Aldi has been attracting a lot of buzz lately, and rightly so — it routinely beats rivals like Walmart and Kroger on prices, and its compact stores are packed with both low-cost staples and surprisingly high-brow finds, including a lot of organic foods. While its frozen-food section is much smaller than what you’ll find at larger supermarkets, there are plenty of buys that are worthy of that precious real estate in your home freezer. Here are some of our favorites.
Price: $5.99
Aldi is a great place to buy meat for way cheaper than other stores, and there are some pretty good values in the frozen section, too. While Kirkwood’s regular frozen chicken breasts should be a staple, don’t pass up the breaded version. Aldi Reviewer proclaims them to be on par with restaurant food, calling them “crisp, well seasoned, and undeniably tasty.”
Price: $2.49
What would you do for a Klondike Bar? As far as we’re concerned, that’s a trick question, because we skip them entirely in favor of Aldi’s Sundae Shoppe version. A staple in our home freezer, Aldi’s treats are a near-perfect dupe for Klondikes, but they cost only about 42 cents each, compared with around 58 cents each for the name brand at Kroger.
Price: $5.29
The Aldi Reviewer declares this Aldi staple an easy winner in a head-to-head taste test with Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken. That’s saying a lot, since the latter is one of TJ’s all-time customer favorites. The main difference: Meatier pieces, plus sauce with a little more of a kick.
Price: $4.99
Berries are bound to be a staple in any smoothie lover's freezer, but the price premium for organic versions can add up. At Aldi, organic frozen strawberries and blueberries are both about 21 cents an ounce, while Kroger sells them for about 25 cents an ounce.
Price: $5.99
Sometimes you just want rib-sticking comfort food, and that’s what you get with Bremer Shepherd’s Pie. Brand Eating gives it high marks, noting veggies with “a surprising amount of texture and crunch,” a flavorful sauce, and plentiful beef. And at about $1.50 a serving, it’s a pretty cost-effective weeknight meal.
Price: $1.19
Toaster waffles are one of those conveniences that make a busy morning just slightly more tolerable. Happily, we’ve tasted Aldi’s Breakfast Best waffles and declared them nearly indistinguishable from Eggo — except, of course, for the much cheaper price. A same-size package of Eggos runs $2.59 at Kroger.
Price: $2.49
Aldi’s seafood often earns raves from customers, and its Specially Selected Mussels (yep, Aldi has mussels) are no exception. “The mussels were chewy but not rubbery, and the flavor was salty and briny,” raves Aldi Reviewer. “It reminded us strongly of our trips to the beach because it was like eating something cooked in seawater, in the best possible way.” Choose from plain, garlic butter, or tomato garlic.
Price: $5.49
These Totino’s copycats also emerged from our taste test victorious, with a slightly cheesier flavor that we thought made them a winner. Of course, they’re also a lot easier on the budget, at 12 cents an ounce versus 17 cents an ounce for Totino’s at Kroger.
Price: $2.99
Halo Top made a big splash when it introduced ice-cream lovers to a lower-calorie, higher-protein version of everyone’s favorite summer treat. Happily, Aldi’s version gets the seal of approval from Eat This, Not That for tasting just like the name brand. It’s also only a few bucks a pint, compared with $4.49 for Halo Top at Kroger.
Price: $3.89
Calling all vegetarians: One Redditor proclaims these “hands down the best thing I have eaten in my entire life,” and they attract similarly glowing reviews from a wide range of bloggers. They were also a Product of the Year winner for 2020, an award based on votes from more than 40,000 consumers. Get ‘em in two flavors: classic or zesty Italian.
Price: $4.99
Sandwich Bros. Chicken Melts are a staple on our Costco frozen-food favorites list, and they never last long in our house. But sometimes they mysteriously disappear from Costco, or we’re just not up for a trip to the warehouse. In either case, Aldi’s Bremer Chicken Pita Melts are an equally tasty substitute. Full disclosure: You’ll pay about 83 cents a sandwich at Aldi, versus 72 cents at Costco. Still, that’s better than 92 cents a pop for the name brand at Walmart.
Price: $5.05
We’re a little ashamed to admit that “breakfast on a stick” is a thing in our house, but, well, it’s a thing (we blame the kids). Aldi Reviewer sums this Breakfast Best product up pretty well: “It’s a little weird by breakfast food standards, but it’s actually pretty tasty.” Even better, the price works out to about 51 cents each, compared with about 77 cents each for the Jimmy Dean brand at Kroger.
Price: $3.59
Meatless burgers can be a great alternative to red meat, but many are bland and mushy. Not so with this Aldi favorite, named a 2019 Best New Product Award Winner by BrandSpark. One YouTube reviewer proclaims it among the best veggie patties she’s tasted, and it’s something you can feel pretty good about eating: It’s cholesterol-free, only 130 calories, and packs in 6 grams of protein a serving.
Related: Can’t Get Ground Beef? This Meatless Burger Fooled Our Tasters
Price: $5.79
Sometimes you just need to fill that pizza-shaped hole in your stomach, but the price of delivery adds to the guilt. Pick up a gloriously gluttonous Mama Cozzi’s Stuffed Crust Three Meat Pizza from Aldi’s for far less than you’d spend at Domino’s or Pizza Hut and savor the savings. It doesn’t taste half bad, either, says Aldi Reviewer, comparing it to what you might get from DiGiorno.
Price: $1.99
Cheesecake is a pain to make yourself, and it’s so rich that making it through an entire pie can be hard unless there’s a crowd. Easy solution: Aldi’s Belmont New York Cheesecake, which comes in two-slice servings in flavors like original, turtle, and strawberry. If you’re really lucky, you can even score a box of cheesecake bites and try all three flavors at once.
Price: $3.49
Our kids have never met a vegetable they preferred to eat in anything resembling its natural form, so snacks like Aldi’s Simply Nature Broccoli Bites are the next best thing. They get the stamp of approval from the Aldi Nerd’s young reviewers, too. Other varieties to watch for are sweet potato or spinach and kale.
Price: $4.49
Aldi’s surprisingly robust selection of gluten-free foods includes glazed and chocolate donuts in the frozen-food case. Gluten-Free Baking says they nailed it with the glazed variety, raving that they have a light, non-gritty texture with just the right amount of glaze.
Price: $3.79
Sometimes there’s nothing quite like heating up a few cheap frozen taquitos and dipping them in a glob of nacho cheese. Aldi’s taquitos are a staple in our freezer for just that reason. Available in beef and chicken, they come out of the oven plenty crispy, and of course they’re cheaper than name-brand counterparts like Jose Ole and El Monterey.
Price: $9.99
Go figure: Aldi is the last place we expected to find succulent scallops, but here they are. Redditors are believers and we are, too, especially since they’re about $5 cheaper than a nearly identical package of frozen scallops from Kroger.