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So. We've an Aldi opening near us soon. What items should a 2+2 family like us be considering? List please:
Olives stuffed with anchovies.
Beer
Last week had, Traquair Bear Ale and Border Brewery Foxy blonde
Easier to list what you shouldn't buy, as most stuff is good. Certainly all fruit, veg and meat can be bought with impunity.
Their instant coffee is v bad.
Cheese is ok but nothing special.
Don't go crazy with their cycling stuff just because you got an awesome pair of leg warmers for five quid. Some great value garments, but some shite as well.
Wine, salmon, cold cuts, tunnocks caramel wafers, beers, wotsit copies.
Waitrose for everything else of course.
Pesto is good, as is Aberdeen Angus fillet steak. Brioche rolls, line caught tuna, mayonnaise, toro loco merlot, chorizo slices, fish cakes, Pinot Grigio.
Love aldi.
The only items I (we really, family input) have had issues with from Aldi are their ketchup and coleslaw. Everything else is dirt cheap and top drawer.
Agree, the tomato ketchup is mingin.
the only thing I've now decided isn't that great or great value is their ground coffee packs. even the waitrose own brand is actually cheaper per gram or at least pretty much the same with more varieties and tastes better.
Keep you eyes peeled for very expensive spirits going cheap.
I did a quick shop in there today formsome barbeque stuff.
They have pizzas (decent ones) for £1.49!
Alcafe is fine for instant coffee ,their coffee beans are very good
Bratwurst!!!!!!!!!!
Pizza on a bbq? That's just wrong.
Been shopping at Aldi since waaaaay before it was acceptable. Agree about the ketchup, they've got work to do on that one.
Venison meatballs and steaks are absolutely delicious and very cheap! With regards to cheese, their Vintage Scottish cheddar cannot be beaten!
Oh and Toro Loco Tempranillo wine is a favourite. As is the ridiculously cheap Taurus cider. I could go on...
What's their veg like?
Magnum dishwasher tablets are excellent and a really good price.
Apparently the wagyu burgers are tasty.
The veg is good but selection sometimes limited so you learn to adapt.
Pizza on a bbq? That's just wrong.
Pizza done in a weber with the lid on, and a pizza stone is a joy.
Oh and their copycat magnum ice creams are really nice!
Maul, electric chainsaw, 1m long sds drill bits.
just some of the items I've bought while doing the shopping in Aldi 🙂
Salmon Wellington is decent, and the Beef ones aren't bad. Veg/Salad is cheaper than other supermarkets. Deecent beers and wine is better quality for the same price point.
Vegetable crisps
Estevez Cabernet Sauvignon Carmenére red wine.
Id rather do a list of stuff not to buy their, with exception from the specials. The only things I wont buy are the ketchup instant coffee and branded bread as there own is not only better but has less preservatives in it. But I am biased as I work for them.
Meatsters! - Pepperami style snack sausages, a strip of five individually pouched 25g servings is yours for £1.15. These are proper trucker zombie apocalypse nibbles, and despite being found in the chilled section they don't need refrigeration, they'll sit happily in your pack for months.
London Dry Gin
Use Aldi every week now, pretty much get everything from there except washing up liquid and washing liquid, these are still bought through Wilkinsons to keep the pennies spent down.
Ketchup and brown sauce is bit crap
Their Parmesan and cold meats are fantastic quality. Right up there with Ocado/Waitrose. I have yet to have a bad bottle of wine from them. Their steak is the best I know of from any source (even my local premium butcher can only match it).I have been a huge fan of Aldi quality and value for more than a decade.
The wild boar cured sausage and the Belgian waffles. We do 90% of our shopping there, it's all good with a few brilliant items
Edit: Re. the veg I know for a fact that in our region it comes off the same packing line as the rest of the supermarket stuff to the same spec
They recently spent a huge amount of money on Scottish microbeers,apparently they also sell food as well.
We've got one coming soon too - (might be the same one, Burpham, I can't remember where the OP lives but have a feeling it's nearby). Can't wait to see if it's as good as their French counterpart, L'Idl, where I'm a regular devotee (in Farnham, so fully recognize seeing the posh folks in there trying not to be seen. But they've got the registration number of your X5, madam, you've been rumbled!).
Virtually nothing is brands you recognize, but often a lot of it looks alarmingly similar (passing off, us?)
Their posh muesli / granola looks similar to that Dorset cereals stuff but a fraction of the price. Cold cuts and cheeses, if you buy their best stuff is all DoC controlled so has to meet the standards of the producer cartels (Roquefort is great as is their Parma ham). For a fast slam it in the oven meal the brisket / pulled pork / ribs 'ready meals' are worth a try for about £4 a shot.
But the killer is their ribeye steak. Two decent sized ribeyes for £6.50, and they taste superb. But don't tell anyone, last couple of times I've been in stocks seem to be getting low. Only downside is they are not a thick cut so getting charred on the outside for the flavour while still pink in the middle is a challenge. Solved with a plumbers blowtorch.
Im on London.
But quite a list! I thought this was going to be a smaller more selective list, but I can see us spending quite a bit there on out our first visit. We'd be using it as a top up but I can see some extras falling in the basket.
Mrs CJR and I combo Sainsburys with Aldi.
Aldi is great for the occasional specials. Good for cleaning products (always rated high in Which mag), veg (learning to read the use by date is a science), store cupboard. Cheese is limited if you like variety. We've saved about £20 a week doing a half and half shop.
Had some great wine from there too at less than £4.50.
Rock on
It's all about the beer here in East Lothian. Aldi is stocking about forty different Scottish real ales and lagers from all sorts of wee companies. Quite cheap and worth buying across the range for a summer beer tasting experiment.
Williams Brothers "Perfect Storm".....delicious IPA.
mikey74 - Member
What's their veg like?
It's as good as all the others, but limited to mostly the core veg. Some less core stuff ie parsnips can be a bit hit and miss on supply, it's one of the drawbacks I've found.
They have pizzas (decent ones) for £1.49!
They also have curry/rice ready meals for £1.45, which are great for taking to work
Their 21 day matured steaks are delicious even when prepared by my kack handed culinary buffoon-ness. I tried their Wagu burgers, and even though the % of Wagu beef is not as high as other premium supermarket versions they are still delicious. Their chicken in roasting bags are good too.
Their version of Mini-Cheddars are better than the originals. their version of Pringles not quite so. their version of the popular breakfast cereals are very good. just tried their premium tea bags which stand up favourably to my usual tipple (Twinings Everyday).
Not too impressed by their Yogurts - not horrible, but just not quite as good as the branded ones. Or their oven Pizza's and ready made curry cooking sauces - including their Thai sauces.
The Wine is very good and every now and again they do a run of proper decent wine at a very reasonable price, so keep your eyes peeled. A few months ago they were doing a run of one such properly decent wine about half the price it would normally cost. A few wine buffs at work were scouring the local Aldi's stocking up on it.
Food, booze and stuff. Crivit bike helmet - one didnt last too long (headband fatigued/snapped) the new commuter style one seems more robust with removable blinky. Also a great pair of Bresser binoculars which Mrs Rider loves to peeces, still going strong ten tears on.
All the snickers/milky way/mars minis copies are similarly addictive.
*edit*. Ooops I meant Lidl. Same/similar thing?
Ours opens in September so making notes.
peanut butter indistinguishable from sunpat
cream of tomato soup ditto to the heinz
chorizo
pepperoni
orange juice (lidl is nicer and cheaper but still different league to most stuff in tescos)
pancetta plain and smoked (makes a great carbonara)
tbh I make a full shopping list - go to Aldi first, then Asda.
Any brands etc I can't get from Aldi I get from Asda.
We live rural, so it is a 'trip'.
[i]Pizza done in a weber with the lid on, and a pizza stone is a joy.[/i]
No, we didn't BBQ the pizza! "Weber"? er, no - one of these:
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The Aldi instant cup soups (45p per four pack) aren't bad when you have a full range of varieties to choose from, rather than only a whole box full of tomato flavour. Their supplies can be a bit hit and miss in that regard so stock up while you can.
Their trail mix is great mixed with a bag of their brazil nuts
aldi has been a revelation for us this year, we started beginning of year, going from a 'full' shop at sainsburys, to aldi primarily, and sainsburys for the bits we can't get.
It's just msotly all good, only thing we're buying from Sainsburys now is dog food (fussy hound), and Tomato sauce!
Not mentioned here is frozen fish is excellent, salmon and tuna especially.
What was totally unexpected was I just love the no nonsense shopping experience. Saved me about 30 mins on a weekly shop, £50 a week (family of 4 incl alcohol), and we seem to get better quality goods.
Their ground coffee is not good. Watery and smaller packs work out no cheaper than quality brands in Waitrose. The veg is fair but doesn't seem to keep as well as Waitrose stuff and the bananas are [b]very [/b]expensive compared to Waitrose if trying to buy Fairtrade.
On the plus side they now do a great Wheat beer and their organic baby food fruit sachets are cheaper than energy gels and taste better too.
We've also moved over to getting most stuff from Aldi, then everything else from Morrisons down the road. Its great! All the meat is very good. The steaks are always top notch, and miles less than you pay in the other supermarkets. Chorizo and any cooked meats are bloody good as well. The joints of ham are outstanding value for £3 a pop
If you're having a barby then Aldi Bratwust should be the first thing on your list. They're bloody gorgeous! They're burgers are lovely too.
And the wine is outstanding. Try their Argentine Malbec. A personal favourite
the toro loco is a cracking midweek wine 🙂 and the NZ pinot noir is great with just about everything food (except a boeuf bourguignon which you would go for the argie malbec which is also very good)
Gavi is my go-to white
The bottles of st etienne lager that are 79p for a 500cl are surprisingly good (better than the stubbies which aren't that great tbh), I think they are discontining the line as it's not listed on the website
steinhauser is good, Schoffenhofer and the ales can't go wrong with Wainwright for 1.25!
very good port
very good london gin
whisky is a bit meh, the highland black is ok but not punchy enough for my taste, the glen marnoc isn't worth bothering with
I'm going to try the cognac sometime will report back 🙂
sausages are good, the ones in the white packs are fine, try the lamb joints from the freezer, great to have when there is nothing in
good parmesan (the air dried one) and the mozzarella is cracking. the moser roth 70% chocolate is nice for a treat (or the 85% if you prefer darker)
nappies are good
only thing I'm not a fan of is the pasta, it's a bit cheap
If fancying a summer drink treat we''ll buy lemons and a few bottles of sparkling water. Squeeze lemon juice into a chilled water - hey presto - a refreshing beverage!
- A good low-fat snack on the go is a fresh carrot. Just eat as is. Same goes with apples.
- I find toilet roll useful in any number of circumstances, especially the obvious.
- Some people like milk in their hot drinks. A container of fresh milk is useful to keep in the fridge. Or UHT for a long shelf life is useful for unnanounced guests.
- you can get bread either whole or sliced. Or those rolls for picnics etc. Add some sliced ham, or cheese and butter or spread - a 'sandwich' (like a portable meal)*
* Tin foil is often useful on any list.
Fresh burgers a must!!! Either the fancy ones or even the standard ones good
Fishcakes
the "raddler" beers
Olives
the steam microwave thai chicken curry
the speciality crisps
brioche buns/hotdog rolls
French/english mustard
the hotdogs in glass jars
the ready made mango chicken chilled salad
family sized fresh orange juice not from concentrate
pastrami sanwhich meat
smoked ham (yellow packet)
As well as the stuff already mentioned, they do their version of Soreen Malt Loaf, better than the original IMHO
The Berliner Kindl is a great beer, the Schofferhofer is a good wheat beer, even the cheapo french Brasserie is reasonably tasty for a few cold ones. Ever-changing ales are reasonably priced too. The chicken thigh fillets are good value, the chorizo ring, the Bratwurst, sirloin is tasty too. The 'super six' range is always worth picking up a couple of items from and seeing what you can come up with. Pasta is cheap (although not a great range). Pre-prepped salads are worth a look too...
+1 for Beer
Hopping Hare is my all time favorite with a meal
We do our weekly shop there, saves us apprx £40/wk compared to the same shop at Tesco!! The only thing we cannot get on with is their butter, have tried all the different varieties and they are all rubbish so have to resort to one of the other supermarket brands.
Are Aldi still hateful to their employees? [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidl#Criticism ](Or is that just Lidl?)[/url]
Aldi is regularly voted one of the best companies to work for
Wine
Beer
Bacon
Dishwasher tablets
Axe
Rubber gloves
Compressor
Chicken breasts
Nappies
Can I add granola and any of their chocolate to the list? And 12 bottles of assorted ales for £14.
Their cornflakes used to be rank, may have improved since I last risked it.
Kooliburra white wine.
Cambala White wine.
Meatster wee pepperami style sausage snacks.
Fruit n Fibre and Special K copy cereals.
Mature cheddar.
Frikadellan burgers.
Ground coffee is fine.
All fruit n Veg.
Asia Specialities Noodles
Basmati rice.
Dry roasted peanuts.
All their yoghurts that I've had a good.
Lawn "Feed n Seed". lol
Agree with most of the comments above - when we moved three years ago we began to use the Aldi just found the corner and fo the vast majority of our good shopping there. One thing I like over other supermarkets is the check out system which is far quicker than the mind numbing wait we experience in our local tesco and asda and the willingness of staff to quickly open an additional check out if queues are building up.
We had a new Aldi open nearby recently and I shop there99% of the time only going to Morrisons for the stuff I can't get like wholemeal pasta, brown rice, etc. I spend a fortune on fruit in there and the large packs of chicken breasts are not only cheap but very tasty (and the breasts are very large 😉 ). The only thing I don't like is stuff like the raisins are all injected with sunflower oil and ready meals are seriously high in fats. When you compare to branded stuff a lot of it is pretty unhealthy (have a look at the fat/sugar/salt/etc values in the Dairylea alternative compared to the branded stuff) but generally it's awesome.
Also I always have a multipack of water in my car now, pack of 12 500ml bottles is about £2 which comes in handy all the time when you just want to grab a bottle!
If no one has mentioned it yet. Get the chocolate brioche loaf they do. It's awesome. Will walk into town just to pick one up
Made an increasingly frequent stop at Aldi today after shopping at John Lewis and boots for baby stuff. So I'll be taking back the £9 cellular blanket to John Lewis (Aldi £2.50, made in China pure cotton - same as JL) and pending tests stop buying pampers nappies online (9p each) and buy Aldi's own award-winning nappies (6p each). Same goes for wipes. Also chanced a rib eye steak and Williams Bros Perfect Storm. I love it. It looks like it'll be rubbish but they just don't have infinite unnecessary choices of the big supermarkets.
It was announced last week that our local co-op (Scotmid) will become an Aldi later this year. Absolutely gutted for the staff, but guiltily excited that we'll have an Aldi more or less on our doorstep.
Scotmid staff will hopefully be offered jobs with a reputedly top employer, so win-win!
We have developed a love of their cans of lager shandy. Perfect on a summers evening when you can't get drunk properly.
I hope so Jimmy.
They had cycling stuff on special buy last week but more importantly massive boxes of nappies and decking oil. I love Aldi. They seem to know what I need week to week.
So if the steaks are good - do they have in BBQ's in to cook them on?
Yes
Loads is good and loads is shit.
I can however recommend the 2L tubs of Cornish Vanilla Ice Cream- proper good stuff.
Sorry to resurrect this but the Spicy Jalapeno Coleslaw has proved a revelation in my lunchtime cheese and ham sarnie... 😯
Am I the only person to lose the will to live when stepping inside Aldi? I only go there for coffee, the interior is depressing with its gloomy lighting so I literally run in and run faster out.
Wow cinnamon I go the shops to buy food not to hang out. Still each to their own.
Back to waitrose CG!
😆
Asda this morning, Waitrose is over-rated and full of rude but rich people, farm shops are a nicer experience.
Regarding the checkouts in Aldi, they have to open another checkout if they get 2 units beyond the end of the belt.
2 units is 2 lots of shopping. So one person shopping alone would be one unit, whereas a family of 4 with one lot of shopping would also be one unit so it doesn't go off the number of persons waiting.
Think they have a system where they have one or two staff on tills with others out on the shopfloor as back up.
Also they have to get a certain amount of items through each checkout per hour. I used to secret shop there so I had to know how they worked.
Simmy, that has to be the dullest post of all time. well done.
Chorizo, Red Wine (Torro Locco under £4 wins awards), Fruit & Veg. Love Aldi, but the coffee is dreadful.
Just to say that I don't 'hang out' in supermarkets, just rather everyone else would bugger off to leave me in peace.
#miserablecah
Like everyone else we only started buying toilet rolls and none branded stuff, but as time as passed pretty much try and buy everything there, the Norpack butter, the chocolate, the wine, even some beer, the meat, fish, seafood, veg all fine and half the price of Waitrose, the other store in town. Only snag the council charge to park so you risk a ticket, whereas in the next town Lidl is free.
However you do have to work around the six fingered banjo players with their two headed kids up from the Marsh and it is a bit low light depressing as CG so aptly puts it, but sinking your teeth into their eating liquorice puts that all behind you.
Oh and did I mention their chocolate with hazlenuts in it? Thing of the past now thanks to the dietfest.
Currently working through a packet of their own Fruit and Nut Chocolate. Found the Run Fruit and Nut a bit too sweet, but it was worth a try.....
Simmy, that has to be the dullest post of all time. well done.
And yet, yours managed to be even duller. Well done.
I don't think I've ever been in Aldi (or Lidl) other than for a quick nosey when they first opened, and I wasn't impressed. On the back of this thread I might give them a go next time I do a weekly shop. Cheers.