The Aldi Meal Kit You'll Never Catch Me Buying Again

Like many Aldi shoppers, I'm always on the hunt for delicious products that make mealtime easier and quicker, which is what initially drove me to try the Park Street Deli Teriyaki Udon with Chicken. I found it in the refrigerated section at my local store, and admittedly, I had high hopes for it. It's a pretty hefty dinner-sized product, boasting 3.5 servings of udon noodles, antibiotic-free teriyaki chicken, and vegetables. Right off the bat, it touches all the bases for protein, starch, and veggies, so I figured there wasn't much it could screw up — but boy, was I wrong. 

This meal, which was priced at a steep $7.99 at my local store, was not the restaurant-quality stir-fry I was expecting. My biggest complaint was it's, like, 99% noodles. While the packaging shows pretty sizable pieces of chicken and red pepper, there was little chicken and pepper to report. Instead, there were small flecks of chicken frozen in the provided sauce packet paired with sad, discolored pieces of red pepper. Those paltry chicken bits were smaller than my fingernail, meaning there was no meat to go with my noodles. 

If I'd known I were going to get an entire plate of noodles out of this meal, I would have just taken a walk down the pasta aisle and gotten a box of spaghetti instead. And the fact that I paid $7.99 for a pack of noodles and mediocre sauce made me feel even more slighted.

The first thing I did after I cooked up this pack of noodles (and decided it wasn't deserving of the title of "stir-fry") was check out Reddit to see what other folks had to say about it. And it turns out I wasn't the only one who had beef (err ... chicken?) with this ready-to-eat meal. Some users expressed similar complaints about the lack of meat in the sauce packet, while others lamented the taste of the sauce itself, saying it was far too sweet. I didn't think the sauce was that far off-base, though I did think it lacked the sticky depth of a great stir-fry sauce. 

Another complaint was about the ginger-forward sauce, and the more I thought about it, the more I agreed that it was the predominant aroma and flavor note. "The only thing good about them was the little onion and chili packet that made ramen noodles delicious," said one Reddit user, and I have to agree that the aromatics were a nice touch. However, even I can admit that this move was like trying to put lipstick on a pig, and I would have much rather preferred fresh chopped scallions instead. 

The good news about this meal kit is that there are ways to doctor it up to make it more palatable. Aldi has an excellent selection of affordable meat, and since the chicken flavor isn't that prominent anyway, if you don't want chicken, you can even add shrimp or beef to it without worrying about changing its flavor at all. Personally, I was very glad to have a bag of frozen broccoli and a pack of versatile tofu I could add to this meal, both to give it more heft and to break up the textural monotony of the noodles. If you don't like the gingery-sweet sauce, you can purchase one of Aldi's other stir-fry sauces (I think the Burman's teriyaki sauce is leaps and bounds above whatever was included in this meal). But if you're going to take it that far, wouldn't it just be better to buy the udon separately rather than opt for this comparatively expensive meal?

I have tried some of Aldi's other stir-fry meals, both frozen and from the deli section, and I'll say this: If you're craving an alternative to your favorite Chinese takeout, you might be better off buying from another grocer. Aldi does so many products well — pre-made stir-fry just isn't one of them.