Our Place Wonder Oven review: Air frying meets Easy Bake
The Our Place Wonder Oven is a beautiful, easy-to-use appliance with a lot of potential
Pros
- Beautiful design
- Steam infusion option
- Easy to use
Cons
- Longer preheat times than most traditional air fryers
- Manual controls aren’t for everyone
- No dishwasher-safe parts
The Our Place Wonder Oven is undeniably the prettiest air fryer I’ve ever tested. Despite looking like an adult Easy-Bake, it has many of the classic functions you’d expect from an air fryer including air frying, roasting and baking. A couple of interesting features set it apart from the crowd, however; the inclusion of a steam infusion option is unusual, while a built-in manual timer sets it apart from most modern basket-style air fryers.
Its aesthetic appeal is beyond dispute, but the Wonder Oven also exceeded my expectations during everyday use. If you don’t mind forgoing some of the more sophisticated features found on digital air fryers, it’s an easy recommendation for keen cooks who also happen to be style-conscious.
Our Place Wonder Oven review: What do you get for the money?
The Wonder Oven is a capacious 12l oven-style air fryer that will set you back £195. It’s available in four colours in the UK: Steam (beige), Char (black), Blue Salt (baby blue) and a limited edition Spice (pink). Each colour is seriously stylish and looks are a big selling point of the oven – much like the brand’s famous Always pans. The interior looks the part too, with a sparkly, stainless steel finish that glistens in the sun.
It has three manual buttons at the front that are pleasingly tactile, one for temperature, one to set the function and one for the timer. Temperatures range from 93° to 232°C and the timer gives you up to 60 minutes of cooking time. There are six functions to choose from: air fry, bake, roast, grill, reheat and toast. Interestingly, there’s a place at the top of the oven to add water, which allows you to use its steam infusion. This is something I’ve only seen on a couple of air fryers previously and it hasn’t worked in quite the same way as it does on the Wonder Oven.
You get a lot of accessories with this appliance, including a wire rack, a baking sheet, an air fryer crisping tray and even a crumb tray. You can comfortably fit two trays and sheets in the oven at one time, though you could stretch this to three depending on what you’re cooking. Alternatively, you can use a single tray for cooking larger items such as whole chicken.
In terms of energy efficiency, I tested the Wonder Oven in the same way I test all air fryers. I ran the appliance empty, on the air fry setting for an hour at 200ºC. Over this hour, it consumed just 0.56kWh of electricity, which is significantly less than on similarly sized and even smaller air fryers I’ve tested.
Energy efficient it may be, but at £195, it’s fairly pricey. That said, it’s still more affordable than many of the premium Ninja air fryers I’ve tested and arguably has a more interesting design too. There are cheaper budget air fryers out there, such as the 11l Tower 10-in-1, which you can often pick up for as little as £100. This model also comes with additional accessories such as a rotisserie and kebab skewers. However, its lower price point shows in its build quality and general design.
Our Place Wonder Oven review: What’s good about it?
The major selling point of the Wonder Oven is its gorgeous, modern design. It’s very much made for people who want their appliances to look good in the kitchen. There are enough colour choices to suit most tastes and the cutesy, nostalgic Easy-Bake design will appeal to a wide audience. Its manual controls feel great to use, especially in a world dominated by touch screens. The built-in timer, which has a pleasant, audible “ding” when it hits zero, is also a lovely touch and one I enjoyed hearing over and over.
I also like its wide variety of functions; there are enough of them to do everything you need but too few for your options to become overwhelming. My favourite little addition that makes the Wonder Oven what it is though, is the steam cap at the top of the appliance. As a keen home cook, I know how effective steam can be in the oven when baking, but the Wonder Oven’s tiny 5ml steam cap initially had me feeling sceptical.
To test its effectiveness, I cooked three frozen croissants at the stated time and temperature on the packaging without steam and three in the same way with steam. The results with steam were pretty impressive. My pastries were noticeably fluffier and more moist inside thanks to the added steam and puffed up more than I expected.
I was also really impressed with the results of my whole chicken test. While the cooking time was much longer when compared to other air fryers I’ve tested – the Ninja FlexDrawer can cook a whole medium chicken in as little as 40 minutes – the results were a lot better. The slower cooking time resulted in a much juicier chicken.
Our Place Wonder Oven review: What could be better?
Perhaps it’s unfair to compare the Wonder Oven to similarly priced air fryers because, after all, it is a mini oven. However, I’ve become so used to the super speedy heat-up times of digital air fryers that I was somewhat underwhelmed by the Wonder Oven’s performance in this area.
You need to preheat like you would a standard oven and there’s no real indication of how long this can take. I also found that cooking times were generally a lot longer than in the air fryer. A 1.6kg chicken, for example, took over one hour to cook compared to just 45 minutes in other air fryers I’ve tested recently. Add to that the fact you can’t pop the bits in the dishwasher, and using the Wonder Over is an altogether more time-consuming experience.
While the Wonder Oven does have a great capacity for its size with the trays removed, it can feel a little cramped when food is split across multiple levels, as there’s not much space between each tray. I found this a little frustrating when I was trying to cook thicker cuts of meat and fish, as they would sometimes touch the tray above causing a mess. Overfilling can also lead to slower cooking times, so I’d say it’s best to keep to two trays maximum when using the Wonder Oven.
While I don’t mind a manual setup, it’s still worth addressing that the Wonder Oven’s manual controls might not be for everyone. The small notches indicating the time and temperature are hard to set accurately and, without a digital display, it can be difficult to visualise how much cooking time is left. This will no doubt prove troublesome if you’re cooking something that needs a very specific time and temperature.
Our Place Wonder Oven review: Should you buy it?
Our Place has created something really interesting here. The Wonder Oven is so far removed from what my and a lot of people’s idea of an air fryer is, and that’s because it’s not just an air fryer.
It’s closer to a complete mini oven with some seriously impressive functionality and has a beautiful, unique design. It can air fry, bake, grill, steam infuse and more and does so very well. If you can overlook the high price tag and some of the more minor inconveniences, the Wonder Oven is without a doubt a cooking appliance to consider.
