Aldi - recommendation please

maxdecatt
Some of us don't have a Lidl anywhere near. My nearest is 29 miles away.

Their cheese is lovely, the mild, mature and extra mature cheddar, in large packets for under £2. Also their face creams, Lacura and Soya are brilliant.

Forget Aldi.
Lidl has a far better quality and range, and is cheaper. The stores have a better lay-out.

Whoops I meant I only use Tesco or Asda for items I can't get at Aldi. Should preview my post first..

I buy Aldi Wine on Line, free delivery and the same cheap price as in their stores. Must try and get back into store as they have tasty chunky fish in breadcrumbs and very reasonably priced frozen tuns that can be cooked from frozen. Love their baby wipes to remove my make up and their dark chocolate with chilli is amazing. Wish they did home delivery of groceries!

My weekly shop was usually 100% Asda or Tesco but I am now an Aldi devotee. Aldi's diet lemonade at 30p is far better than Schweppes or any other I've tasted. You have to take a leap of faith and try alternatives to your usual branded goods. Aldi is definitely great value.

I only use either Tesco or Aldi for items I can't get at Aldi. Have fun!

I am very lucky to have an Aldi within a 5 minute walk from my flat. I don't have a car, so do all my shopping there. I love absolutely everything, including all the fresh veg (must admit I don't buy potatoes), salads, avocados etc. The meat and fish are excellent as are the cheeses and household items. There are occasionally a few items they don't carry and I get a friend to take me to Sainsbury's or Morrison's, but after 6 years of shopping, I am constantly amazed at the low price at the til and I always have one heavy bag or two lighter ones! When I do go to another store, I find my jaw dropping at the 'normal' prices of items I buy for a fraction of the price at Aldi.

I find myself in agreement here and must add the free range chickens are very tasty,happy shopping .

We go to a rather nice restaurant in Portugal a lot and raved about the little biscuits for cheese which had nuts in. Also some waffle type biscuits they make into ice cream sandwiches - yum! They told us they both come from Aldi!

Garlic or chilli infused olive oil I especially love and they have a good selection of cheese too!

Ristretto coffee pods for Nespresso machines. They came out way ahead of all other brands in Which survey and well under half the price

Aldi’s Tiramisu is, without question, the best I have ever tasted!

I love Aldi! As mentioned before their meat is lovely and local! And their chicken is much more tender than the other shops I use - Morrisons and Tesco. I also like their German smoked ham. I used to buy Persil washing liquid just through habit and then one day noticed in Aldi that the Good Housekeeping Institute recommended their Almat liquid. I bought some fully believing that it wouldn't work but it was just the same so I always buy that now and it is so much cheaper. I reckon generally you can save about 20% off your shop there. Of course that leaves cash to buy the extra goodies from the central aisle. Most recently I bought some garden trellis (but I did need it and it was a great price).

As for that Patticake, yesterday I the woman on the Aldi checkout asked if she could pack my bags for me. Maybe it's the silver hair that does it, but I am, nevertheless, grateful and don't feel the least bit patronised. When I had a nasty fall outside the store, a trainee manager came out with a blanket and waited with me until the ambulance came.

You’ll enjoy it, not the vast range of goods that you find in the bigger supermarkets but personally I like that. Too much choice and I dither. As others have said, beware the centre aisles , full of things you didn’t realise you needed that have a habit of leaping of the shelves and into your trolley. Everything else, well personally we didn’t like their version of weetabix but other than that, we’ve been very happy. Also , just remembered, the tills are extremely fast so be prepared to put everything back into the trolley and repack on the shelf they provide.

Washing powder, magnum washing up liquid magnum, magnum dishwasher taps, rinse aid, all excellent.

I thought the centre aisles were 'the man crèche! It's where I leave my OH while I do the shopping, anyway!

I love Aldi! Particularly their wonky fruit and veg, their greek yogurt, both 0% and full fat...cholesterol lowering drinks, (packs of eight), rich tea biscuits, Oatcakes, chocolate, olive oil, rapeseed oil, brown sauce and ketchup. grain free dog food, day and night cream, face serum, deodorants, washing powder and conditioner, breads, eggs, chai seeds, specialist peanut butter, Cheeky Monkey Ice cream (can't taste the difference between that and Ben and Jerry's Phish Food), their dusted fish fillets, esp the basa and sole are yummy as are the pizzas. Fairtrade Earl Grey teabags. The only things I haven't found great are the loo rolls and the washing up liquid. Otherwise I love it all.

Just check where everything has been produced - I wouldn’t buy anything that is not British (unless it cannot be grown in this country). Also I find the queues at their checkouts are generally long and slow-moving. However, give it a try.

On tv tested £40 gin against Aldi. The tasters liked Aldi better. About 85% I think. Love low GI bread from Lidl + shortcake biscuits - long pack and their “ best” biscuits and their bacon joints . Their are many other goodies as well.

My friends husband calls the middle aisle ‘the aisle of delights’- amuses me every time I go into Lidl...

Frikadellen- Swedish meat balls. Available golfball size or hamburger size. Micro for 5 minutes, make up gravy granules, serve with a bit of veg. Feeds 2 for just over £2.
A meal for 2 in less than 10 minutes.(They are 80% meat)

I call the middle aisles - the aisle of doom !
We have so many different names for it.

Used to do top up shop in Aldi (doesn’t have everything needed for main shop), however have been disappointed in quality of fruit / vegetables (amongst other things), which isn’t much cheaper than Morrisons and Morrisons taste and keep far better!
I always liked Aldi’s fish, both frozen and fresh and their bakery goods are nice. Good choice of cheeses, which are also nice. Saw another poster recommended ice cream! Presume she means Lidl’s ice cream as it is excellent, whereas Aldi’s is pretty awful.
Actually I now do a top up shop in Lidl. If you get a chance try there, they are far superior to Aldi.

A manager told me they all use the same local supplier so the quality is going to be much the same. Lidl just offers a slightly more limited selection. We live near a meat processing station.... not sure if that is the right term. One of the main supermarkets picks up consignments several times daily I believe these are also taken to the midlands where the other large supermarkets r
eceive their order so unless you can buy from the farm ( even our' farm shop' is not always sure of the provenance of its stuff) you may as well shop at Aldi or Lidl
Waitrose's bread used to be a disaster.... think they 'refreshed' it in store but it often had a line of uncooked dough near the crust. Not sure if the Aldi bread, marked sour dough is really of that origin.... the price is so much lower than that of the local baker.... BUT it does not give us indigestion. How I wish for the days when we knew what the true source of stuff was.