Good and Bad Buys at Lidl and Aldi stores (***Please don't expire***)

LindsayT

@lucky77
I had a feeling they might not but thought I'd ask on here first. Thank you for your reply.

Rosa_Damascena

lucky77 said:

LindsayT said:

Does anyone know if Lidl takes manufacturers coupons please?

When I asked in Lidl a couple of years ago the answer was no. May have changed but don’t recall seeing anyone using them. 

Had similar with Asda yesterday - got distracted at the till so waved payment over before the app. A bit annoyed, but it was easy enough to spend another £5+ through the medium of cheese and was happy with my small win.

Katiehound

French Merlot in Aldi- £3.49 per bottle. No idea what it is like- but bought  bottle. (on offer: usually £5.49))

Katiehound

Aldi Essential  salmon pieces. reasonable sized off cut 'steaks'. £2.85 for 250 g, so £11.40 per kg. I think the 'regular' steaks are about £15 per kg.

YoungBlueEyes

I buy those salmon pieces, they're queer shapes but they're decent chunks. I do a tin foil parcel with them and pop them in my steamer.

Brie

Katiehound said:

Aldi Essential  salmon pieces. reasonable sized off cut 'steaks'. £2.85 for 250 g, so £11.40 per kg. I think the 'regular' steaks are about £15 per kg.

I also get those but have switched of late to the Tesco version (also under £12/kg).  Lidl ones seemed to go off really quickly.  Aldi ones are better.  Most recently I had a pack of regular salmon slices from both L & A and they were all very nice.  But those were had at dinner time.  My normal meal to have salmon is for a weekend breakfast.  OH has smoked haddock and poached eggs and I just have the salmon pan fried.  Love it.  

I did use to buy a whole side of salmon from Tesco (normally) as it was the cheapest way to get it, normally about £14/kg.  But that's when they actually had fish counters which have stopped.  Only place now that has them is Waitrose.  Even the nice fishmongers in town has closed - they'd had a deal where they weren't charged rent for a couple of years to build business up after covid but when that stopped all the shops closed.

robrymond

Katiehound said:

French Merlot in Aldi- £3.49 per bottle. No idea what it is like- but bought  bottle. (on offer: usually £5.49))

Disgusting it is. The Malbec last week which was £4.99 was much much nicer.

KxMx

Aldi are doing 150g bags of McCoys dupes (crisps) , tried two out of the three flavours, very good and only £0.91.

Brie

robrymond said:

Katiehound said:

French Merlot in Aldi- £3.49 per bottle. No idea what it is like- but bought  bottle. (on offer: usually £5.49))

Disgusting it is. The Malbec last week which was £4.99 was much much nicer.

Interesting....  I used to drink a lot of red wine (in that it was my regular tipple, not that I was drinking to excess, well not normally....).   Somewhere along the line I learned that if I was going to like a red it had to be quite hearty.  And that didn't always depend on price. 

So the secret was to look at the alcohol content.  A red that is 9% is going to be bland, boring and likely give you a massive headache due to the chemicals in it.  One that is 14% is going to be rich and something you'll want to savour.  It will taste more like blood than grapes.  So when Lidl or Aldi have something labelled as a Fitou or vin Sobres (strange name for a wine...) if it's above 12% I'd be buying it.  Sometimes they have them at £4 and sometimes at £14.  So pick your price point then look at the alcohol content and you can see whether it might be worthwhile.

Unless of course it's from California or Australia or New Zealand.  They all stink. 

French, Italy, Chile, Argentina are your best bets.  Some Eastern European are ok as are some Austrian.  I don't buy German reds as I've never found one I liked.  

And if you want a great white wine try to get one from Canada.  Best white wines in the world come from the Niagara region.  Go for the German styles where they out do even the top German vineyards.  Aldi has some regularly. 
(no I don't work for the VQA, Ontario Wine Appellation Authority, and no I don't know where my Niagara Grape and Wine Festival Princess sash has gone.)

robrymond

Every french red I've had in Aldi on this wine of the week has been poor. No body and like vinegar. The Argentinian malbec was smooth and full bodied and around 13% which is the same as the french wine this week in ABV.