Trying Lidl for the first time. Recommendations please!

[Bookaholic73]

Trying to cut down my food bills, so I’m trying Lidl for the first time this week.
We but our fruit & veg at the greengrocer, so won’t be buying any at Lidl.

What do you recommend? What should I avoid? What’s the meat & dairy like?

I think their fish and seafood is very good, and fruit and veg is much better quality than other supermarkets, it stays fresh much longer. They do a nice creamy potato dish, I can't remember what it's called, maybe a potato gratin?

Avoid the meat.

We do one online Tesco shop a month to get things that we can’t get at Lidl - the odd spice, particular pasta sauce etc and also to stock up on heavy things that I struggle with every week.

There are a few branded goods, but don’t be afraid to try their own brands.

There is generally a good selection at Lidl though and their free range meat eggs etc and line caught fish are excellent and much cheaper than other supermarkets.

The colombian coffee is nice and strong.

The meats I get there are ok.

Most of it. Worth knowing your prices beforehand as there are some things that aren't cheaper.

I really like their fish, filter coffee is good value for money and DH likes their low fat yogurts.

I like to do top up shops at Lidl and always stock up on their ground coffee, nuts and dried fruit and cereal bars. I always do a Lidl shop before Christmas as they do lovely Christmas food - lots of gingerbread and spiced biscuit, stollen etc.

I don't do a full shop at Lidl but go every week to just get a few certain things. Their freshly squeezed/pressed juice is good, the strawberry jam is the best of supermarket own stuff, toiletries, loo roll, washing powder and bio liquid is good, veg keeps a long time, some of the cereals such as the special flakes (special k equivalent) is cheap and the biscuits are less sweet than other shops.

It's pot luck really what you prefer.

Dauphinois? They do a nice one of those 🙂

That’s worrying
I bought Aldi chicken thighs for dog, and the bones were smashed in the package I bought
Hope post mortem.
Also shrank a lot on cooking.
With chicken, Welfare has to come into it.
Seeing the shattered bone was quite upsetting.

My Lidl is out of a lot of things at the moment.
No popadams, passata, crumpets, organic milk unless in 4L bottles, balsamic salad dressing and veggi chilli ready meals. I've also noticed a price hike on a lot of items. It's not as cheap as it used to be.

I rate their burgers, meatballs and organic chicken breast. Yoghurt, olives, biscuits, cereal, cold meat, cleaning products, veg, herbs, cheese, rice and pasta, bread, chocolate - but not the cheapest ones, wine, baking section.

Don't try the thin pizza. It's vile. The deluxe ones are ok.

Avoid meet!
I'm doing my weekly shopping at LIDL since 2019 and honestly - there is something going on with their meat, especially poultry. Smashed bones, strange smell, dirty, etc.

But there are lots of nice things :
Ground coffee
Toilet paper /kitchen roll
Orange juice
Ice creams
Bakery items
Sandwiches
Cheese
Chemicals
Laundry detergent
Laundry conditioner (especially coconut one)
Toothbrushes - very cheap and very good quality

Putting cost aside, I'd chose to buy Lidl fish over Tescos. We don't buy meat. Tinned goods I buy are baked beans (which DH reckons are better than any other brand), chickpeas, kidney beans, sweetcorn, tinned mackeral - all equally as good as other brands.

Other products I buy and am more than happy with are bakery, bread, pitta bread, tortillas, hummus, coleslaw, cheese (good and lower price), yogurts, eggs, some frozen (pizza, fish, odd ready meal, veggie), museli, rice, pasta (I think it takes a bit longer to cook but we do have wholemeal), fruit tea, decaf coffee (DH had no idea decaf until he asked to swap and I told him), crackers, crisps.

Pizza bagels

The meat at ours is perfectly fine.

I get most of my shopping at Lidl, but top up at Aldi (part-baked bread) and Sainsbury’s (spices, wraps, kombucha).

Love their Marvellous cherry tomatoes.
Big packs of orange juice.
Dried pasta, pesto jars, basmati rice, tinned fish.
Nutty granola.
Jam.
Eggs are much cheaper than elsewhere.
Flour especially bread flour also much cheaper.
Their 30% less fat cheese nicer than Sainsburys equivalent.
Ham.
Ready-to-go meatballs/frikadellen great for picnics/snacks.
My local Lidl hasn't stocked fruit tea or rooibos for a while now.
Their 4-packs Kronenbourg usually cheaper too.
Like their white wines eg Sauvignon Blancs, can't remember specific name though.
Their shampoo and conditioner (Cien brand).
Also, their Cien hand cream is really good, and not greasy.

I split main shopping between Sainsburys and Lidl as Lidl doesn't have everything I want, but good for Tins and stock cupboard, and stocking up freezer. Lidl is further away though so I generally go every 2 weeks.

Agree re tomatoes (also piccolo are nice)
Cien hand cream very good too
Dry shampoo
Sliced cheese cheaper than in asda and other shops

Our Lidl has had lots out of stock recently ☹️

Agree about the meat it's always sitting in loads of liquid in our one, I don't buy raw meat from there apart from their dupes of heck chicken sausages.

Bakery things are good eg brioche, bagels.

Mozeralla ready grated, and parmesan ready grated.

DH likes the brewdog dupes I like the cans of g and t especially the purple one think it's ginger and rhubarb.

Handwash is good as is toilet roll we get the blue packs of toilet roll. Also kids shampoo the fruity ones.

They also do nice packs of linguine I think its called bronze something

Also when in season Lidl strawberries are excellent!

Cereal also great we ike the apricot wheats and blueberry wheats

Tinned beans pulses,sweetcorn,pasta cupboard all great.
Purple pack cheddar cheese
Fish is the best
Bread is great.seeded wholemeal or white.
Bakery good
Tortillas fab
Cereal like corn flake.bran.weetabix.krispies etc are good.
Mayo and salad cream top notch switches.
Hand soap
Kitchen roll
Foil
Freezer bags
They do sometimes have some fab middle isles
Things like hoodie.bed socks.jumpers and trainers this week that are really great.a decent hoodid for a tenner.
And the fury slipper calf sock they've in this week are elite!
The veg boxes at the front of the shop your getting a bloody bargain for too. Literally a crate for a fraction of the cost.
Veg very hit and miss
Chicken thighs good
Skyr yoghurt good