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112 of 118 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works like a charm!, September 6, 2006
This review is from: MIU Stainless-Steel Professional Mandoline Slicer (Kitchen)
I am skeptical of fancy kitchen tools because I tend to be a kitchen purist who believes that with a good set of knives and some skills a wanna-be-chef can slice paper-thin potatoes, onions, or anything that comes along the way. So, when this mandoline was brought home, I was ready to find faults.
My first impression was that this was a larger mandoline than I had seen before; it's really more of a professional size and demands some counter space. Setup is simple: expand the two "feet" which are covered with non-slip rubber and the mandoline sets up on the counter at an appropriate angle. Six blades also come in a handy plastic box. One thing that was a tad strange was that the box seems to hold only five blades; so the sixth one hangs homeless! However, the blades are very easy to slide into or out of the mandoline.
The piece that you hold your vegetables with looks serious but operates quite simply. You put your vegetable on one side and push it into the 'pins' which dig into it. This also pushes out holding end. The trick is to keep a steady pressure on this holding end and slice on the blade. You can adjust thickness of the cut using a small lever underneath the cutting surface that angles the resting surface-- a simple and elegant design. I see some reviewers have talked about half of the vegetable getting caught in the blade. Two words of advice: one, you have to learn to push veggies into the food-holder so that the pins can grip on and not slide off. Two, keep constant pressure on the food-holder--it takes about a minute to get used to.
Let's talk about the actual food that comes out of this device. Depending on which blade you use, you can get julienne, waffle, or sliced cuts. I found that after a couple of potatoes, I started getting very even waffle cuts straight to the last slice! Something that even the sharpest knives and months of practice will not do!
PROS:
- Very well-constructed.
- Matches with professional stainless steel kitchen appliances and tools.
- Handy blade-set holder.
- Non-slip feet.
- Easy to adjust thickness of cuts.
- Dishwasher safe.
CON:
- The manual does not recommend how to place food in the food holder.
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104 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not what I hoped for based on other reviews, January 8, 2006
This review is from: MIU Stainless-Steel Professional Mandoline Slicer (Kitchen)
I have had a borner slicer (plastic mandoline) for years and love it except that the plastic is slightly flexible and so it has started to crack and bend when I use it. I have been wanting to upgrade it to a stainless steel mandoline forever, but couldn't afford one. Well, when I saw the price on this one and read the reviews I was very excited to get my new mandoline. Boy was I dissappointed. I found that ALL of the negative comments that I found in various reviews below were true plus some. Too bad they weren't posted until AFTER I purchased mine which I am promptly returning to Amazon.
My biggest complaint is that the blades are very dull and not nearly as sharp as my 12 year old borner slicer. As a result (and as one other reviewer commented) you have too use too much force to slice potatoes or other hard veggies so it is somewhat dangerous. The food does often get stuck halfway through the cut and I kept feeling like my hand might slip at any moment because I had to push so hard. I never had this problem with my borner.
My second biggest complaint was that the box that holds the extra blades and more importantly the safetly holder were both broken when I received the item. The box isn't a big deal, mostly just a bummer, but the knob on the safety holder had completely popped off, so you could not pull it up to press food into the holder without pulling it off completely and if you turned it over it just fell right off.
In addition to these two major complaints, I totally agree with another reviewer that you must keep the safety holder "on track" for the mandoline to work correctly and safely but I found it very difficult to do this because of the force needed to push the food over the dull blades so it easily slides to one side causing it to jam in the blades etc... As that reviewer also pointed out, the space for the food isn't nearly as wide as the cutting blades, so there is a lot of wasted cutting edge and you have to cut food into smaller pieces in order to fit them in the holder. I could live this problem if everything else worked well, but it doesn't.
I still gave the item one star because it would be really well designed and comfortable to use if the blades were just sharp. It is very sturdy (except for the button on the safety holder) and seems of good quality in many other ways, and it does come with a really nice assortment of blades, but who cares how good it looks if it doeesn't cut well???
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101 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definite Buy, September 11, 2005
This review is from: MIU Stainless-Steel Professional Mandoline Slicer (Kitchen)
I have owned a few plastic mandolines and even had something called a waffle fry cutter that I attempted to use one time and threw away along with the mangled potatoes.
Though I haven't mastered waffle cuts with this mandoline, the potatoes glide across the blade into perfect crinkle cuts. The mandoline is 18/10 stainless steel and is very sturdy. It doesn't wobble around or bend as it's being used so there is a feeling of security that it won't give way under pressure as some of the plastic ones tend to do.
I like the storage case for the blades, they can be stored neatly and safely when they are not being used. All of the blades are really sharp. I have used all of them except the largest julienne blade.
The 1/8" blade is perfect for cutting zucchini for zucchini fries. The thickness can be adjusted with a lever that is located on the bottom. I sliced onions that were really thin to ones that were nice and plump.
The directions that come with the mandoline are basic and have a few typos but there isn't anything complicated about using it and it's easy to figure out. This is a good buy for the price.
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