VonShef 4-slice toastie maker review

How easy is the VonShef toastie maker to use?

There’s really no set up needed with this sandwich maker. You’ll need to give the plates a wipe down before use, but that’s it. There are no controls either, once it’s plugged in it begins to heat up.

There are two indicator lights that sit on the top of the sandwich maker: one red, one green. Like a couple of models we’ve tested, when the green light turns off, it’s ready to use. It’s a confusing feature, but to VonShef’s credit, this is explained in the manual.

Despite the large surface area of the plates, it heats up quickly, taking 2 minutes 40 seconds to do so. There are no suggested cooking times or recipe ideas in the manual: it's as simple as you can get.

Results

Over the course of our testing, we’ve struggled to find toastie plates that actually fit supermarket slices of bread. The VonShef, however, is the perfect size.

We made a simple cheese toastie with sliced supermarket bread and a deep-fill toastie using thick-cut tiger bread. Because of the lack of cooking times, we peeked at the toasties after four minutes of cooking, but didn’t feel they were brown enough, so let them cook for another two minutes. After six minutes, the toasties cooked on the front two plates were a lot darker in colour than those at the back. It was the same for the deep-fill toasties.

Despite the slight lack of consistency, both servings of toasties were brilliantly crisp, fully sealed, and totally melted in the middle. For both, the filling was warm and ready to eat, without being blisteringly hot.

This model doesn’t have anything fancy like a floating handle, so we were worried about the toasties being pushed to the front when we closed the lid, but thankfully, nothing like that happened. All toasties were tightly contained under the lid and the handle closed with a satisfying click.

Conclusion

If you’re a toastie fanatic or you’ve got a lot of hungry mouths to feed, this VonShef toastie maker is a great choice. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of pricier machines, but what is a toastie if not a cheap and cheerful snack? Everything we tested was cooked well, and despite not being called a ‘deep-fill’ toastie maker, we were able to fit a generous amount of filling in each (30g of cheese).

It’s quick to heat up and toasted sandwiches take between six and seven minutes to cook, depending on the thickness of the bread. The manual leaves quite a bit to be desired, but if you’re well-versed in toastie-making or happy to experiment, this model is worth considering.

Specifications
Multi-functional: no
Number of sandwiches: four
Removable plates: no
Dishwasher proof: no
Recipe book: yes
Dimensions (cm): H: 12 x W: 29 x D: 23
Wattage: 1600W

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This review was last updated in March 2021. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk