ALDI & LIDL Food and Drink Worth Trying?

[Gretchen]

Just went out to pick my lad and his girlfriend up and decided I'll do a baked Camembert this afternoon. My son told me not to expect Lidl or Aldi to be open as they're middle class. To try Tesco or Co-Op as they're working class and would more likely to be open New Years Day... He was only right! At 15. I hate that he's always right. Bloody kids.

[21TonyK]

zb said:

don4l said:

whoami said:

don4l said:

rdjohn said:

don4l said:

The packaging clearly stated "Dry aged", and the steaks were superb.

I can't say that I have inspected every steak they have ever sold in the UK, but you can read what is written on their current offering
https://www.aldi.co.uk/scotch-aberdeen-angus-sirlo...

It looks like they have stopped doing them. A real pity.

I think you mean these. They're dry aged.

That looks like what we had. We tried both the rump steak and the rib-eye.

Both were superb.

Ah, thanks to that link I've been able to sort out that ALDI's cheap meat is "Natures Glen" and/or "Ashfield Farm) , the "Specially Selected" is the (normally) decent gear. (FWIW "Boswell Farms" appears to be the new budget meat range of Tesco, it looks unappealing).

I've only tried the 21 day range, eager to give the 28/30 day type a whirl.

Edited by zb on Tuesday 27th December 19:42

Thought I'd give them a go based on the above.

Point to note... the "30 days" is 30 days aged, 21 dry aged and 7 in the packet. Presumably the last 7 in the back of a lorry and then the fridges in store!

Works out at roughly £20 a kilo, £5 a kilo less than the Sainsburys equivalent (which I would rate fractionally higher). But I don't think is a bad price for what it is. Half decent steak.

I'd buy it again.

[battered]

Gretchen said:

Just went out to pick my lad and his girlfriend up and decided I'll do a baked Camembert this afternoon. My son told me not to expect Lidl or Aldi to be open as they're middle class. To try Tesco or Co-Op as they're working class and would more likely to be open New Years Day... He was only right! At 15. I hate that he's always right. Bloody kids.

Interesting that 15 yr olds (the absolute arbiters of social status)consider Tesco as catering for a poorer demographic than Aldi/Lidl. If I were Tesco's marketing manager I would be *very* concerned about this.

[don4l]

21TonyK said:

Works out at roughly £20 a kilo, £5 a kilo less than the Sainsburys equivalent (which I would rate fractionally higher). But I don't think is a bad price for what it is. Half decent steak.

That is a very interesting comment.

I wasn't aware that Sainsburys did any decent meat.

20 years ago, they had the "Farmhouse range", which was very successful. People went out of their way to buy meat from Sainsburys. I haven't bought any raw meat there since they dropped the range.

From what I've read on here, I trust your judgement. This sounds like a massive marketing failure. I wouldn't know how to find good meat in Sainsburys.

[21TonyK]

don4l said:

That is a very interesting comment.

I wasn't aware that Sainsburys did any decent meat.

20 years ago, they had the "Farmhouse range", which was very successful. People went out of their way to buy meat from Sainsburys. I haven't bought any raw meat there since they dropped the range.

From what I've read on here, I trust your judgement. This sounds like a massive marketing failure. I wouldn't know how to find good meat in Sainsburys.

I'm comparing to their Taste the Difference 21 day aged. As I have said elsewhere though, my personal opinion is that it's a matter of sometimes minor variations which are shadowed by the cooking.

I can (and have) taken the cheapest catering grade steak and made it taste "amazing". Not my words, reviewed in The Guardian if that means anything. And I've taken some seriously expensive and exceptional steaks and murdered them on a BBQ after a couple of bottles of wine LOL

I don't think you would be disappointed by Sainsburys TTD steak but if I was in Aldi anyway I wouldn't make a specific trip to buy it as an alternative.

[don4l]

Lidl are doing a "DeLuxe" pack of three types of smoked salmon at the moment.

I've just had the "Champagne and Orange" one.

I found it both different and delicious.

When eating it, I mainly got the citrus. The smokiness came through after a couple of minutes.

[garreth64]

Picked up a tray of these this week, not sure if they are a new item or a one off.

24 bottles of Ridge Valley tonic water, either regular or light. Branded to look a lot like fever tree.

£1.79 for 24 bottles, or only 7.5p a bottle! It's £3 for 4 bottles at Tesco.

I did a blind test with the wife, and she preferred the Aldi one.

Aldi


Fever Tree

[NWTony]

garreth64 said:

Picked up a tray of these this week, not sure if they are a new item or a one off.

24 bottles of Ridge Valley tonic water, either regular or light. Branded to look a lot like fever tree.

£1.79 for 24 bottles, or only 7.5p a bottle! It's £3 for 4 bottles at Tesco.

I did a blind test with the wife, and she preferred the Aldi one.

Aldi


Fever Tree

Shurely shome mishtake? They are £1.79 for 4 in my local Aldi!

[V8mate]

NWTony said:

Shurely shome mishtake? They are £1.79 for 4 in my local Aldi!

Yep. Gareth has been shoplifting.

[condor]

Yes - I've just returned from Aldi and it's £1.79 for the 4 pack.
The litre bottles of tonic water at 37p are OK, slightly better than some other supermarket own brand tonic water. Fine to go with their £13.99/litre Oliver Cromwell Gin

[e21Mark]

IanA2 said:

SpeckledJim said:

technodup said:

l354uge said:

Hence the graduate scheme starts at £42k and goes up to £72k in 3 years! Plus an "audi A4 company car" which would probably be bottom spec, but non car people don't care about that!

Many moons ago I applied for that. Went to an assessment centre/interview at their main place in Livingston, fk me, their commitment to frugality isn't reserved just for the stores.

Never seen such a bland, tatty, no frills 'head office' in my life.

As it was I remember them saying even at that stage you'd be grafting for your cash. Store managers are/were key holders and had to open and close for a start, and expected to pretty much do anything, anytime. So you start looking at the effective hourly rate... I gather at least at that time they had a significant management turnover.

I think it's quite a smart way to do it. The headline salary is going to get a lot of applicants for you to choose from, and the best applicants for this won't necessarily be the best academics.

Load them up with a serious workload, tolerate the high turn-over, and know that the calibre of management staff who are still with you after 3-5 years is going to be very high indeed. Switched-on, hard-working, diligent people.

Then these are the people who will become your area managers, trainers, store-openers, trouble-shooters and higher, and what a great corps of 'been there, seen it, done it all' people they will be.

You are quite right. Over the years i've got to know a few of the staff at my local Lidl, it's a small store. They are hardworking interesting people with whom I often have interesting conversations about food/life/business etc etc. Can you imagine that in most of the other food warehouses?

Oh yes, and the car park has more interesting cars

Mrs E21 works at a new Aldi store here in Cornwall. I think 15 people started (on the same day) and in just 9 weeks a third of them have left. They expect hard work and set high standards for their staff and in return you're pretty well paid. (by comparison to the main 4 competitors) Mrs E21 is a grafter but she's been exhausted after some shifts.

[garreth64]

NWTony said:

Shurely shome mishtake? They are £1.79 for 4 in my local Aldi!

Hmmm, I guess that would make more sense! I don't think we have kept the receipt so can't check it now, maybe we were charged 6 x £1.79

The price was showing as £1.79 and they were only available on a pallet in whole cases, not individual 4 packs, unless you split it open yourself. When it went through the till, they didn't open it either so not sure what they scanned. Guess I'll never know for sure now.

[mybrainhurts]

Gretchen said:

Just went out to pick my lad and his girlfriend up and decided I'll do a baked Camembert this afternoon. My son told me not to expect Lidl or Aldi to be open as they're middle class. To try Tesco or Co-Op as they're working class and would more likely to be open New Years Day... He was only right! At 15. I hate that he's always right. Bloody kids.

Merde...let them eat cake

[mybrainhurts]

don4l said:

When eating it, I mainly got the citrus.

The chemist should have something for that

[condor]

garreth64 said:

NWTony said:

Shurely shome mishtake? They are £1.79 for 4 in my local Aldi!

Hmmm, I guess that would make more sense! I don't think we have kept the receipt so can't check it now, maybe we were charged 6 x £1.79

The price was showing as £1.79 and they were only available on a pallet in whole cases, not individual 4 packs, unless you split it open yourself. When it went through the till, they didn't open it either so not sure what they scanned. Guess I'll never know for sure now.

They would have expected you to split them open yourself - and the checkout girl probably knew the code off by heart - so expect you paid the 6 x £1.79

I always check the Aldi receipt because there are likely to be many mistakes with the pricing. Today I picked up a telescopic umbrella, supposedly at a reduced price of £1.99 - got charged £3.49 at the checkout. I had the hassle of querying the price, stating where in the store I'd found it, then waiting for someone to get back to me. Eventually was given the £1.50 difference but I only bought the 'emergency' umbrella as it was cheap and didn't matter if it lasted only one outing.

[don4l]

mybrainhurts said:

don4l said:

When eating it, I mainly got the citrus.

The chemist should have something for that

I've had it again this evening.

I have been smoking my owm salmon over the last year and my efforts (IMHO) are much better than anything that I have ever bought in the shops. Until now.

This is much better than anything that I have done in my cold smoker.

I will really have to up my game.

[Gretchen]

mybrainhurts said:

don4l said:

When eating it, I mainly got the citrus.

The chemist should have something for that

Cranberry juice is good for flushing it out. I like the Lidl Light Cranberry. Great at 60p ish. I dilute it half and half with water.

[Murph7355]

Not Aldi but Lidl:

http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/8783.htm?action=showDetai...

Smoked duck pate. Didn't get round to eating it over Christmas. Just had it. Bloody hell it's lovely stuff!

Have a pot of chicken liver pate in the fridge...quite looking forward to it

[V8mate]

Murph7355 said:

Not Aldi but Lidl:

http://www.lidl.co.uk/en/8783.htm?action=showDetai...

Smoked duck pate. Didn't get round to eating it over Christmas. Just had it. Bloody hell it's lovely stuff!

Have a pot of chicken liver pate in the fridge...quite looking forward to it

The smoked salmon pate from the same supplier is equally yummy!

[majordad]

Buy the cream cheese from Aldi/LIdl ( the one in the tubs for about 80p) and their smoked makrel ( the peppered one or plain ). Fork it up together, ( or use a blender) add a tiny bit of olive oil and lemon juice and maybe some capers and Eureka, smoked Pate. Five minute job.