21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2-year-old loves it
We gave this to our son for his second birthday and he really enjoys playing with it. I guess it's only as good as whatever accessories you get to go with it - we have some plastic dishes and some small utensils, and it keeps him very busy while I am working in the kitchen. Mostly he puts things in the oven, takes the bowl of the sink out and puts things in that way,...
Fun, but not as great as it would seem
This kitchen is cute, but it's A LOT smaller than the photo and product descriptions let on. My daughter is a small two-year-old, and she has to kneel at it to play. It's certainly not large enough for more than one child to play at a time. After opening the oven door a couple of times, one of the wood pieces holding the magnet that keeps the door closed fell off...
We gave this to our son for his second birthday and he really enjoys playing with it. I guess it's only as good as whatever accessories you get to go with it - we have some plastic dishes and some small utensils, and it keeps him very busy while I am working in the kitchen. Mostly he puts things in the oven, takes the bowl of the sink out and puts things in that way, bangs with his spatula, etc. It is well-made and has a lot of play value for the little space it takes up.
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After much looking around, and being unwilling to fork over $150 for a nice heavy wood kitchen, I got this on a whim for my almost-2 y.o. It's been in the house for only a few days, but she *adores* it. The quality is passable, it might not last for a second child, but the play value is great.
PLUSES:
- Wood, not plastic
- No noises/voices, etc. other than ones the child makes up
- Oven looks like the real thing (window, handle)
- Unisex colors
- Sink is big enough to actually put in play dishes and "wash" them
- Compact and lightweight, yet sturdy
MINUSES
- Strange paint smell, which I hope will dissipate
- Edges not sanded down in spots
- Water knobs fit loosely and wiggle a bit (feel cheap)
- Seems expensive for the size
- Oven magnets too strong to open door without having to hold the entire toy -- I put felt stickers over the magnets to lessen the pull
Overall, a neat launching pad for the imagination. (LEGO DUPLO is also great at that sort of thing.)
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In my opinion, this tiny kitchen is a great value for the very low price.
We wanted a wooden kitchen that would fit under our breakfast bar (which we no longer eat at) to save space in our eat-in dining room and allow our daughter to pretend to cook while we were are cooking. I was very surprised at how small this kitchen was once my husband assembled it, but it is JUST RIGHT for our foster daughter. It's quite small, but so is she. She is one and it's the PERFECT size for her. She LOVES it! I like that the sink is a bowl but I plan to replace it with a metal one when I find the right size. We bought the accessory pack and I like that the hot mitts are cloth, the pots and pans are stainless steel, the whisk is metal, and the spoon is wooden. Only the measuring spoons are plastic (and I plan to replace those with a metal set like mine, too).
I like the overhead rack with hooks for hanging up all the accessories. That keeps our daughter busy, taking everything *off* the hooks.
The handle for the cold water came off but just needs a better wood glue (we use Gorilla Glue).
By the way, with a little imagination and encouragement, the oven doubles as a dishwasher! When my daughter wanted to "help" me load the real dishwasher, I showed her how to throw all her dishes in the oven, press some buttons and "wash" them, which she does religiously now.
I definitely prefer wooden toys like this one to plastic ones that light up and make noise. Santa once brought our sons a very pricey "deluxe" plastic kitchen when a wooden model sold out (we were "upgraded"), and it had so many bells and whistles that it interfered with their own imaginative play (and tested my ability for replacing batteries and reassembling it every time it fell apart while they were playing with it). And instead of a robotic voice telling my daughter how to pretend over and over again, I like the sound of her banging pots and pans together. After I have had my coffee, that is.
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This kitchen is cute, but it's A LOT smaller than the photo and product descriptions let on. My daughter is a small two-year-old, and she has to kneel at it to play. It's certainly not large enough for more than one child to play at a time. After opening the oven door a couple of times, one of the wood pieces holding the magnet that keeps the door closed fell off. Hopefully a little wood glue will fix that problem--it's just disappointing that a brand-new toy already needs fixing. It's not the high-quality wood toy that I'd hoped it would be, but my daughter DOES enjoy playing with it. Hopefully it'll survive a year or two.
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I ordered this for my son who is 3 years old. He loves all things food/grocery shopping/kitchen related and I wanted him to have something to "cook" with. At the same time, I didn't want a full-sized kitchen type toy.
After reading some of the other negative reviews, I have to say that we didn't have any troubles with magnets, paint-smells or faulty construction. I did glue the faucet and the rods that support the "pot/spoon rack" permanently into place because I felt it made them more able to deal with the rough play my son can sometimes engage in.
It seems to be a well made wooden toy. It is exactly the size stated in the product description and it is the perfect size to put on a child's play table.
It's the perfect small-kitchen toy in that it allows for multi-functional play (wash hands/food, clean dishes, cook on the stove, cook in the oven) and it's attractive and unisex in design. It doesn't take up too much space. But most importantly, my son loves to play with it.
For the money, you can't go wrong. Just don't expect a full-sized stand-alone type toy. I would definitely recommend this to my friends.
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I bought this for my boys, 2 and 4 years old, because I wanted something inexpensive in case they weren't very interested. I also chose this because it wasn't pink and it was wooden. My boys broke the oven door right away because it's difficult to pull open with its strong magnetic closure. Also, the oven door opens onto the floor and my 2 year old stepped on it resulting in the splitting of the oven door where the thin rod fits into it to keep it attached to the unit. It is so short they won't play with it unless it's on our stair landing. They love the metal hooks and the removable sink, but we're very disappointed in the height.
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I purchased this item in attempts to duplicate one my daughter had when she was two. She loved it; it was her favorite toy and it kept her very busy. However, the craftsmanship and quality of this item isn't the greatest. The oven door is hard for my granddaughter to close; she tried to force it and ended up breaking one side of the door. We glued it but it happened again to the other side, so we just took the door off. She's o.k. with that. We had a couple of small magnetic parts that we couldn't figure out where they were suppose to go. I wouldn't purchase it if I were you.
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This review is from: Alex Toys in My Kitchen Set (Toy)
Please understand that this toy is really made for table top applications because it's only about 10-11" tall. We put ours on the fireplace hearth and it's the perfect height for our 18 month old. I agree that they have overly strong magnets on the oven door, but the reason ours is hard to open is because the door needed to be sanded down on one side a little bit. It was rubbing against the sides of the oven when you closed it and made an aweful squeak while doing so. That's easy to solve. But BECAUSE the door was so hard to open, our son managed to put the whole oven handle off! There are no screws or nails holding it in, just glue, so we fixed that too. He also managed to pop one of the faucet handles off of the threaded pegs they spin on. There again was just glue, but we tapped it back in with a hammer and it seems to be working fine now.
I got this little kitchen from Ross for $25 as opposed to what it's listed retail for, so I don't know if this particular one was a factory second or what. It's still a great little kitchen and I love that it's made out of real, good quality, wood... just requires a few handyman adjustments to make everything stay in place. One also might note that the paint on the faucet and handles is bad to rub off on the bare, unfinished wood of the "counter top" they sit on... don't know what to suggest for that other than maybe a spraycoat of polyurethane on all the parts prior to the kids playing with it. I also feel I should mention, to anyone worried about those metal hooks on the overhead bar, they don't come off the bar... not a choking hazard.
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This review is from: Alex Toys in My Kitchen Set (Toy)
I read the other reviews for this kitchen, and for the most part, they are correct. As soon as I opened the box, I figured I would glue the pieces down...no biggie for the hassle it will have saved if I didn't glue them. There was an odor when I first opened the box, but by the time I had the kitchen put together it was gone. As for the size...read the product description. I don't understand how people buy online, sight unseen, without reading the full description first. This is a small kitchen. Its great for my little one. I think I'm going to follow another reviewers advice and put a small felt over the magnets on the oven door. I do wish the product didn't need these few modifications but, again, its worth the extra fifteen minutes to not have to deal with the kitchen coming apart later.
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This review is from: Alex Toys in My Kitchen Set (Toy)
We bought this for our 2 year old and while she loves it, we've had problems from point one. The first one arrived without the hanging rack and hooks, so we had to send it back for a replacement. The second one had all the parts, but they don't fit together well. The faucet and hanging rack fittings are too small for the holes so they are very wobbly. Also, don't let the picture on the website/box fool you: the hanging rack is NOT tall enough to hang many of the accessories that are shown on it. We purchased the Alex completer set that matches the items on the picture and only one pot (the smallest) will hang from the hooks. The utensils and the other pots are too long to hang from it. Seems like Alex Toys has some quality control issues. Our little one doesn't seem to care about all these issues however, and she is having a great time with it, so take our complaints for what they're worth.
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