What's good at Aldi?

[Floofydawg]

We've just had a shiny new one open near us and I fancy a mooch. Never been an Aldi shopper before as I like my shopping delivered, but I've got a bit more time to shop now. Tell me what's good to buy from there.

JM dupe pomegranate handwash, large frozen cooked prawns, garlic mussels, packs of pain au chocolat, salted caramel dark chocolate, greek yoghurt, cheeses, ham, frozen petit pois, butter, loo roll / kitchen roll, specially selected orange ice lollies, wines, their lily bloom & lime fabric conditioner is divine,

I'm in Scotland and the Aldi meat is just as good if not better than Morrisons, and a lot cheaper. I love Aldi for nearly everything.

The things to avoid IMO are the bread section - Lidl is the place for nice baked things - and the laundry liquid, I don't rate it at all.

Off the top of my head:

Chapter and Verse brand wine - esp the Merlot
The kids love the own brand pepperamis
Marmite dupe
Itsu bao/gyoza dupes
Giant naans
All the cheeses
The chocolate, especially the whole nut bar

I do love their sugar free pop, especially the lemon one.
The Lancashire cheese is tasteless and don't get the churros from the dessert part of the fridge, they are awful!
Other than that, it's like anywhere else to me, good and bad. We're not all going to like the same things. But it's worth trying out.

The bake your own frozen croissants.
The peanut butter
The jams
Greek yogurt ( the 10% one)

Most things are brilliant.

I see Aldi as being a bit like M&S but cheaper. I go to Aldi to get all my nice bits.

They do lovely milkshakes in the sandwich section, all of their sausage rolls/pasties/fridge snacks bits are great.

They do posh ready meal curries which are like the M&S ones.

Their bread is good. Toilet roll, kitchen roll, foil all good.

Biscuits, chocolate including most of the dupes. The cheese, the yoghurts, the fish fingers. The crisps.

Really? I do shop there but top up at M and S and Waitrose as they are near work. Aldi stuff is nowhere near as nice.

Stollen bites, Italian Parma ham, red fox Red Leicester (30% less than Sainsbury's), olives. Very good for basics, milk, spices, seeded breads, nice brioche rolls, tinned kidney beans, basmati rice etc.

Veg can have a shorter shelf life, ditto meat, I find so we don't buy a lot and use straight away.
Pure Greek yoghurt also nice and in a huge tub.

I agree the Greek yogurt is good. And they had a very nice rose over the summer.

Yes, their Provence Rose is really good and indistinguishable from M n S and Waitrose own brand one. £7.99 compared to £11 at M n S and £10 at Waitrose.

I think a lot of the time, especially at M&S, you're paying for the name. Frankly I think the quality (and innovativeness) of their food has massively declined over the last 10 years. Waitrose I'm not sure about, as I don't shop there regularly. Our nearest Waitrose isn't a very big one, and their range is pretty limited.

Organic Prosecco

you've already posted a few hours earlier that you don't like the food, not sure what value repeating it adds to the thread, when the question was asking for recommendations for specific products.

you also seem to struggle, like lot of mn-ers, with the difference between your personal opinion and verifiable, objective fact

The rosemary crackers are amazing with cheese spread

Excuse me? I shop at Aldi. It's a supermarket, not a religion. In your opinion it's all amazing. In my opinion there is nothing amazing about it. It's fine. It's a supermarket. Some things are nice. Most is average quality. It's cheap! That's useful.

they do a delicious tempura fish burger thing which i absolutely adore
their popcorn bars are delicious

The rosemary crackers. With the spreadable Norpak, then the Brie de Meaux.

Dear god.

To be fair nowhere's stuff is as nice as Waitrose and M&S but they are also nowhere near as dear.

to compare Aldi and M&S is like complaining a Fiat Panda doesn't handle like an Audi.

i prefer Aldi to Lidl, Tesco and Asda. I predominantly shop in a mix of Aldi and Sainburys plus a few bits from Lidl and Waitrose (for the price you pay the bakery there is good although nothing like Waitrose or a bakery). if I'm looking for a treat I like M&S. the key for me is they all have their place in the market.

Leo the lion sweets
Marinated tofu
£1.99 macaroons
Multivitamin juice and their pineapple and coconut smoothie
Gooseberry yoghurts

The sugar-free lemon Fanta knock off - I was so pleased when they started doing this as sugar-free lemon Fanta is hard to find - it's lovely with gin!

The crackers - especially sea salt, chilli or beetroot ones

Norpak

Jelly beans

Greek yogurt

Frozen smoothie mixes

Chocolate (not the Dairyfine though, that's grim)

Icing sugar - half the price of most places, and excellent quality

High protein snack bars and high protein sandwich thins

The coffee shop where I work uses Aldi bread (the tiger loaf and the seeded) for sandwiches and toasties, and we are often asked where we get it from as it's lovely - sometimes customers ask if they can buy a loaf from us.

This isn't necessarily always the case - I recently read a review piece about ready made curries and the Aldi ones beat M&S hands down.

Most of their stuff is good apart from the own brand washing up liquid.

The cheese, chocolate, wine, spirits and charcuterie meat is particularly good. As is the Christmas food, mince pies, Christmas pudding etc.

Also check out the skincare stuff, they have a dupe of pixie glow and hot cloth cleanser that are worth a try.

Ooh i like their washing up liquid! Hasn't it won a good housekeeping award too?