Quality at Aldi and Lidl

[Marcelduchamp]

I know Aldi and Lidl are really popular on mumsnet but I really am completely baffled as to how people can claim its good quality. I have relatives who shop there and I have eaten the food lots of times. Yes a few items are OK but on the whole its not good in my experience. I don't eat meat so can't comment on that. I do think veg is veg so is probably not vastly different. I also think the choice is poor with a very basic selection of stuff.

I know it's cheap and we all need that at times. I'm not knocking people who need to cut shopping costs. But are people really being honest when they say the can't tell the difference. What are you tasting? Examples are the strong cheddar cheese is just bland, the crisps don't have much flavour and the filled pasta is cloying inside.

I suppose my AIBU is AIBU to day these shops sell poor quality food.

Oh and I drink cheap sweet rose shit so the standards never needed to be high...

Maybe those particular recommended ones weren't to your taste then. We've had excellent wine from Aldi, but I hate sweet rosé shit!

Also I think it's Aldi who do the chocolate with pretzel pieces - yum.

If you like strong cheddar, best two I have tried are Waitrose Cornish Quartz I think it's called and the M&S Cornish Cruncher.

I went through suggestions on another MN aldi/lidl thread

There must be something wrong with me cos I just don't get the love... and I spent years living off toast and cupasoups, I'm really not fussy

Also I think it's Aldi who do the chocolate with pretzel pieces - yum.

It is. I tried to get some today but there wasn't any. I blame MNers for telling everyone about it!

Lidl’s gin liqueur is lovely, especially the rhubarb and ginger. I love their red wine too, we’ve had some really good wine from Aldi and Lidl.

I don’t get the Lidl and Aldi snobbery, some of their stuff is good, some of it isn’t. Just like any supermarket.

Their chocolate and ice cream are excellent, as is all their Christmas stuff! And I love the ‘middle’ of course.

It's a real mixed bag! I agree re the dates on things and the veg and fruit I find are eat as quick as you can.

However, their meat, fish, cooked meats and cheeses are great and don't have too bad dates on them depending on where you go. I live for their 45p mozzarellas!

I like Aldi and Lidl, but usually go to Tesco as they have the scan as you shop. It stops me throwing things into the trolley when I don’t need them. I usually pop into Lidl after work if I need bread/ milk or doughnuts!

Lidl fruit and veg literally goes mouldy within hours, and often in the middle of a bag of potatoes there'll be a really manky, mouldy one that's made the whole bag of them rank and smelly. Most other stuff from Lidl is ok though.

The thing is you go into buy food and they're selling fire extinguishers socket sets and other nonsense stuff.

Veg quality everywhere differs imo. I’ve had excellent, long lasting stuff from Lidl, whereas I’ve bought stuff from Tesco and it’s arrived (delivery) literally brown and rotten. 4 weeks in a row I tried ordering Dill from Tesco and it was dripping with brown gunk each and every time.

The own brand stuff compares well to other own brands to me. A lot of it is the same stuff anyway, it’s just branded to each supermarket but made in the same factory.

The snobbery and revere snobbery on both sides is palpable though. People really get upset about their supermarkets.

I don’t get the Lidl and Aldi snobbery, some of their stuff is good, some of it isn’t. Just like any supermarket.

Me neither, why would you want to pay more? Some stuff isn't great, but there are loads of brilliant things. Writing it off having never been seems silly.

If you can go to Aldi/Lidl and find things you like for less money, it frees your money up to buy other things you like.....

@Nickmoooooo

The thing is you go into buy food and they're selling fire extinguishers socket sets and other nonsense stuff.

The bigger supermarkets don’t just sell food either though. You can buy socket sets at Tesco lol.

@SomeSmotheringDreams

I'm talking about overall quality which is objective. Something either tastes nice or it doesn't.

I'd say it's very much subjective. Our local Lidl is excellent, and the fruit and veg are fresh and taste great. It's a really busy store which I suppose means that turnover of fresh food is rapid. Our local Tesco is scruffy and often lacking in stock, particularly of fruit and veg. Our local Morrisons is actually filthy (I've complained) with black mould in chiller cabinets, remnants of bits of frozen food lying in the freezers and the fish counter smell is so strong (I assume from lack of deep cleaning) that I've gagged.

Plus Lido's Hortus gin is worth a trip on its own!

Thumbs up for the gin - I agree it's fabulous ( especially the raspberry)

OP, from what you said (and I tried to be careful not to suggest you were paid though being paid to surf sounds fine), there is little intersection in our Venn diagram, given omnivore/vegan, cook from scratch/ready meal preferences. Have you found a good vegan, ready meal supermarket, ignoring price?

@Chameleon72

OP you mentioned bland crisps at Lidl, well I beg to differ on that particular point as there the most delicious, crunchiest and bang on flavour salt and vinegar crisps at Lidl. Do try the green bag ridged salt and vinegar natural crisps. At 85p for a big bag, they're a steal and far better than anything else IMHO

It's all so subjective isn't it. I bought the ridge cut crisps last week and thought they tasted foul. Trying to be kettle but failing miserably.

I do get a lot of things at Lidl so this isn't coming from a snobby place. Their deluxe freshly squeezed orange juice is the best I've tasted.

The thing is you go into buy food and they're selling fire extinguishers socket sets and other nonsense stuff

Yes. It's a shop. They sell all kinds of stuff. That's what shops do. Sell things and people buy them.

I tried the wine recommendations... they were vile i dont get what I'm doing wrong

Having terrible taste in wine is what you are doing wrong. As you say, you like nasty sweet rose shit so you're hardly going to appreciate good award winning wines. It's not them thats shit though, it;s your taste

@JoeCalFuckingZaghe

Veg quality everywhere differs imo. I’ve had excellent, long lasting stuff from Lidl, whereas I’ve bought stuff from Tesco and it’s arrived (delivery) literally brown and rotten. 4 weeks in a row I tried ordering Dill from Tesco and it was dripping with brown gunk each and every time.

The own brand stuff compares well to other own brands to me. A lot of it is the same stuff anyway, it’s just branded to each supermarket but made in the same factory.

The snobbery and revere snobbery on both sides is palpable though. People really get upset about their supermarkets.

Tesco fruit and veg is the worst of any supermarket in my experience.

Theres no Aldi near us but there is a Lidl which we like. We normally shop at Sainsburys. The quality isn't the same (IMO) on the bakery products, meat (horrible) and fruit and veg. The fruit and veg are fine tasting but they just seem to go off so quickly. Fish seems to be fine. Some of the stuff in there we like better than what we can get at Sainsburys and the prices are great. It's trial and error really. But I wouldn't say it's on parr, personally.

I got used to drinking pretty much anything.

Besides vinegar.

Just cos I lole cheap shot don't mean I can't recognise when something tastes half decent.

I've drunk plenty of wines cheap, expensive or In between. Just cos I didn't like the vinegar sold at aldi don't mean its me ffs . Its a supermarket it stands as much chance of selling shit stuff as anywhere else.

Just so happens I cant find enough there thats to my tastes to make it worth my while. And the quality is far to inconsistent fir me to risk wasting my money on stuff

To be honest I haven't noticed any difference between Aldi, lidl, tescos, Morrisons or Sainsbury's. Some do certain things better and certain things worse. Sainsbury's is just more expensive for the equivalent shop.

Asda I've found just isn't as good for fresh food.

It's not shit stuff though, you just like shit stuff so you can't taste quality. You should be happy, drink Tesco lambrusco and leave the good Aldi wine for those that can appreciate it, and save your money

I’m finding that lidl is often better quality. It also has products i would never find at Tesco (european type of products). That’s what attracted me to lidl in the first place.

But I’m laughing at the idea that you would notice the lesser quality less if you cook from scratch. Imo you can taste the difference just as much, if not more.

U can have it.

I dont need to know quality to know somethings really vinegary/acidic .

U can have a the rotting meat they throw onto giant boxes in the aisle and leave in full view in our aldi and the manky veg too

All yours.

Enjoy your "quality"

I should add that, I do wonder about why it always seems to be Aldi and Lidl that get these kind of threads and criticism more generally (to the extent that they make ad campaigns about this fact). I do wonder if there is some funding of this kind of thing by the other supermarkets.

Good things from Aldi...
Chocolate
Steaks
Chocolate
Dishwasher tablets
Chocolate
Wine
Chocolate
Salmon Wellington
Chocolate