Pie Sundae
Three ingredients define the dessert: vanilla soft serve, apple pie filling, and pieces of pie crust. It’s a short list, but the assembly gives each component a chance to show up beyond the surface.
In his October 15 review for MyNorthwest, KIRO Newsradio’s Charlie Harger described apple filling and crust at the bottom of the cup, followed by soft serve and another helping of both toppings. That layering matters.
A sundae with all its extras piled on top can become plain ice cream halfway through; fruit underneath gives the spoon somewhere interesting to go. Think of the result as pie à la mode rearranged for a cup.
With a conventional slice, the pastry holds the fruit together while the ice cream sits beside it or slowly slides down its edges. Here, the soft serve provides the main structure, with the pie components distributed around it.
You’re getting an assembled ice cream dessert rather than a neatly defined wedge of pastry. USA TODAY’s Julia Gomez described lightly cinnamon-flavored filling, recognizable apple pieces, and buttery crust.
Those details place the flavor firmly in familiar apple pie territory without suggesting an elaborate spice blend or an unexpected twist. The pastry is particularly important to the concept.
Apple filling alone would make this a fruit-topped sundae; crust gives it a more convincing connection to the dessert in its name. It also introduces something to chew alongside the soft serve and fruit.
One distinction deserves care: the reported ingredient descriptions don’t establish that employees are breaking up Costco bakery pies to make each serving. The verified description is apple pie filling and crust pieces layered with ice cream.
That combination supplies the familiar flavors without requiring a whole slice to make its way into the cup.
How Much It Costs and What You Get
At $2.99 before tax, the new sundae sits comfortably in the territory of an unplanned food court dessert. That figure has appeared in more than social media captions.
USA TODAY reported the same price during a visit to a Miami warehouse, and the Reno Gazette Journal confirmed it with the food court in Sparks, Nevada. Both publications noted that pricing can vary by location, so $2.99 is a useful reference rather than a guarantee for every warehouse.
The Kitchn’s October 25 review described a 12-ounce plastic cup, offering a clearer sense of the serving than a tightly cropped photograph. That measurement describes the cup’s capacity; it shouldn’t be treated as a verified weight of ice cream, apples, and pastry.
What you’re purchasing is one ready-to-eat dessert with its toppings included. The value depends partly on the occasion.
If you want apple pie and ice cream for a group, an individual sundae answers only a small part of that assignment. If you want those flavors for yourself after shopping, the format is convenient.
There’s no whole pie to carry home, no slicing, and no remaining dessert demanding refrigerator space. The comparison with Costco’s regular sundae is helpful, too.
PEOPLE’s October coverage showed the standard strawberry or chocolate version at $2.49, making the apple option a 50-cent upgrade where those prices apply. That additional change buys a different combination of ingredients, particularly the pastry pieces that distinguish it from a sauce-topped serving.
Whether that difference matters comes down to what you enjoy. Someone who mainly wants vanilla ice cream with chocolate may have little reason to switch.
Someone who considers crust half the pleasure of pie has a clearer incentive. The strongest price argument is simple: this is a single purchase that combines the fruit, pastry, and ice cream without requiring you to assemble dessert yourself.
What to Expect From the Flavor and Texture
Picture a spoonful that starts with soft serve, passes through apple filling, and catches a piece of crust before leaving the cup. That variety is the main attraction.
The dessert offers separate elements to discover rather than a completely blended apple-flavored ice cream. In her review for The Kitchn, grocery editor Ali Domrongchai found that vanilla led the flavor, with buttery pastry and apple filling bringing the pie character.
She described a sweet combination of jam-like fruit and crunchy crust. That balance is worth understanding before ordering.
The name might bring to mind a generous slice of apple pie with a modest scoop on top, but her assessment puts the ice cream in charge. For someone who always wants more vanilla alongside their pie, that could be exactly right.
Someone hoping for a fruit-heavy dessert may approach the same proportions differently. Other firsthand accounts help fill out the picture.
Harger praised the creamy base and cinnamon-spiced apple flavor in his Seattle-area review. Gomez’s USA TODAY report highlighted apple pieces that retained some crispness.
Together, those observations suggest more texture than you’d get from a plain sauce sundae, although they don’t promise identical topping distribution in every cup. Your spoon can influence the experience as well.
Leaving the layers relatively intact lets you alternate between fruit, pastry, and ice cream. Mixing them together should make the flavor more consistent, while reducing the separation between components.
There’s no need to turn lunch into a technique exercise, but it explains why the first bite may differ from one taken near the bottom. The safest expectation is a vanilla-forward dessert with apples and crust providing contrast.
Cinnamon supports the combination, while the pastry gives the spoon something more substantial to find. It sounds familiar because it is, and the interest comes from how those familiar ingredients meet.
Why Some Fans Wish the Apple Filling Were Warm
Temperature may be the detail that most clearly separates this sundae from the pie à la mode you’re imagining. Warm fruit against cold ice cream creates a particular effect: the scoop begins to soften where the two meet, and each bite carries that contrast.
Putting apples, pastry, and vanilla together doesn’t automatically recreate it. Domrongchai’s main suggestion in The Kitchn was to heat the filling.
She enjoyed the dessert as served but wanted the additional pleasure of warm apples alongside the frozen base. Delish’s October coverage also noted shopper suggestions involving warmer topping and caramel.
Those comments describe possible improvements, rather than verified modifications available through the ordering kiosk. It’s an understandable wish.
The word “pie” brings expectations of an oven, a warm plate, and ice cream beginning to melt around the edges. A dessert built around soft serve may deliver the flavor pairing while leaving that particular expectation unmet.
Warmer topping would change more than the initial sensation, though. It would also soften the ice cream where the ingredients meet, producing a looser mixture sooner.
For some people, that melting is the best part of the pairing. Others might prefer a serving that stays firmer while they eat.
The caramel suggestion raises a similar question of preference. Another topping could add flavor and sweetness, but the existing combination already includes sweetened fruit, pastry, and vanilla.
More isn’t automatically an improvement for every palate. What matters is knowing which experience appeals to you.
If warm apple filling is essential to your enjoyment of pie and ice cream, the early reviews identify a meaningful limitation. If you’re happy with those flavors in a predominantly cold dessert, the temperature may barely register as an issue.
The reviewers’ wish for heat is a specific observation about the serving, not a reason to dismiss the whole cup.
How It Compares With Costco’s Other Sundaes
Choosing between apple pie and chocolate is partly a matter of what kind of dessert you wanted before you reached the food court. The regular strawberry and chocolate sundaes keep the formula relatively straightforward: vanilla ice cream with a familiar topping.
Apple pie adds pastry, giving it a different texture as well as a different flavor. PEOPLE’s October reporting showed the traditional $2.49 sundae alongside the $2.99 seasonal option, so the new arrival doesn’t automatically mean the familiar choices have disappeared.
Costco’s other specialty sundaes provide useful context. Food & Wine covered the limited-time Caramel Churro Sundae earlier in 2026, another example of translating a recognizable dessert idea into an ice cream serving.
The apple version follows that general approach by bringing fruit and crust into the cup. For someone comparing fruit-based options, the pastry is the clearest point of difference.
Strawberry topping can satisfy a craving for fruit and vanilla without introducing a separate baked component. Apple pie offers more distinct pieces to work through, which may appeal if you enjoy a little variation between spoonfuls.
Local menus can also make the comparison more complicated than a simple seasonal swap. Food Court Lore documented photographs taken by Jacob Falk in Meridian, Idaho, on October 21 showing an apple pie selection alongside strawberry shortcake selections, with each pictured option priced at $2.99.
That establishes what appeared at one warehouse on one date, rather than a nationwide menu arrangement. It also shows why the arrival of a new flavor doesn’t prove that every location has immediately removed the previous one.
There’s no universal winner here. Chocolate, strawberry, and apples answer different cravings.
The apple sundae makes its strongest case when you want vanilla ice cream with something buttery and substantial mixed into the experience. Its appeal rests on the fruit-and-pastry combination, with the extra texture providing a practical reason to depart from your usual order.
What to Know About Availability Before You Go
In Sparks, Nevada, reporters received a clear answer. The Costco at 4810 Galleria Parkway confirmed to the Reno Gazette Journal on October 29 that its food court was serving the Apple Pie Sundae.
Nearby Reno remained unconfirmed because that warehouse hadn’t answered the publication’s calls before the story appeared. That distinction matters: an unanswered question doesn’t establish that a dessert is unavailable.
It simply leaves the local situation unresolved. Earlier in the month, Harger had found the sundae at the Shoreline Costco in the Seattle area.
Individual reports like these establish specific sightings and purchases, but they don’t create a reliable inventory for every warehouse. A photo from one city is useful evidence of the rollout, not proof of what’s on your neighborhood ordering screen.
The departure date is similarly uncertain. A Sparks food court employee told the Reno Gazette Journal that staff hadn’t been told how long the sundae would remain available.
Other employees in the western United States gave USA TODAY Network reporters estimates extending into November. Those comments provide some context, but they don’t amount to a confirmed nationwide removal date.
For shoppers planning around the dessert, there’s a meaningful difference between “seasonal” and “available until a specific day.” Current reporting supports the seasonal description without establishing one firm deadline. Checking directly with the warehouse is therefore more useful than assuming a post from last week still reflects its menu.
The local food court can clarify availability, and its ordering screen provides the relevant price. That’s especially helpful when the sundae would be the reason for a separate visit rather than a possible addition to an ordinary shopping trip.
As of late October 2026, the dessert has been documented in several locations, but its exact stay remains uncertain. The combination of apples, pastry, and vanilla is straightforward; the end date is still an open question.
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