Customer Reviews

Progressive International Adjust-A-Slice and Julienne Mandolin

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I never knew I needed on of these and now I can't live without it. Slicing onions used to be a chore, well not a chore, not even a hassel, I just pulled the onion out from the fridge and sliced it. It took a couple minutes, now it takes seconds. Carrots, what a breeze. But, for me, where this gem of a kitchen tool really shines is tomatos. Want super thin slices for a salad, maybe a bit thicker for a burger? No problem. I can't believe I haven't had one of these in my life earlier. I can't recommend this highly enough.

On occassion, I pull duty in my friend's sandwhich shop & convenience store and slicing onions and peppers and the like can be a real pain in such a small space. I brought in the Adjust a Slice and Julienne Mandolin and made such short work of the onions and other veggies with this device. No tears from the onions, they were done so fast! I even tried it to slice the ham for our homemade pickle wraps and it worked beautifully.

The grip is comfortable when slicing large amounts of thigns so you don't get too tired, again, the chore goes very quickly with the mandolin. The device also cleans up easily., however, the only thing I didn't like about it is the construction. I think I would have preferred to see more metal in the construction rather than plastic.

The tool is quite sharp but kind of slim and may need to improve on the grip. It could get somewhat tricky to handle for larger vegetables and small items.

It can julienne and you can also adjust the thickness, but you may want to just purchase a food processor for large amount of food or use a good quality knife.

I've always wanted a mandolin and was happy to pick this up! However, I've only used one other mandolin before and that was a professional grade mandolin in a commercial kitchen. I think it was Japanese in build but don't know the brand. It was scarey how sharp and efficient it was! With mindfulness, you could slice anything, and in any way, you wanted. Without mindfulness, you could easily lose part of your finger! This mandolin I am reviewing has great safety and usability features but the performance has been poor in my experience. I'm surprised by the many positive reviews. My "Vine" review is only two stars because overall my results have been poor. For example: cucumbers are not finely (or thickly) sliced with ease (as they should be) but instead are somewhat mangled and get stuck in the blade. I haven't found a vegetable that I LOVE slicing with this product. Perhaps because the blade is dull in comparison to a professional version I've used or because the overall build quality of this mandolin is more flexible/soft. Anyway, I'd love to see more "non-Viners" review this product. Maybe mine was exceptionally poor? Maybe other Vine reviewers haven't used a professional quality mandolin and thus found this one great? What do others think? (those who paid for the item?)

For medium quantities of slicing, mandoline slicers are handy tools. They generally clean up much faster than food processors, while outperforming knives when there are more than a few items to slice.

While not comparable to stainless steel professional mandolines, this is a good product in its price range. I used it to prepare carrots and jicama and it had no problems with either. The carrots did slightly stain the white plastic. The blade is sharp and cuts even slices. It has three heights and a julienne setting. Other mandolines may have additional heights and julienne settings.

I found the handle convenient and the overall operation easy to use. My experience with another slicer led me to order a set of BladeX5 57100 Classic Cut & Slash Resistant Gloves Cut Resistant Level 5 EN388 CE Approved, grey, Large and use them from the beginning. This should be a required purchase for every mandoline user. For comparison, I tried the included holder/pusher. I was unimpressed. It seemed more likely to mash the ingredients than to hold them securely. The cut resistant gloves are much safer and simpler to use.

I've been using this for a few months to give it a fair review. The blades are really sharp, and I like the adjustable blade with the locking feature. I've sliced a variety of different vegetables with the mandolin and think it's best suited for items that are small in diameter as in a tennis ball or smaller. With larger items, I had to make a couple of passes to get all the way through, but not because the blade is dull. The finger guard really doesn't allow a secure enough grip that would assist with slicing the food in one pass. By the time I got through the middle of a large item, I couldn't apply enough pressure to push the food through the blade. I first experienced the problem with large potatoes. At first I thought the blades weren't really that sharp, but the same happened with a large onion. The smaller potatoes and onions went through without any trouble.


I think this would be a much better product, and I would have given it a higher rating, if the finger guard was different and safer. The one that came with my stainless mandoline is round which I can hold better than the one that comes with the Progressive mandoline. I don't recommend this mandoline because users need to have a secure hold on the guard which this one doesn't provide. The madoline needs to have a guard that you can get your fingers around, not in!

This is a very handy item to have around the kitchen. It slices veggies in any of three thicknesses and with a switch of the small handle does julienne style veggies as well. I've also found other uses for it--it's a quick way to chop onions if you set it on the julienne setting, and it makes nice small slices of celery for soup. Much easier than hauling out the food processor. I had my doubts about plastic, buit it's sturdily built and has a substantial feel. Be sure to use all the safety features--this is one SHARP item.

This would have been a great little slicer if it weren't for some of it's severe faults. I like the simplicity of it but I don't like it's rather dull blade and the fact that it holds a lot of water after washing.

pros:
simple to operate
easy adjustment of blade cutting height
easy to implement julienne slicer blades.

Cons:
Duller than expected blade (had a lot of difficulty with a simple cucumber)
No legs to support it on an open counter
Designed to be used over a bowl but if you are working fast you will have to make sure you hold the bowl securely along with the slicer as bowls are not exactly the most sturdy place to work over top of.
springs for Julienne blades are already showing signs of rust (another words they wont last long)
just feels cheap in general.

With a mandoline or any sharp object, there's a risk to cutting your fingers. I like the flexibility of this in that I can adjust the thickness of my slices or even julienne if the mood strikes. I use this a lot for scalloped potatoes because it slices through them with ease. I've also used this to slice cheese, julienne carrots for salads, and slice onions a lot faster before I get teary eyed. You have to be very careful though when you're trying to slice a small piece of anything because you could cut yourself. The blade is VERY sharp, but that's what I like about it.

The holy grail of mandolines for a home kitchen would be something that a/cuts vegetables into perfect disks or matchsticks, b/does its work efficiently, c/isn't especially dangerous and d/can be stored conveniently without lots of parts to lose.

The Progressive scores high on the first and last requirement. I attacked it with onions and then (the real test) a couple of fat carrots and the results were mostly excellent. And I like the fact that the julienne tines are under the slicing surface so you can make them disappear by adjusting the thickness with a thumb screw on the side. By comparison, my trusty Zyliss has several separate blades you have to fuss with. Those blades have sharp teeth and I have to carefully repack them in the (now tattered) box to avoid losing one or slashing my hand if I should encounter it in a cabinet drawer.

Since the Progressive has an all-in-one design it is easy to store. You just slide up the adjustment into the safety position and everything is locked in place with no sharp edges exposed other than the teeth on the finger guard. I really really like that design aspect.

But the Progressive has a design problem which keeps it from getting b/ and c/ points. When you near the end of your work, the pieces of vegetable get stuck in the tines. This is inefficient because you can't use these last raggedy pieces, and potentially dangerous because you have to get them out with something... hopefully not your bare fingers because you're going to get cut. Grab a fork or a paring knife for this job please. And then throw the scraps into a stock pot.

I think the problem may be that the all-in-one design solution just isn't rigid enough. When you press down hard with that big fat carrot, there's not enough rigidity to maintain the depth adjustment. The tray flexes down and it's too deep for the teeth in the finger guard to keep control of your work. At least that is what I feel like is happening.

I am not going to give up on this tool by any means. In fact, it climbed from 3 to 4 stars in my mind as I was writing this review. Like any serious tool, it requires practice to deliver the best results. And practice is what I'm going to give it.