The Ultimate Ranking Of Aldi Frozen Breakfast Items

I love breakfast foods, but not at breakfast time — long live brinner! My kids, on the other hand, wake up hungry every morning, and though they're perfectly capable of pouring themselves a bowl of cereal, I still have to make them a hot breakfast once in a while, lest I be consumed by mom guilt.

Still, it's kind of a pain to whip up an entire meal from scratch when you don't expect to eat very much (if any) of it yourself, so I was excited to get my hands on every frozen breakfast item my neighborhood Aldi had on its shelves. Aldi has tons of budget-friendly frozen foods, and though not every Aldi find I tried knocked it out of the park, most were at least "good enough" for the price, and some were downright delicious. But which ones earned a permanent spot in my freezer? Keep reading to find out!

I really wanted to love the Breakfast Best protein cinnamon French toast sticks. My kids' football season is coming up, and it's a real struggle to keep them fully fueled when they're outside running several hours a day. Unfortunately, these missed the mark for me and my kids. Though they were lighter and fluffier than I expected them to be, they still had a dry, gritty whole-grain texture that was somewhat unappealing, and they seemed to have been topped with less cinnamon and sugar than the regular cinnamon French toast sticks. My kids took one bite each and refused to take another.

If you're a fan of the texture of whole-grain baked goods, then the protein French toast sticks might be right up your alley, especially if you're looking for ways to sneak more protein into your diet. But for just seven extra grams of protein per serving compared to the standard version, it's not a worthwhile tradeoff in my eyes. I'd rather heat up a couple of sausage links to go with the basic French toast sticks and get a boost of protein and pleasure.

The Meat Lovers breakfast bowl is a breakfast hash (or scramble, or skillet) made with scrambled eggs, diced potatoes, sausage, bacon, and cheddar cheese. And before I say anything about the dish itself, I have to acknowledge that, at $2 a serving for 24 grams of protein that takes three minutes to prepare in the microwave, as long as it's at least tolerably edible, I'm going to be happy with it.

That being said, while it's certainly good, it's far from the best scramble I've ever had. To begin with, "Meat Lovers" is a rather generous label for a dish with only two meats. You couldn't give us just a smidgen of ham, Aldi? And the cheese is better than I expected, with an undeniable cheddar aroma and plenty of stretch. Unfortunately, there's not enough of it to really hold the dish together. All the individual ingredients are great, but without any sauce and with such a small amount of cheese, it's just not cohesive.

My experience with high-protein baked goods hasn't been great, but the buttermilk and vanilla protein waffles from Aldi were better than I expected. The whole wheat flour makes them darker than the homestyle waffles, and though they do have a slightly gritty texture from the whole wheat, they're much lighter and fluffier than any protein pastry I've tried. The vanilla flavor is a bit intense, but it's a generally pleasant departure from the typical plain waffle flavor.

But the thing is, even though Breakfast Best protein waffles are very good for what they are, they're still trading flavor and texture for a rather disappointing protein boost. The protein waffles have six grams of protein per waffle, compared to two grams in the homestyle waffles. That's just eight extra grams per two-waffle serving — roughly equivalent to an ounce of peanut butter. So if I'm trying to get extra protein in my diet, I'll just slather a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter on my homestyle waffles instead.

Like the Meat Lovers breakfast bowl, the sausage and gravy bowl has crumbled sausage and scrambled egg, diced potatoes, and cheese. But unlike the Meat Lovers version, this breakfast bowl is topped with a drizzle of sausage gravy, and that makes all the difference.

Whereas the Meat Lovers bowl was crumbly and incohesive, the sausage and gravy bowl feels like a more put-together dish. The gravy holds it together, physically and figuratively, bringing extra flavor to the party and keeping all the component parts from falling off the fork. It's not the best breakfast hash I've ever had — the potatoes and eggs themselves are a little bland, offering up more texture than taste, leaving the sausage and gravy to do the heavy lifting. Still, at two bucks a serving and with 24 grams of protein, it's a really awesome value.

Just about the only thing I'll willingly eat from McDonald's is a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit, and I was hopeful that the Breakfast Best frozen version would be at least comparable, even if the lack of instructions for any appliance other than the microwave was a little bit concerning. And though it took nearly twice as long as the recommended time to thaw before cranking up the power to 100 for the final phase of the cooking cycle, it turned out surprisingly well.

The biscuit isn't nearly as buttery and crumbly as McDonald's, which was a bit of a bummer, and it did get a little chewy around the edges, which is to be expected. Bread is, after all, one of several things you probably shouldn't microwave. But the sausage patty is bursting with flavor, the cheese is melty and gooey, and the scrambled egg round is virtually identical to the ones at McDonald's. For just over a dollar per serving and 14 grams of protein, I can handle a bit of chewy biscuit.

I'm super impressed with the frozen waffles from Aldi — and that's saying a lot, since I've tried and ranked the waffles at five chain restaurants. I grew up on Eggo waffles, with their sharp, crusty peaks, but the Breakfast Best waffles have a nice, flat grid that brings all the same flavor with none of the ouch.

It took one cycle in the toaster on low to get them warm, and one more cycle to get them toasty. I was afraid they were going to get too hard — a common problem with toaster waffles — but the texture was absolutely perfect. They were soft on the inside and just crusty enough on the outside to hold up to as much syrup as you feel like pouring on. And they're simple enough that my kids can make them on their own, so it's a win all around.

My favorite thing about the Breakfast Best original sausage patties is how quick they are to prepare. Even opting for the stovetop over the microwave, they took only about 10 minutes to thaw and heat, and that's only because I like my sausage patties extra well-done with a little bit of char. Anything that saves time making breakfast in the morning is a win in my book, so that's a point in favor of these patties.

The sausage tastes pretty good, too, though I'm not doing any cartwheels over it. Though the package says "turkey added," it tastes like a pretty high ratio of turkey to pork, and it's lacking in seasonings, especially pepper. I like a sausage that bites back just a little bit, and this one just doesn't. But my kids will probably love it, and when it comes to cooking breakfast, that's one of the most important things.

Like the biscuit breakfast sandwiches, the sausage, egg, and cheese croissant took longer to defrost than the package described before turning up the microwave power for the final cooking stage. And, like the biscuit sandwiches, the croissant got a little bit chewy in the microwave. It's also not the most attractive sandwich. The croissant flakes off somewhat when removing the paper towel after cooking, and you can't even see the sausage, egg, or cheese before cutting into it. I tried to cut it in half to get a better picture, but the toughened croissant wouldn't cut cleanly without tearing.

Still, the croissant does hold up better in the microwave than the biscuit — I was able to eat the whole thing, whereas I had to throw out the last couple of bites of the biscuit because it was too tough to chew. And it more than makes up for its shortcomings in taste. It's a very effective copycat for a comparable Tim Hortons sandwich (aside from the microwave side effects), for roughly a third of the price per sandwich and without waiting in a drive-thru line, so I really can't complain about much.

I've tried and ranked store-bought pancake mixes, so I've gotten pretty picky about pancakes. And while the Breakfast Best frozen buttermilk pancakes are better than I expected, they don't quite measure up to most consumer mixes. Don't get me wrong — they're surprisingly good. I prepared them in the toaster, and with two cycles on low, they popped up nice and warm, and just a little bit crustier than homemade pancakes. I had expected them to be much firmer out of the toaster than they were, so that was a plus.

They're quite sweet on their own, even before adding syrup, but I prefer just a hint of savoriness in a pancake to balance and enhance the sweetness of the syrup. And that slightly crusty outer surface made them difficult to cut with just a fork. I can only imagine how tough they would have been if I'd followed the microwave instructions instead.

But one unusual feature I like is how they're packaged. Inside the outer bag is a plastic sleeve with stacks of three pancakes sealed into individual segments. I love that this will reduce freezer burn, no matter how long they last in my freezer, though I do wish they were divided into pairs or stacks of four. Running two more cycles in my two-slice toaster just for a single straggling pancake is a bit of a nuisance — by the time the third pancake is done, the first two start to go cold. Still, overall, I love that I can toss these in the toaster when my kids ask for pancakes the second my eyes open.

After feeling pretty neutral about the original sausage patties, I wasn't hoping for a whole lot out of the Breakfast Best maple sausage patties, but they turned out to be a huge surprise. They browned a little darker than the original patties in the same skillet for the same amount of time, taking on just a little bit of char, which adds a nice layer of flavor.

The maple flavor is there, for sure, but it doesn't taste like it's been drowned in syrup. It's just enough sweetness to make me forgive the lack of spice in the sausage itself. Between the maple and the char, I don't even care how much turkey is in the sausage. It tastes just right. I'll be keeping a pack of these in my freezer from now on.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of the original French toast sticks. After all, I've ranked the French toast at popular breakfast chains, so my standards for French toast are quite high. And yet, these French toast sticks blew my expectations out of the water.

Though there are instructions for microwave and oven preparation, I've not had great luck with microwaving bread in the past, so I went with the oven method. It's eight minutes total in the oven — so quick, in fact, it may be worth it to skip preheating altogether. The sticks come out crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside, and the flavor is as good as the best French toast I've had. At around $3.50 for four five-stick servings, I'll be keeping a box of these in the freezer for my kids at all times.

After trying the original French toast sticks, I eagerly dove into my pile of double cinnamon French toast sticks. And, as I had hoped, they were even better than the original. They have the same delicate crunch on the outside and warm, gooey middles, with the added bonus of cinnamon sugar in the batter and sprinkled on top.

The inside is so soft and pillowy, it's almost more like a cake than a bread. These tasty little morsels are so good, I didn't even think about reaching for the maple syrup. I could gladly snack on these all day, and I am 100 percent certain that my kids are going to devour them. This is a super easy breakfast to toss in the oven for the whole family, and though it could use a protein on the side, Aldi has got you covered there, too.

Though I usually prefer my breakfast sausage links in a casing, Aldi's uncased sausage links are shockingly good. Unlike the dried-out, crumbly, uncased links I've had in the past, the Breakfast Best pre-cooked links are moist and tender, even when cooked until slightly charred in a skillet — which, by the way, only took about eight minutes.

And unlike the pre-cooked breakfast patties, the heat-and-serve sausage links have plenty of black pepper flavor. They can also be cooked in a microwave, so if you're in a rush or would rather not dirty a pan, you can still have tasty sausage links in just two minutes. I suspect these would come out just fine in the microwave, too, so I can see myself going that route to serve these as a side dish alongside the French toast sticks. And at just over a dollar for 10 links, the price is just right, too.

I'm a fan of a good corndog from time to time, and I've whipped up the occasional batch of bacon pancakes. The pancakes and sausage on a stick from Aldi seem like an interesting hybrid of the two, so I was very much looking forward to trying them.

There are instructions for the microwave, oven, and air fryer on the package, and though the microwave would have been quicker, I opted for the oven. It still takes under 25 minutes, and that's all hands-off cooking time, which means I can be off getting the kids (or myself) ready for the day while breakfast is doing its thing in the kitchen. I don't mind a bit of a wait, as long as I can multitask, so this is a huge point in its favor.

They look, smell, and taste like a corndog, but with the more complex flavor of the breakfast sausage. The pancake batter breading is golden brown and crispy on the outside, but slightly thinner and sweeter than a traditional corndog. It's so good, in fact, that it might just convince me to enjoy a hot breakfast myself once in a while rather than sticking to my usual routine of living on coffee until mid-afternoon.

I grabbed every single frozen breakfast item I could find out of my local Aldi's freezer section and brought them home to try. I prepared each one according to its package directions, opting for oven or stovetop preparation, where available, as I generally find microwaves to give less-than-perfect results, and I wanted to try each dish at its very best. Since each item is unique, there weren't any strict side-by-side comparison metrics I could use, so I was forced to use a somewhat vibes-based scale. 

Overall flavor, texture, and quality were, of course, the top factors I considered, but I also thought about whether I could see myself eating each dish for breakfast (or dinner), as well as whether my kids would enjoy it. Since nearly everything at Aldi is unbelievably inexpensive, value for the price was not a major deciding factor for any item, though in the case of dishes that didn't immediately tickle my fancy, excellent value did lead me to forgive some of their faults. The top-ranked dish is a budget-friendly crowd-pleaser that's easy to make, satisfying on its own without having to prep anything extra, and delicious for the kids and grown-ups alike.