Tell me your Aldi must haves/avoids

[Throwawayaccount1]

Normally have Tesco delivery because convenience...
Had a look around the newish Aldi today and I'm going to give it a go for next week's shopping.
Are there any 'this is excellent' or 'avoid this' things that you want to tell me about?
Shopping for 2x secondary kids (who have lunchboxes). 1x vegetarian. 1x wheat free if that info is useful.
Work on the assumption that I mostly cook stuff, e.g. make the chicken pie filling, but buy the pastry kind of idea (if that makes sense).

Thanks!!!

Despite my list, I cook mostly from scratch too

about to make wagyu bone in beef short ribs with honey and mustard roasted carrots and mash. All from Aldi

Greek yoghurt
Nespresso capsules (when will they do the new ones please?)
Mixed heritage tomatoes
Bread flour
Weetabix dupes
I like some of their frozen fish items
Decent ice cream (fraction of Sainsbury’s costs)
Anti pasti dips/bits we find to be good.
Feta/Mozzarella/Goats cheese
The middle aisle soecial pastas /breadsticks etc are always great.
Fruit & veg and meat quality okay.
Fresh fish I find patchy quality at times. Salmon portions are tiny.
DP has developed a bit if a thing for their rectangular pizzas…
Nature valley bar dupes are excellent
Granola
Nuts
Par baked breads are good to have in stock
When DC smaller some of their learning books & kits were very reasonably priced

If you’re a fan of Jo Malone check out their perfume dupes, Pomegranate and Lime Basil and Mandarin are very good, as are the matching hand/body wash.

I love Aldi, and Lidl, there’s not a lot in either of them that we’ve bought but haven’t liked. Never had a problem with fruit and veg from Aldi, either.

We went yesterday and they’ve got all their Christmas stuff in, which is dangerous, because I can’t leave the stollen bites alone if I buy them.

Totally agree. I get Sainsburys deliveries as my son works there so I get a discount but get my meat from Aldi. Sainsburys chicken breasts in particular are grim and humungous. Have to cut about a third off.

The ready meals I listed are not "cook from scratch". Aldi/Lidl are definitely good for basic store cupboard ingredients, veg, meat and dairy.

I have recently switched from M&S to Aldi. Best things from my POV are
Lurpak dupe
10% greek yoghurt
fresh chicken mini fillets
Seeded sourdough
Cooked chicken slices
Golden yolk eggs
Wagyu mince
Chicken mince

I shop there all the time and haven’t yet found anything to ‘avoid’. Favourite things -

chocolate brownie ice cream - better than Ben & Jerrys according to my kids
all the cheeses - special mention to the log- shaped soft goats cheese and red fox.
salami Milano
cremant wine
greek yogurt
berries
all the specially selected dips
the rectangular rosemary crackers
stollen bites
curry sauces with the plastic cap of spices on top (butter chicken is nice)
all the nuts - like the salt and pepper cashews best. Also dried mango
own brand gin v nice
skin on fries (frozen)
sparkling water and tonic
basic tortilla chips
meat is good - never had anything I didn’t like or didn’t last to the sell by date.

Madagascan vanilla ice cream and Valencia orange lollies are good with just a few ingredients ( not over processed). The mini choc ices and luxury hot cross buns are good. Baking potatoes are always a good size. Wine, beer and cleaning products are good.

Im not a big Aldi shopper but it is my nearest supermarket so I go in there when I just want to buy one or two things quickly. Any of their store cupboard ingredients, stuff like sugar, passata, basic tins etc is usually at least a third cheaper than other supermarkets and tastes fine by me.

The other day, I needed a treat and.bought an individual chocolate pudding. Can't remember the name but it came in a glass jar so a bit like a Gu pudding. It was absolutely fantastic, I'd have paid 3 times as much to eat that in a restaurant and never known it was an Aldi product.

Smoothies are good, brioche buns are good and Prosecco is nice. Specially selected pasta sauce with a good. Also ketchup.

Veg, meat, houmous, fruit, prawns, pizzas, cooked meats all not nice or go off v quickly. I used to freeze all the meat on day of purchase as it wasn’t it’s best on the day of best before or even the day before. Same with veg, salad and fruit - eat it on the day.

How can a perfectly normal supermarket not be good for cook from scratch?

What do you think you cant buy there? Obviously I'm not including every specialist ingredient in the world in but for regulat family meals I can't think what you mean

The Muller light dupes are good and £2.59 for six!
most of the biscuits are good and the larger cookies are excellent.
Jam is excellent.
I use Aldi for all my baking stores, very good.
We like their Magnum dupes.
its also the only place I can afford decent cheese. (Manchego and Old Amsterdam in particular).

Their ‘ McDonald’s’ style hash browns are a winner in our house
Avoid ketchup and pasta sauces in jar, really sugary and artificial

Aldi veggie frozen stuff is great.

We get things for rahmen a lot.

Their courgettes are good and cheap.

Tofu is great.

I like their posher mozzarella and feta, but their standard stuff is a bit bland.

Their fancy instant coffee is half price of branded stuff but exactly the same.

The veg can be a bit hit and miss but you can usually see the anemic stuff that was clearly grown to be harvested as quickly as possible. But then so can Tesco's.

Their price benefit comes from their business model, majority of their stuff is not bad, but it's not the trose.

Aldi Tomato sauce is disgusting DO NOT BUY. The mayonnaise obviously isn’t as good as Hellmans but it’s ok and a lot cheaper.

Rectangular pizza in fridge section
Salmon in puff pastry pie in freezer section
Backed beans...which taste a lot like Branston

We have three within a couple of miles , I have my preferred one as the parking is better and it is bigger and most omportantly , their freezers don;t go on the blink at the drop of a hat !

Coconut washing powder
Washing up liquid
Dishwasher capsuals
Rinse aid
Sealed bags (Small/Medium)
Bleach
Razors for DH
Cotton wool pads
Roll on antipersiprant
Chicken poppers
Carlos pizza
Carlos garlic bread
Halloumi sticks

I go in once a month to buy these and sometimes the odd random gem. Got some Astonish laundry additive for DS manky gym gear .

The potatoes I got were the worst ever.

I love trying to guess what they're duping .....I don;t know how they get away with some of them

Aldi shopper here and find the quality is excellent. I rate their Greek style yoghurts and you cannot beat their dupe cereals. They taste exactly like the branded version but for pounds less. Great with kids as they eat boxes of cereal and chop and change what they do/don’t like daily 🤦🏻‍♀️

The big bags of mozzarella and cheddar. The essentials grated ones are brilliant for making pizza. The cheese melts perfectly.

I can't think that there's anything that I wouldn't touch. We do our weekly shop there as it's our local supermarket and it's perfectly serviceable as that.

Our local aldi has fantastic produce - the nearest aada is atrocious (stuff is actually moulding on the shelves!). The dates aren't always amazing, buy we've just eaten strawberries that were bought on Monday with a date of a few days ago and they were perfect.

Special mention for the dairly cottage cheese, which apparently isn't an aldi-specific product. But it's the only place I've found it.

We love their
rectangle chicken and mango pizza,
chocolate-covered frozen fruit,
chocolate-covered coconut clusters,
freeze fried fruit.
The moser roth chocolate is good.
Fresh pizzas - in particular, the ham, mozzarella and mushroom - are nice.

I like their ridged lights - potatoes, oil and salt.

Deli meats have always been good (same in Lidl).

Their sourdough/protein breads are decent if you can't get Jason's.

I personally prefer green giant tinned sweetcorn to all other brands, but the aldi one is no better/worse than other supermarket offerings.

Oh, and their version of Diet Coke is amazing. You really won't be able to tell that it's not 'the real thing'

Their Naturo dog food dupe is great. Excellent cheap puff pastry for pies. Gourmet sausage rolls and lemon curd yoghurt are great. Excellent occitaine style shower gel

They do a pouched rice with pumpkin seeds and something else & I love it.

The thick and creamy yoghurts are amazing. I do like most of their stuff though, the fruit and veg from ours is generally better than Tesco.