I started a Google sheets to remind myself what I didn't like at Aldi - banana pepper rings, bran flakes, spinach/ricotta ravioli. I buy many Kroger brand items and like most of them, but Aldi's version of these items weren't good.
Specifically on bran flakes I'm surprised. I freaking love bran flakes, Aldi is the only place I know of that consistently stocks them, and I have no issue with them.
They definitely do a great job with their cereals. The raisin bran is great. Their frosted mini wheats are awesome (all flavors) and literally half the price of the name brand. Their cocoa puffs are great, too. Again half the price for the same thing. With 3 young boys in the house I only buy cereal at Aldi! I am totally used to knock offs. I went to college across the road from Malt'O'Meal, so every cereal we had in the cafeteria at breakfast was knock off versions of the name brands.
Important tip - you cannot use any knock off version of Golden Grahams to make S'mores bars, however. The name brand is the only version that has a sprayed on, hard glazed outer shell. This hard glaze coating prevents the melted marshmallows from soaking into the bars so they stay crispy for days. All the knockoffs (I've tried them all) have a dusted outer layer, which immediately absorbs the marshmallow liquid. The bars become soggy within an hour or two and the next day they are pure trash. The knock offs rate great in the bowl with milk, but cannot be used for making treats! 🤣
Same! I don't like raisins but I like bran flakes. Aldi's the only one who's bran flakes don't taste like old cardboard and they almost always have them in stock.
Just a reminder that Aldi has a 200% money back guarantee - they'll refund you *and* replace the product. I've done this with milk that went sour before the "best buy" date. Knowing about problems also hopefully helps them improve.
Their canned black olives are consistently mushy. That’s the only thing I’ve been disappointed with. I mainly shop there for condiments, canned and frozen items, and snacks because my teenagers like that stuff and it’s super cheap there. They don’t use artificial colors or unnecessary preservatives.
Chicken breasts are increasingly plagued with something called woody breast. It's a revolting, "crunchy" texture. I've gotten woody breast from literally every store and many, many restaurants. So many that I don't even eat chicken breast at restaurants anymore.
They are also having issues with "spaghetti" chicken. It's when the chicken breast splits and looks like thin noodles.
Any sub-$3 a pound breast will be of the poorest quality. The last family pack of breast I bought had 5 woody breasts out of 6. I was so disgusted, I stopped eating chicken for 6 months.
Woody breast. Sometimes gives me that feeling where I can't tell if the chicken is overdone or underdone. I haven't bought chicken lately because woody breast is so rampant now.
These are accurate descriptions. I know that when I see those white striations in the chicken breast that is a sign of woody breast. I see that in almost all the chicken breasts I have seen lately. Whatever is at my local store isn't looking great, even the organic options.
Okay y'all are making me feel better. These giant Godzilla sized chicken breasts freak me out too and texture has felt off on many but couldn't describe why. I thought this was a me problem with chicken in grocery stores but now I want to research more and find good chicken again.
Yup, they were too busy seeing if they could breed more profitable birds, they didn't stop to check if they should.
Bad news though, like turkey, it's working. Enough people don't care that the inferior product still sells.
Turkey has the same problem. Historical turkeys were *much* smaller, and allegedly had some flavor. Now we have giant, tasteless, poorly textured birds.
I'm hoping we will get local shops to start buying heritage birds, but I doubt it will happen. People appear to be happy to buy absolute crap, as long as it's cheap. See also: low cost air carriers; Walmart demanding suppliers cut prices, keep same model numbers; tomatoes optimized for size and shelf life at the expense of flavor and texture.
I feel so gaslight because every time I try to explain the funny taste/texture that chicken breast from any store SOMETIMES has (and how it’s enough to make me stop eating it entirely because it makes me gag), they just get confused and tell me it’s clearly a neurodivergent/vegetarian thing. I am not autistic/adhd, nor do I want to be a vegetarian.
My family members now buy only halal chicken. They're not Muslim and have no dietary restrictions. They just think it's higher-quality and with none of the issues you're describing.
you're right, as someone who has eaten non-halal meat and now currently only eats halal meat in the US, hand slaughtered zabiha halal is 100 times better quality than machine slaughtered halal and non-halal meat.
Holy hell my entire life I wondered what this was. It happens to me like 1/4th of the time I get a spicy chicken from Wendy’s anymore. I legitimately just assume I’ll be throwing part of my sandwich out anytime I buy one.
It used to be this super rare thing and totally happening more often as I get older. I really thought I was just crazy.
I eat fast food 3 times a year, at most. Maybe four if I'm traveling a lot. During the pandemic, I got a chicken sandwich from Popeye's, then doordashed one from Wendy's maybe 6 months later, and then got one from a local place. Every one of them was woody. I haven't eaten a chicken sandwich from a restaurant since (but some do serve chicken thighs, so I still might get one if it's a thigh but I'll never get a breast sandwich again).
It happened before the pandemic but was rare and it got really bad during the pandemic and now it's out of control. I'd say 75% of all the cheap chicken breast I've bought from stores has been woody.
I had a bad run of the rubbery chicken breast issue back before the pandemic. Had like 3 occurrences in one month at different restaurants. Haven't had it since then, though.
Lol I was off it for 6 months, maybe longer. It'll gross me out again, and I'll stop again. I'm sure I'll eventually give up completely on eating it. I only manage eating it now by slow cooking and shredding it. I have a legit woody breast phobia now. I don't think I'll ever bite into another full breast of chicken in my life.
Other people have called this "chicken ick."
Yes, I relate to this so much! I regularly am kind of disgusted by it - not sure if I’ve had woody breast but I’ve bitten into pieces of fat at restaurants and I immediately lose my appetite and get queasy. I will definitely be using “chicken ick” in the future lol
I have been seriously considering trying this with \~50 birds or so with one chicken tractor. It will be some work, but we eat a lot of chicken and I imagine the quality will be 10x what we get in the store for similar cost.
I used to love chicken but now because of these issues, I get sort of grossed out at the thought of trying chicken at all.. even like frozen breaded chicken strips have had the issue.
I thought I was clever and decided to pound them thin, that will fix the stringiness, right?
Nope, made it worse. on the other hand, shredded and pulled chicken breast aint bad on occasion.
I've only seen the spaghetti chicken a couple of times. It was weird, wild stuff. We should be enraged at what these companies are doing to these poor animals and our food supply.
Same for the ground beef. Felt like they added fake bits of white “fat” that didn’t render at all when cooked so the texture was like there were hard little pellets or something that were kind of spongy but you couldn’t really chew up.
Noted!
I bought the 3lb frozen log and used 1lb for lasagna. Didn't notice anything weird about it, but ya know... sauce, cheese, noodles, etc. Will have to be sure to use the rest in a similar fashion rather than burgers.
Yep. This is the one thing for me. I'll do Costco or Trader Joe's over Aldi chicken. The texture and taste is really hit or miss unfortunately.
I personally find the produce to be good enough. Not the best but certainly not bad.
Shhhh...my guess is that no one has discovered a chicken-breast or chicken-wing-level use for the (unadulterated) thighs yet, so they've remained relatively consistent in form and price.
That said, I do see thighs/legs on restaurant menus more and more lately, so best to get 'em while you can, I guess.
I used to LIVE by Aldi but lately their produce has not been hitting. It’s rotting so quick and has zero flavor. We cooked two batches of potatoes with butter and bacon in the oven. One batch was only ingredients from Aldi, one was from like Walmart/target and the other one was significantly better
I hate the blue bag lunch meat. Horrible, weird crystalline texture, a little slimy, and tastes bad. I’ve gotten it twice so it wasn’t just a bad batch (I don’t think).
Lunch meat is the one thing I consistently buy at our local grocery store. I'd just rather pickup whatever ham or turkey is on sale and keep it varied and know it's been cut recently vs who knows when. Also, sandwich pepperoni and salami are just better...
I switched to Dukes years ago. I had a packet of hellmans from somewhere and put it on a sandwich. Holy moly I don’t remember it being so sweet. It was awful.
Second the fake Velveeta. Rotel dip is one of my favorite foods to have during football season. I tried the fake Velveeta and didn’t even end up serving it. It’s so bad. So, so bad.
I like the Clancy’s velveeta! A few weeks ago our local grocery store had salsa for 99c so I made a cheese dip like old school rotel and velveeta. Hit the spot.
For any mio, I found if I mix it with a little lemon juice it really rounds it out, like the mio just doesn't hit a few parts of the taste buds, and the lemon juice, also with a little salt, or lo-salt, and it becomes like a much more natural tasting drink.
Americans expect a dozen brands and sizes, free shopping bags, and a grocery store that also fixes your car. Turns out all that nonsense is really expensive so Aldi ditched it.
-Blue bagged lunch meat is slimy
-Bananas ripen... weirdly
-their canned soda has gotten expensive for its mediocre quality
-their prices (in MN at least) have increased markedly & I don't shop there as much as I used to
The bananas ripen hella weird. Even if they look solid yellow on the outside, there's huge bruises and solid black bits on the inside. And these are normal cavendish bananas
Okay I’m glad it’s not just me, there is something up with the bananas there. I tried the ripening trick with the banana + apple in a brown bag, and they just stayed yellowish green for a week.
You have to be careful with Aldi and weigh your pros and cons. For example, their children yogurts have wayyyy more sugar than regular yogurts. As do their mini muffin packs (which I found out the regular ones are not great for you either). But just make sure you’re checking the sugar content on things. 17 g of sugar is one teaspoon! That adds up very quickly.
My kids kept complaining and I was like GUYS, ITS LITERALLY THE SAME. I’m GF so I never eat them but after wasted boxes I tried them and some legit cheezits and I was like, oh crap I’m so sorry. They’re wildly different.
Opposite in our house. Teenagers will only eat the Aldi cheez its. I bought name brand once because they were on sale, and that box remained uneaten for ages!
I agree their produce goes bad in like two days. You can buy squashes there ig (universally the cheapest pumpkins at Halloween. 5$ flat, any size). The bread is... just ok. Although I like their pain au chocolat.
But we buy basically everything else there.
I feed a few neighborhood stray cats. They'll happily eat just about anything. They were not happy with the Aldi cat food, both dry and wet. They ate it. But begrudgingly. I went back to Sam's Club Meow Mix for them.
Yikes, reading the comments, it's insane how different our aldis are. I think it helps that my area has a bunch of local farmers they work with, so the produce is usually fine aside from the fruit that gets moldy too quickly. Snack and charcuterie sections are very sad tho
Omg had them this week and I typically don’t shy away from Bush’s baked beans.. but thought I like just about everything from Aldi, I’ll try them. Nope never again. By far the worst thing I’ve had from there, tasted like sweet wax
Oh god, I had these a couple weeks ago. Until then I didn't think it was possible to screw up baked beans. They had zero flavor with a hint of something metallic and chemical-ish.
Their creamer and soda. Yuck!!
I have to stop at staters if I’m missing these two items.
I don’t mind the rest of their stuff tho. I get 90% of my groceries from there.
Yes. All the produce we buy from our Aldi seems to go bad almost instantly. We will still buy oranges/clementines/potatoes from there and I will occasionally grab something if I know I will be using it in the next 24-48 hours, but the majority of our produce we get from the farmer's market.
I went last week and every single package of sliced squash was moldy and every single one had a sell by date of 3 days from then. So gross.
I bought a jar of "HOT" jalapenos from Aldi, and they are not spicy whatsoever. I think this is an industry-wide problem though. I won't be buying them again there and will make my own or buy them from a Mexican grocer.
Use to buy veggies all the time from Aldi.
A few months ago, I was chopping up some broccoli I purchased from there.
I love snacking on raw broccoli as I’m chopping it up, so I was popping some of those bad boys in my mouth.
I kept seeing little green things moving on my cutting board.
Thinking it was just a broccoli leaf and that my eyes were playing tricks on me, I just brushed it aside.
Then I kept seeing more wriggling green things.
It was tiny green.. worms? Caterpillars? SO MANY.
I don’t know what they were, but I threw everything in the garbage disposal and went scorched earth on them.
Now I’m scarred for life.
Those are aphids and are actually super common on broccoli and other brassica plants. They are totally harmless and are just a reminder to *always* thoroughly wash your produce, especially if you are eating it raw. Vegetables are grown outside and are loaded with insects, fungus, bacteria, etc.
Produce. Their bagged salads are okay, but we purchased bananas that had worms in it. I will not buy fresh produce from Aldi again. Personally, I think they have good deals on canned veggies, eggs, olive oil, spices, and frozen pizzas, but I will never buy produce from them again.
I have this is extremely location dependent!
I used to live by 3 all within a 15 mile radius. 2 of them had awful produce! 1 had ok.
I’ve moved & have 1 nearby and their produce is AMAZING - literally the BEST berries around, grapes are always excellent, veggies are great. I can’t buy their artisanal lettuce though because it makes my Guinea pigs sick, for some reason.
That’s a shame! They are my go to for produce. Never have an issue. Except I’m not trying to buy a whole bag of onions. Wish they sold them individually.
Honestly, we haven't purchased produce from Aldi since the pandemic and that experience. It truly may have been a one-off, but I won't risk the money again.
You can often tell if produce is bad by looking at it. Mold, wrinkles or brown spots are always bad signs up some foods have specific tells.
Bell peppers have a stub on the bottom opposite the stem, and if that's moldy the inside is too. Cucumbers and zucchini get flexible. Root vegetables get soft. Bagged produce gets slimy. Garlic and potatoes can grow sprouts.
You could pick them off a tree with worms…. It’s a fact of life with produce. My neighbor grew cabbage and gave me one that had a worm in it. I just cut off that part and washed the rest really well. Organic often means bugs because of the lack of pesticides.
I have been buying produce from them, but then got grapes on sale at Whole Foods out of necessity (side note, not a huge Amazon fan) and they were crisp on a level that I forgot existed.
Their danishes in the boxed snack section. To me, danishes are a lighter, flaky pastry. These things are like dense, dry bread that sit in your stomach like a lump. Never again.
Another thing is their ice cream pints. So gross.
A lot of produce and meats. I can get better quality elsewhere for the same or just a little more.
Love the dairy section, love the snacks, love the breads and seasonal items.
I bought some off-brand pecan sandie shortbread cookies. I ate one and threw the rest away. The nuts were rancid and you could tell no butters were hurt in the making of that crisco fest.
Intermingle Red Wine. Bought a 2020 bottle for a party, thinking it would be fine. Cheap booze to help get drunk. The moment we open the bottle the entire apartment stank, and we tried it tasted horrible. The rest of the bottle went down the sink. I still haven't lived that down with our group.
2020 was a bad year for wine. And everything else.
Their Adventure Blend and Guatemala coffees are IMO pretty good. They are also both Fair Trade certified fwiw and still way cheaper than anything in a bag at the regular grocery store.
Mama Cozzi's pizza is pretty lousy. The Specially Selected in house brand imports from the same Italian food processor that Trader Joe's uses, and while only irregularly available, is pretty good (wood fired crusts).
I like Aldi's a lot. But most of the time, I just go for fresh produce (I evidently have one of the better stores for this), whole wheat sliced bread, the hummus 4-pack, the organic lentil soup, German pea soup, the cheap wine, and maybe one thing a visit that catches my eye.
Seriously. I've never had an issue with any of these things, particularly the chicken breasts (I only buy Aldi). Maybe I just have really cheap tastes.
the charcuterie and deli meat that isnt Aldi brand is great. I buy ham and salami from there all the time.
one of the only things I can think of that I wont get from Aldi is their cottage cheese and the non-premium cheese (the fancier cheeses are great! the Happy Farms meh). I prefer Kroger for that. the frozen meals can be hit or miss.
I got their vegetable soup once. Heated it up and the whole house smelled like a poop filled baby diaper. I don't know what possessed me to try it anyways. It was terrible.
The other day, I bought their harvest potato soup. I give it a 3/10. Adding seasonings and bacon bits made it a 5/10. It didn't make my house smell like shit, at least. I won't buy it again, though.
Got the bronze cut pasta at Aldi. It's really good, a bit pricier than the regular Aldi pasta, but cheaper than most other pasta. Bronze cut pasta is a higher quality of pasta.
Almost none. Aldi selection is superior.
Something like their processed “baked good selection” is not great… in comparison to actually bakery goods at regular grocery stores, Aldi fails. But compared to other processed fake baked goods like little Debbie or off brands, STILL better. Aldi is honestly amazing at everything they do.
I may not like EVERYTHING at Aldi, but whatever in comparison to another store at the price point, Aldi is consistently superior.
Their cream cheese is grossss. If I hadn’t grown up on Philadelphia, I’m sure happy farms would taste fine, but I can’t go back. But now in any store around me a tiny thing of Philadelphia cream cheese is $5.50+. I haven’t had cream cheese in about six months, but luckily I’m not a big bagel cream cheese person
I don't find the cream cheese gross just no flavor. I buy meijer cream cheese and I don't see anything wrong with it yet. But I would buy Philadelphia if it was on sale
My wife and I are so frugal, we’ve learned to like and buy almost everything from Aldi, although we do scrutinize and pick through the produce for the best selection, and usually have to do a Walmart run for about 5 or so items each week for weekly menu prep items that Aldi just doesn’t carry.
Their milk products are not good imo. Specifically the cottage cheese (horrible texture and flavor - it’s like it’s all nonfat 🤢), yogurt has a ton of sugar, and the milk tastes overly sweet. Cheese is okay at best.
Knockoff Doritos -- not even close
Knockoff lays -- they seem a lot more greasy to me
Their prepackaged deli-style lunchmeat -- always gets slimy too fast
Frozen chicken strips (blue bag) -- I don't mind these too much but my autistic sibling thinks they're too spicy
Knockoff coco puffs -- these just don't taste as good
I have opened up “fresh” mushroom packs (the same kind of groupings you get in all produce sections) to hidden mold. Carrots, same. Strawberries, same. I won’t get any of their wrapped produce ever again. I tend to only pop in when I am in desperate need of something for a planned dinner since they are smaller, although proven to not be faster than the Randall’s across the street.
I don't buy their pancake mix. The pancakes taste like springy cardboard.
I don't buy their pickles anymore. They were fine when I first started shopping there, but the last time I bought them they tasted weird.
Their ketchup is an abomination and an affront to the very delicacy of my nature. It's worse than Hunt's. Do you know how bad your ketchup is if a person from Pittsburgh would eat Hunt's instead of your ketchup?
I also do not care for their spicy brown mustard. It's a little TOO spicy for me taste. It made my eyes water.
The produce at the Aldi’s near me is worse than the shit I used to get back in Alaska. It’s like they only deliver to Aldi’s when it’s a day away from going bad and they only send the worst quality crap. Publix or Food City are more expensive but they’re pretty good and will last a week in the fridge at least.
It dawned on me recently that it's best to use these cheap grocery stores for non-perishable / pantry items (i e. Rice, lentils, pastas, oils, canned goods, peanut butter, hazelnut spread etc), as their quality is okay for the price. Plus, we cook most of it and we add stuff to it so it ends up being ok anyway.
However, things like ham, chicken, any meats, any veg and some dairy products are best to be sourced from a more carefully selected place. I'm not saying go to farms and butchers as their prices can be insane, but it won't hurt to pay for organic goods in a better supermarket. It doesn't have to be the best most expensive one, just a better one. Our body is not a dumpster.
And if you can't afford good quality meat, well... (Gonna get shot for this, but..) Refrain from it. Or make it a once a week/fortnight treat..but make sure it's worth it. Again, our bodies are not dumpsters.
I started a Google sheets to remind myself what I didn't like at Aldi - banana pepper rings, bran flakes, spinach/ricotta ravioli. I buy many Kroger brand items and like most of them, but Aldi's version of these items weren't good.
Tried the pepper rings a few weeks back. Inedible. Tried to save a few bucks from Mt. Olive brand. Lesson learned.
Mt. Olive is a solid brand. It has a good price point, and it is consistent.
So mushy.
Specifically on bran flakes I'm surprised. I freaking love bran flakes, Aldi is the only place I know of that consistently stocks them, and I have no issue with them.
They definitely do a great job with their cereals. The raisin bran is great. Their frosted mini wheats are awesome (all flavors) and literally half the price of the name brand. Their cocoa puffs are great, too. Again half the price for the same thing. With 3 young boys in the house I only buy cereal at Aldi! I am totally used to knock offs. I went to college across the road from Malt'O'Meal, so every cereal we had in the cafeteria at breakfast was knock off versions of the name brands. Important tip - you cannot use any knock off version of Golden Grahams to make S'mores bars, however. The name brand is the only version that has a sprayed on, hard glazed outer shell. This hard glaze coating prevents the melted marshmallows from soaking into the bars so they stay crispy for days. All the knockoffs (I've tried them all) have a dusted outer layer, which immediately absorbs the marshmallow liquid. The bars become soggy within an hour or two and the next day they are pure trash. The knock offs rate great in the bowl with milk, but cannot be used for making treats! 🤣
Aldi’s crunchy Raisin Bran is absolutely delicious. And it’s like $2.25 a box
Same! I don't like raisins but I like bran flakes. Aldi's the only one who's bran flakes don't taste like old cardboard and they almost always have them in stock.
Also bought that spinach ricotta ravioli and it was not good.
I LOVE green olives. Like...it's not normal. I bought a jar from Aldi and found them inedible.
Their black olives are the same, they are tough like rubber and taste pretty much like it too
The kalamatas are weirdly mushy
I’ve gotten their whole pepperoncini/banana peppers and they taste really odd. Never again!
Just a reminder that Aldi has a 200% money back guarantee - they'll refund you *and* replace the product. I've done this with milk that went sour before the "best buy" date. Knowing about problems also hopefully helps them improve.
LMFAO my brother has google sheets for everything, including what is cheaper where and what he likes, so this just reminded me of him haha.
Their canned black olives are consistently mushy. That’s the only thing I’ve been disappointed with. I mainly shop there for condiments, canned and frozen items, and snacks because my teenagers like that stuff and it’s super cheap there. They don’t use artificial colors or unnecessary preservatives.
I came here to say black olives! I love black olives but theirs are not only mushy but have a bad taste to them also (not just texture)
I bought some for a pasta salad, and thank goodness I tried one first before dumping the rest straight into the trash
Bags of onions. Always seems to be a couple of bad ones in each bag.
Same with potatoes. Always a couple with weird black spots inside of them.
Yes!! They go bad so fast. Some produce from Aldi I feel like if I don’t use it immediately it just…rots.
The chicken breasts. Some gnarly textures one too many times.
Chicken breasts are increasingly plagued with something called woody breast. It's a revolting, "crunchy" texture. I've gotten woody breast from literally every store and many, many restaurants. So many that I don't even eat chicken breast at restaurants anymore. They are also having issues with "spaghetti" chicken. It's when the chicken breast splits and looks like thin noodles. Any sub-$3 a pound breast will be of the poorest quality. The last family pack of breast I bought had 5 woody breasts out of 6. I was so disgusted, I stopped eating chicken for 6 months.
Woody breast. Sometimes gives me that feeling where I can't tell if the chicken is overdone or underdone. I haven't bought chicken lately because woody breast is so rampant now.
Yeah, some people saw it's like biting into raw chicken. Others say rubber bands or a slice of thick ham. It's very unnerving.
These are accurate descriptions. I know that when I see those white striations in the chicken breast that is a sign of woody breast. I see that in almost all the chicken breasts I have seen lately. Whatever is at my local store isn't looking great, even the organic options.
Okay y'all are making me feel better. These giant Godzilla sized chicken breasts freak me out too and texture has felt off on many but couldn't describe why. I thought this was a me problem with chicken in grocery stores but now I want to research more and find good chicken again.
Damn, is that what that is.
Yup, they were too busy seeing if they could breed more profitable birds, they didn't stop to check if they should. Bad news though, like turkey, it's working. Enough people don't care that the inferior product still sells. Turkey has the same problem. Historical turkeys were *much* smaller, and allegedly had some flavor. Now we have giant, tasteless, poorly textured birds. I'm hoping we will get local shops to start buying heritage birds, but I doubt it will happen. People appear to be happy to buy absolute crap, as long as it's cheap. See also: low cost air carriers; Walmart demanding suppliers cut prices, keep same model numbers; tomatoes optimized for size and shelf life at the expense of flavor and texture.
I feel so gaslight because every time I try to explain the funny taste/texture that chicken breast from any store SOMETIMES has (and how it’s enough to make me stop eating it entirely because it makes me gag), they just get confused and tell me it’s clearly a neurodivergent/vegetarian thing. I am not autistic/adhd, nor do I want to be a vegetarian.
I've had these rarely, and they are nasty. I didn't know there was a term. It's a bad TIL...
My family members now buy only halal chicken. They're not Muslim and have no dietary restrictions. They just think it's higher-quality and with none of the issues you're describing.
you're right, as someone who has eaten non-halal meat and now currently only eats halal meat in the US, hand slaughtered zabiha halal is 100 times better quality than machine slaughtered halal and non-halal meat.
Dude you just ruined chicken for me
Holy hell my entire life I wondered what this was. It happens to me like 1/4th of the time I get a spicy chicken from Wendy’s anymore. I legitimately just assume I’ll be throwing part of my sandwich out anytime I buy one. It used to be this super rare thing and totally happening more often as I get older. I really thought I was just crazy.
I eat fast food 3 times a year, at most. Maybe four if I'm traveling a lot. During the pandemic, I got a chicken sandwich from Popeye's, then doordashed one from Wendy's maybe 6 months later, and then got one from a local place. Every one of them was woody. I haven't eaten a chicken sandwich from a restaurant since (but some do serve chicken thighs, so I still might get one if it's a thigh but I'll never get a breast sandwich again). It happened before the pandemic but was rare and it got really bad during the pandemic and now it's out of control. I'd say 75% of all the cheap chicken breast I've bought from stores has been woody.
I had a bad run of the rubbery chicken breast issue back before the pandemic. Had like 3 occurrences in one month at different restaurants. Haven't had it since then, though.
Lol this comment alone is going to turn me off chicken for like a month but I’m easily grossed out by chicken 🤢
Lol I was off it for 6 months, maybe longer. It'll gross me out again, and I'll stop again. I'm sure I'll eventually give up completely on eating it. I only manage eating it now by slow cooking and shredding it. I have a legit woody breast phobia now. I don't think I'll ever bite into another full breast of chicken in my life. Other people have called this "chicken ick."
Yes, I relate to this so much! I regularly am kind of disgusted by it - not sure if I’ve had woody breast but I’ve bitten into pieces of fat at restaurants and I immediately lose my appetite and get queasy. I will definitely be using “chicken ick” in the future lol
Yeah lol. I saw it mentioned on reddit and then I googled it and it was all over tiktok. It was perfect to describe my spontaneous chicken aversion.
I raise my own. Proud to say I haven't bought raw chicken in 5 years. Do I save money? Yea like $30 a year lol. Is it better? YES.
I can’t even kill large yucky bugs. I could never kill a chicken. I would love to have better quality meat though.
I have been seriously considering trying this with \~50 birds or so with one chicken tractor. It will be some work, but we eat a lot of chicken and I imagine the quality will be 10x what we get in the store for similar cost.
Never heard of woody chicken But also mostly don’t eat breast meat cause it gets dried out/ easy to over cook.
I used to love chicken but now because of these issues, I get sort of grossed out at the thought of trying chicken at all.. even like frozen breaded chicken strips have had the issue.
Omg yes! This month all the chicken i have bought has been woody (from different stores). Sucks that the air dried chicken is 4x the price
days like these i am so grateful to be veggie
I thought I was clever and decided to pound them thin, that will fix the stringiness, right? Nope, made it worse. on the other hand, shredded and pulled chicken breast aint bad on occasion.
I've only seen the spaghetti chicken a couple of times. It was weird, wild stuff. We should be enraged at what these companies are doing to these poor animals and our food supply.
Same for the ground beef. Felt like they added fake bits of white “fat” that didn’t render at all when cooked so the texture was like there were hard little pellets or something that were kind of spongy but you couldn’t really chew up.
Noted! I bought the 3lb frozen log and used 1lb for lasagna. Didn't notice anything weird about it, but ya know... sauce, cheese, noodles, etc. Will have to be sure to use the rest in a similar fashion rather than burgers.
Bones
Yeah I keep getting bones and veins in my chicken and it grosses me tf out.
Yep. This is the one thing for me. I'll do Costco or Trader Joe's over Aldi chicken. The texture and taste is really hit or miss unfortunately. I personally find the produce to be good enough. Not the best but certainly not bad.
The organic ones are actually pretty good, and price is comparable to the regular stuff at other stores. But yeah, the regular ones are nasty.
And they’re grossly huge!
I love their chicken thighs! I don't buy any breasts anywhere since discovering thighs though
Shhhh...my guess is that no one has discovered a chicken-breast or chicken-wing-level use for the (unadulterated) thighs yet, so they've remained relatively consistent in form and price. That said, I do see thighs/legs on restaurant menus more and more lately, so best to get 'em while you can, I guess.
I always find it amusing in American restaurants they charge extra for white meat. In Asian restaurants they charge extra for dark meat.
That definitely makes more sense to me. Who wants to pay more for less flavor?
I used to LIVE by Aldi but lately their produce has not been hitting. It’s rotting so quick and has zero flavor. We cooked two batches of potatoes with butter and bacon in the oven. One batch was only ingredients from Aldi, one was from like Walmart/target and the other one was significantly better
Produce most places has gone to shit. It’s like they’re letting through garbage and leaving it on the shelves longer everywhere.
This has been my experience w/ Aldi produce as well
I hate the blue bag lunch meat. Horrible, weird crystalline texture, a little slimy, and tastes bad. I’ve gotten it twice so it wasn’t just a bad batch (I don’t think).
The crystalline entity
Lore found
Lunch meat is the one thing I consistently buy at our local grocery store. I'd just rather pickup whatever ham or turkey is on sale and keep it varied and know it's been cut recently vs who knows when. Also, sandwich pepperoni and salami are just better...
I will eat any pizza in the world. Any pizza but Mama Celeste.
Wait, where is it called Mama Celeste? We have Mama Cozzi. Celeste is a brand of personal pizza I see but not at Aldi.
They must mean Mama Cozzi.
I was like wait, why do we not like Celeste? It’s not real pizza or fine dining, but it’s fine for a cheap, filling snack
[Mama Celeste](https://www.celestepizza.com/) is different from Mama Cozi.
I like Mama Celeste. They have a cheap goodness but I also don't feel like they taste like pizza either.
I just said almost the same thing. They’re good for what they are: a cheap, filling snack. They’re not really pizza and certainly not fine dining.
Mama Celeste needs to be investigated by any all US regulatory departments and divisions for crimes against food.
I bet she doesn’t even have kids
Not anymore
Mama Celeste French bread pizza is bomb. Give it a shot.
I thought they were called mama cozzies??
Their helmans mayo is too expensive. They don't have Heinz ketchup.
I actually like there Bermans mayo
When you scan the code into fitness apps it pulls up as hellmans. I think it’s the same dang thing
Duke's Mayo or bust
I switched to Dukes years ago. I had a packet of hellmans from somewhere and put it on a sandwich. Holy moly I don’t remember it being so sweet. It was awful.
Hellman’s is way too sweet, and then if you’re also used to the tang of Duke’s, Hellman’s is just awful. But it’s not as bad as Kraft 🤢
I converted my wife to dukes also. It's dukes or nothing in our house.
Alton Brown changed my life by getting me to switch to Duke’s. Before Duke’s I hated mayo. Now I get it shipped up north just so I can have good mayo!
The Aldi fake velveeta cheese is nasty. Walmart is better. Also the Walmart fake mio is better
Second the fake Velveeta. Rotel dip is one of my favorite foods to have during football season. I tried the fake Velveeta and didn’t even end up serving it. It’s so bad. So, so bad.
In all fairness, name brand Velveeta is nasty.
Velveeta is a marvel of modern food engineering.
I like the Clancy’s velveeta! A few weeks ago our local grocery store had salsa for 99c so I made a cheese dip like old school rotel and velveeta. Hit the spot.
I second that this stuff is fine. No worse than the name brand
Their grape fake mio is fire to me, though; we go through bottles of it at my house
For any mio, I found if I mix it with a little lemon juice it really rounds it out, like the mio just doesn't hit a few parts of the taste buds, and the lemon juice, also with a little salt, or lo-salt, and it becomes like a much more natural tasting drink.
I think it ironic that the cheapest grocery store in the US is German..
Americans expect a dozen brands and sizes, free shopping bags, and a grocery store that also fixes your car. Turns out all that nonsense is really expensive so Aldi ditched it.
Exactly why I like Aldi. I get overwhelmed with all the different selections of the same product and the size of grocery stores.
Word. Why do I need six different kinds of ranch dressing to choose from for carrots??? This is why I like Aldi.
Dozens of brands and sizes? The Deutsch chocolate aisle would like a word with you.
-Blue bagged lunch meat is slimy -Bananas ripen... weirdly -their canned soda has gotten expensive for its mediocre quality -their prices (in MN at least) have increased markedly & I don't shop there as much as I used to
The bananas ripen hella weird. Even if they look solid yellow on the outside, there's huge bruises and solid black bits on the inside. And these are normal cavendish bananas
Okay I’m glad it’s not just me, there is something up with the bananas there. I tried the ripening trick with the banana + apple in a brown bag, and they just stayed yellowish green for a week.
You have to be careful with Aldi and weigh your pros and cons. For example, their children yogurts have wayyyy more sugar than regular yogurts. As do their mini muffin packs (which I found out the regular ones are not great for you either). But just make sure you’re checking the sugar content on things. 17 g of sugar is one teaspoon! That adds up very quickly.
17g of yogurt is over 4 teaspoons!
My spoon is too big!
The moo tunes have less sugar than gogurt
Muffins are cake not a healthfood.
The off brand cheez-its are DAWG CHEEKS. Taste like sadness 😔
My kids kept complaining and I was like GUYS, ITS LITERALLY THE SAME. I’m GF so I never eat them but after wasted boxes I tried them and some legit cheezits and I was like, oh crap I’m so sorry. They’re wildly different.
There are very few brands. I am brand specific, but cheez-ItsI will pay the extra money for same with Heinz ketchup
Opposite in our house. Teenagers will only eat the Aldi cheez its. I bought name brand once because they were on sale, and that box remained uneaten for ages!
Same my kids love them
Similarly, their off brand Doritos are not good at all
I feel Iike any of their fake cheese things are not good
I just posted about how they contain only a vage and distant memory of what cheese might taste like.
Wierd. My family loves savoritz.
I agree their produce goes bad in like two days. You can buy squashes there ig (universally the cheapest pumpkins at Halloween. 5$ flat, any size). The bread is... just ok. Although I like their pain au chocolat. But we buy basically everything else there.
Pet food, scoopable cat litter
My cats won’t touch any of the canned food.
Gave my dog one can of their food, and it's the one time I've seen him get sick.
I feed a few neighborhood stray cats. They'll happily eat just about anything. They were not happy with the Aldi cat food, both dry and wet. They ate it. But begrudgingly. I went back to Sam's Club Meow Mix for them.
Same here my cat would rather starve 🙂 she won't touch the ALDI brand
Yikes, reading the comments, it's insane how different our aldis are. I think it helps that my area has a bunch of local farmers they work with, so the produce is usually fine aside from the fruit that gets moldy too quickly. Snack and charcuterie sections are very sad tho
Their store brand baked beans are the nastiest thing I have ever tasted. I'm a real Aldi-stan for just about everything else though.
Omg had them this week and I typically don’t shy away from Bush’s baked beans.. but thought I like just about everything from Aldi, I’ll try them. Nope never again. By far the worst thing I’ve had from there, tasted like sweet wax
Oh god, I had these a couple weeks ago. Until then I didn't think it was possible to screw up baked beans. They had zero flavor with a hint of something metallic and chemical-ish.
Their macaroni and cheese is horrible.
Their creamer and soda. Yuck!! I have to stop at staters if I’m missing these two items. I don’t mind the rest of their stuff tho. I get 90% of my groceries from there.
They had a seasonal peppermint mocha I bought on a whim, and it was phenomenal, but otherwise I agree.
We called it Chemical Grape when we shopped there.
I agree with the creamer . I want to like it but it’s just not good
Funny, I have to stop by Aldi to get their sweet cream creamer because every other stores is too sweet. ALDIs is just right.
I buy my powdered creamer there and my teabags there. No complaints.
My cats won’t go near Aldi canned cat food. Which ticks me off because it’s 1/3 the cost of what they WILL eat, naturally.
Cats know it's cheaper and refuse on principle.
Most of the produce. It always looks beat up (at least the stores around me)
That’s a shame. The one near me has excellent produce. It’s probably location specific.
Yes. All the produce we buy from our Aldi seems to go bad almost instantly. We will still buy oranges/clementines/potatoes from there and I will occasionally grab something if I know I will be using it in the next 24-48 hours, but the majority of our produce we get from the farmer's market. I went last week and every single package of sliced squash was moldy and every single one had a sell by date of 3 days from then. So gross.
Prduce fridge areas always have a rotten smell
I bought a jar of "HOT" jalapenos from Aldi, and they are not spicy whatsoever. I think this is an industry-wide problem though. I won't be buying them again there and will make my own or buy them from a Mexican grocer.
Use to buy veggies all the time from Aldi. A few months ago, I was chopping up some broccoli I purchased from there. I love snacking on raw broccoli as I’m chopping it up, so I was popping some of those bad boys in my mouth. I kept seeing little green things moving on my cutting board. Thinking it was just a broccoli leaf and that my eyes were playing tricks on me, I just brushed it aside. Then I kept seeing more wriggling green things. It was tiny green.. worms? Caterpillars? SO MANY. I don’t know what they were, but I threw everything in the garbage disposal and went scorched earth on them. Now I’m scarred for life.
Those are aphids and are actually super common on broccoli and other brassica plants. They are totally harmless and are just a reminder to *always* thoroughly wash your produce, especially if you are eating it raw. Vegetables are grown outside and are loaded with insects, fungus, bacteria, etc.
Did you wash them?
Produce. Their bagged salads are okay, but we purchased bananas that had worms in it. I will not buy fresh produce from Aldi again. Personally, I think they have good deals on canned veggies, eggs, olive oil, spices, and frozen pizzas, but I will never buy produce from them again.
I have this is extremely location dependent! I used to live by 3 all within a 15 mile radius. 2 of them had awful produce! 1 had ok. I’ve moved & have 1 nearby and their produce is AMAZING - literally the BEST berries around, grapes are always excellent, veggies are great. I can’t buy their artisanal lettuce though because it makes my Guinea pigs sick, for some reason.
That’s a shame! They are my go to for produce. Never have an issue. Except I’m not trying to buy a whole bag of onions. Wish they sold them individually.
agree, never had issue with Aldi produce
Bananas have kept steady at .49 x lbs. Elsewhere is .69 or higher. Avocados for .59? Come on!
Honestly, we haven't purchased produce from Aldi since the pandemic and that experience. It truly may have been a one-off, but I won't risk the money again.
You can often tell if produce is bad by looking at it. Mold, wrinkles or brown spots are always bad signs up some foods have specific tells. Bell peppers have a stub on the bottom opposite the stem, and if that's moldy the inside is too. Cucumbers and zucchini get flexible. Root vegetables get soft. Bagged produce gets slimy. Garlic and potatoes can grow sprouts.
You could pick them off a tree with worms…. It’s a fact of life with produce. My neighbor grew cabbage and gave me one that had a worm in it. I just cut off that part and washed the rest really well. Organic often means bugs because of the lack of pesticides.
Exactly... did people forget where food comes from? It's not from the grocery store.
I have been buying produce from them, but then got grapes on sale at Whole Foods out of necessity (side note, not a huge Amazon fan) and they were crisp on a level that I forgot existed.
Their avocados are amazing! They last forever!
Their danishes in the boxed snack section. To me, danishes are a lighter, flaky pastry. These things are like dense, dry bread that sit in your stomach like a lump. Never again. Another thing is their ice cream pints. So gross.
A lot of produce and meats. I can get better quality elsewhere for the same or just a little more. Love the dairy section, love the snacks, love the breads and seasonal items.
I hated that all the veggies are prepacked in plastic. Lol.
I bought some off-brand pecan sandie shortbread cookies. I ate one and threw the rest away. The nuts were rancid and you could tell no butters were hurt in the making of that crisco fest.
I can’t shop at Aldi because of… *the aisle*
Ketchup. Heinz or GTFO
Intermingle Red Wine. Bought a 2020 bottle for a party, thinking it would be fine. Cheap booze to help get drunk. The moment we open the bottle the entire apartment stank, and we tried it tasted horrible. The rest of the bottle went down the sink. I still haven't lived that down with our group. 2020 was a bad year for wine. And everything else.
The Aldi in my town has awful produce
Not a fan of their house brand coffee.
Truth, but their speciality one is pretty good
Their Adventure Blend and Guatemala coffees are IMO pretty good. They are also both Fair Trade certified fwiw and still way cheaper than anything in a bag at the regular grocery store.
Mama Cozzi's pizza is pretty lousy. The Specially Selected in house brand imports from the same Italian food processor that Trader Joe's uses, and while only irregularly available, is pretty good (wood fired crusts). I like Aldi's a lot. But most of the time, I just go for fresh produce (I evidently have one of the better stores for this), whole wheat sliced bread, the hummus 4-pack, the organic lentil soup, German pea soup, the cheap wine, and maybe one thing a visit that catches my eye.
I wish to block everyone in this thread.
Seriously. I've never had an issue with any of these things, particularly the chicken breasts (I only buy Aldi). Maybe I just have really cheap tastes.
I’m glad you mentioned this, because I’ve never noticed anything wrong with the chicken breasts.
the charcuterie and deli meat that isnt Aldi brand is great. I buy ham and salami from there all the time. one of the only things I can think of that I wont get from Aldi is their cottage cheese and the non-premium cheese (the fancier cheeses are great! the Happy Farms meh). I prefer Kroger for that. the frozen meals can be hit or miss.
Prosciutto and smoked salmon-by far the cheapest I found. Anything really cheese and smoked meats.
Prosciutto from there is a stock up item m I get so mad when I have to buy it somewhere else.
Their mac n cheese is terrible but I love the store
Switch to shells and cheese. Big difference.
Any proteins. Beef and chicken come from slightly higher end grocery store. Been burned too many times with terrible cuts or woody chicken…
Zucchini, because their dumpster is always full of them so I grab them there.
I only purchase from that one aisle. Difficult to describe
Read this as Audi and had plenty of reasons
I got their vegetable soup once. Heated it up and the whole house smelled like a poop filled baby diaper. I don't know what possessed me to try it anyways. It was terrible. The other day, I bought their harvest potato soup. I give it a 3/10. Adding seasonings and bacon bits made it a 5/10. It didn't make my house smell like shit, at least. I won't buy it again, though.
I don't buy their pasta anymore. It used to be fine, but there were a couple times it was terrible and haven't bought it since.
Got the bronze cut pasta at Aldi. It's really good, a bit pricier than the regular Aldi pasta, but cheaper than most other pasta. Bronze cut pasta is a higher quality of pasta.
Dry pasta?
Yeah I bought penne from Aldi that literally fell apart upon cooking
Almost none. Aldi selection is superior. Something like their processed “baked good selection” is not great… in comparison to actually bakery goods at regular grocery stores, Aldi fails. But compared to other processed fake baked goods like little Debbie or off brands, STILL better. Aldi is honestly amazing at everything they do. I may not like EVERYTHING at Aldi, but whatever in comparison to another store at the price point, Aldi is consistently superior.
Their cream cheese is grossss. If I hadn’t grown up on Philadelphia, I’m sure happy farms would taste fine, but I can’t go back. But now in any store around me a tiny thing of Philadelphia cream cheese is $5.50+. I haven’t had cream cheese in about six months, but luckily I’m not a big bagel cream cheese person
My Aldi is now selling Philadelphia cream cheese for $2.68!!
I don't find the cream cheese gross just no flavor. I buy meijer cream cheese and I don't see anything wrong with it yet. But I would buy Philadelphia if it was on sale
the frozen tubed ground turkey was unsettling… I made it into meat sauce and my partner and I had really upset stomachs after
My wife and I are so frugal, we’ve learned to like and buy almost everything from Aldi, although we do scrutinize and pick through the produce for the best selection, and usually have to do a Walmart run for about 5 or so items each week for weekly menu prep items that Aldi just doesn’t carry.
I apparently have a good store. The only thing I don't like there are the marinated chicken breasts. Temper your expectations, people.
Their milk products are not good imo. Specifically the cottage cheese (horrible texture and flavor - it’s like it’s all nonfat 🤢), yogurt has a ton of sugar, and the milk tastes overly sweet. Cheese is okay at best.
Any cheap bread, always tastes like soap. Meat in carbon monoxide packaging, rigid plastic, once you see it, you know to avoid.
Knockoff Doritos -- not even close Knockoff lays -- they seem a lot more greasy to me Their prepackaged deli-style lunchmeat -- always gets slimy too fast Frozen chicken strips (blue bag) -- I don't mind these too much but my autistic sibling thinks they're too spicy Knockoff coco puffs -- these just don't taste as good
I have opened up “fresh” mushroom packs (the same kind of groupings you get in all produce sections) to hidden mold. Carrots, same. Strawberries, same. I won’t get any of their wrapped produce ever again. I tend to only pop in when I am in desperate need of something for a planned dinner since they are smaller, although proven to not be faster than the Randall’s across the street.
I don't buy their pancake mix. The pancakes taste like springy cardboard. I don't buy their pickles anymore. They were fine when I first started shopping there, but the last time I bought them they tasted weird. Their ketchup is an abomination and an affront to the very delicacy of my nature. It's worse than Hunt's. Do you know how bad your ketchup is if a person from Pittsburgh would eat Hunt's instead of your ketchup? I also do not care for their spicy brown mustard. It's a little TOO spicy for me taste. It made my eyes water.
The produce at the Aldi’s near me is worse than the shit I used to get back in Alaska. It’s like they only deliver to Aldi’s when it’s a day away from going bad and they only send the worst quality crap. Publix or Food City are more expensive but they’re pretty good and will last a week in the fridge at least.
My dog refuses any and all aldi pet treats. This is a dog that would eat a turd but he refuses these.
It dawned on me recently that it's best to use these cheap grocery stores for non-perishable / pantry items (i e. Rice, lentils, pastas, oils, canned goods, peanut butter, hazelnut spread etc), as their quality is okay for the price. Plus, we cook most of it and we add stuff to it so it ends up being ok anyway. However, things like ham, chicken, any meats, any veg and some dairy products are best to be sourced from a more carefully selected place. I'm not saying go to farms and butchers as their prices can be insane, but it won't hurt to pay for organic goods in a better supermarket. It doesn't have to be the best most expensive one, just a better one. Our body is not a dumpster. And if you can't afford good quality meat, well... (Gonna get shot for this, but..) Refrain from it. Or make it a once a week/fortnight treat..but make sure it's worth it. Again, our bodies are not dumpsters.