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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program It comes in the factory box, so if it is a gift, be aware of this as it might ruin the surprise. The quality and sturdiness of this appliance is evident immediately out of the box.
The instruction book has a bit of a recipe book in the front of it, so you might check that out if you don't normally read instruction books.
It is very straightforward and easy to use. It heats up very quickly, and sears to perfection. The directions say to let it heat for 10 minutes before using but I've not waited that long.
I love the way the plug has an "O" in it so you can hook a finger in to unplug it. I wish all appliances were like that! It's a cord of decent length too, and it's well insulated. The top detaches from the base. I had no problem detaching mine. Reattaching, now that was a bit of a problem until I realized you have to PUSH DOWN on the turning handle and then turn, like a childproof capTHEN it was easy.
Clean up is greatit is highly nonstick. The only potential problem that I see is that there is a bit of space between the handles and the wok that food could fall or drip and that could be hard to clean if it dried. Of course, the WHOLE thing detaches from the base and it can be put in a dishwasher.
To store you can put a couple of paper towels in it, and place the cord on those, then put the lid on upside down. It is BIG though, so storage could be a problem.
We plan on using ours outside a lot this summer, as it will be perfect on the picnic table on hot days when we don't want to heat the house up cooking. I'll prep early in the day, then cook and serve from the wok itself for evening meals by the pool.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Generally dinner time at my house is our adult son, our teenage daughter, my husband and myself. This wok is perfectly sized for a nice amount of stir-fry with lots of veggies and leftovers to pack in lunches.
Pros:
It easily fits 2 lbs of cut-up chicken and 3 bags of frozen vegetables.
Good non-stick surface, use wood or bamboo utensils.
The base detaches the pan very easily for cleaning up.
The lid has a vent, turn the knob to open it.
The knob doesn't get too hot to handle while you're cooking which absolutely thrilled me.
The probe fits in easily and securely.
The cord itself is long enough that you don't need to be right on an outlet to use it.
It's a grounded plug
The plug has a hole in it to put your finger through and pull it out. Even better, that design feature is big enough for my husband's fingers.
It heats up fast.
Heats to 425 degrees on the sear setting
Very easy to clean using a soft dishrag, even after cooking something like teriyaki with sugar in the sauce.
Cons:
It's big. That's a plus for a family like mine but could be a storage issue for people with less kitchen storage space.
The lid is a bit heavy, which shouldn't be an issue for most people, but I do wish it had more than just the knob to pick it up with.
The cons aren't enough to make me dislike this. Cooking with it was very easy, and with it's size and temperature range, I was able to cook a meal fairly fast. I know that my family will use it often, especially in the summer when I don't want to heat up the whole house with the stove. It's a good, reliable brand, and it's a great size for family cooking.
EditedAfter 6 months of use, I still love it. Also I'm doing things like frying donuts for my family more often because it's so easy to clean up and doesn't take as much oil as a pan with straight sides. The temperature control and how hot it gets makes frying food in it really easy. I wouldn't have anticipated that, I just thought about stir fries when I got it.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I don't even like to cook, but I love Asian food so much so I was delighted to get a wok. I wanted to try out all the recipes that I go to Thai, Chinese and Japanese restaurants to buy. I'd never heard of Breville's brand name, but the product looked pretty easy to use. In person, it's pretty good quality and lighter than it looks.
Cons: The screw on the top came off way too easily. It swirled around to open and close, but I didn't really see the point of it having the little tip in the top. At one point, the screw came out altogether, and I had to guess my way back to putting the accessories for the top back together. I'm not quite sure if I did it right because the instructions don't guide you through it.
The lock on the bottom of the wok is a pain. Once you cook something, you either have to lift the entire wok in order to pour the food into a dish or tip the wok to the side to unlock the wok. However, the instructions say to turn the wok over completely to unlock, so be careful with banging it if you choose the latter. If the wok is pretty full, this can be a bit of a task. I wish the lock was on the side instead of the bottom so cooks can easily unlatch it.
Pros: The wok bowl is easy to clean and is even easier to cook with. I was very happy with the appearance and texture of the stir fry with soy sausage I made. It was fresh. The soy sausage was slightly crispy like I like it. The latch on the temperature control probe is easy to maneuver, and setting the temperature is just as simple.
Cooking with the appliance is a breeze. It's assembling the product and getting the food to the plate that needs some work.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program The manufacturers offer this wok as an alternative to a gas range and a traditional wok. Since I have the latter, I thought it would be fun to do a side by side comparison.
The electric wok is far more efficient than the traditional wok (uniform heat), however it does not lend itself to tipping and flipping of cooking food...which is part of the fun. You definitely need the correct cooking utensils to stir food. If you have a laminate countertop, you will need to protect it from radiant heat. The electric wok is more difficult to wash and store, but for the right household, it can make a great culinary addition.
Happy cooking!
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program UPDATE as of 7/19/2011: The rubber bumpers on the bottom of the base that keep it raised off the counter have long past gone. This means that the knob that attaches the base to the wok itself is now in direct contact with the counter. It's really sexy (NOT) to be in the middle of a searing hot cooking session, to have the base pop right off. Meanwhile the size and clunkiness makes attaching the base an exercise in awkwardness. It can only be done when said wok is completely empty, and clean, and cool to the touch. Else, you're in for a world of hurt.
Over time, the base has become more and more onerous a job to attach to the wok, making me seriously have second thoughts every time I need to heave it out of the cabinet. It's come to the point where I do use it when I literally have no other choice, but sincerely wish that I had a better option that didn't cause me so much strife. In fact, the base + wok issues are enough to tell me that buying one is a Very Bad Idea.
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ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Nonstick surface: It is so nonstick that the sticker on the inside of the pot did not stick. Very nonstick. I barely needed a scant few drops of oil.
Speed of heating: Takes about a minute to get up to full, screaming hot heat. I do a lot of South Indian cooking, which requires the same dome shape of the wok, and high heat that Chinese wok cooking requires. When I threw the oil into the pot (to pop my spices in), the oil got up to heat very quickly. My mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and coriander seeds all popped beautifully without burning. Then I threw in the stems of 1 1/2 pounds of collard greens that I bought earlier that evening. Perfectly wilted down in about three minutes. I added the leaves. Perfectly wilted in another two minutes or so. In less time than it took to boil my pasta, the collard greens were done to a turn. Also, I didn't need to put the greens into the pot in stages. The wok would have comfortably accommodated the greens, stems and all, without a problem. All you have to do is cover the lid so the whole thing wilts a bit, an then you're back in business.
THE BASE STAYS COOL. This means that if you have finicky counter tops, you can still use the wok on them, because the base doesn't heat. Too awesome!
There's a reason this piece of equipment costs what it does: because every single penny of the purchase price is worth it.
EDIT: Made popcorn in it. It takes longer than when I do it on the stove, but I didn't have to stop and dump out the popped kernels in the middle of cooking, like I do with my other pots. Also, it kept the kernels from burning. Very nice.
Down sides: The base and pot itself are large and taking charge. This means that if you're used to traditional Asian cooking techniques, which involve you lifting the pot up off the flame to fine tune the heat, you're out of luck. This also means that if you plan on serving the food in a container other than the wok, you're going to need two people: one to hold the wok up over the serving dish, and the other to transfer the food itself. It's way too big to do it on your own. The cap to unscrew the base is directly on the bottom of the wok, making it impossible to do anything while the wok has food in it. Instead, you have to wait for the whole contraption to empty, cool a bit, flip the whole thing upside down, then undo the base. Putting the base on can be a little awkward.
The temperature dial is not written in degrees, but rather in arbitrary numbers. This means that unlike other electric cooking pots (friers, woks, pans), you're not going to get fine tune control of the heat by adjusting the temperature on the dial. On the other hand, my stove also has the same arbitrary numbers on, so it's not like I don't know how to adjust the heat based on said arbitrary numbers.
All that said, I'd still say that the wok is worth the purchase price, because it does such a fantastic job. At home, I have a four burner gas range, but sometimes I have really big pots on the stove, rendering the other two burners useless. This wok is big enough to feed an army, and doesn't take up huge swaths of my stove.
