I tried the sold-out Our Place Wonder Oven for a week — does it live up to the hype?

The brand Our Place is somewhat of a social media sensation, having achieved a cult following for its cookware, in particular the Always Pan. And more recently it has launched the Perfect Power Pot. The brand has recently begun dipping its toe into the world of electrical appliances, including the launch of the Wonder Oven.

The Our Place Wonder Oven is a 6-in-1 countertop air fryer toaster oven that’s available in four colors. As someone who almost exclusively reviews kitchen appliances for a living, I’ve reviewed my fair share of the best toaster ovens and air fryers. And I’m wondering, is this just an appliance that’s designed to look cute on social media, or does it actually work?

So when I got my hands on a sample, I set it up in my own kitchen and used it for my everyday meals to see how it performed when cooking for two for a week. I’ve got mixed feelings about its air frying performance, but it's a brilliant toaster and great for baking. 

Our Place Wonder Oven review: Price and availability

The Our Place Wonder Oven is available in four colors for $195/ £195. It’s available primarily on the Our Place website, but also through some selected retailers such as Amazon.

You can also buy an extra set of accessories (air fryer basket and bake pan) for the oven for an additional $50/ £45

Our Place Wonder Oven review: Design

The Our Place Wonder Oven arrived beautifully packaged in easily recyclable cardboard packaging. My first impression upon delivery was that the box was small, so when I unboxed the incredibly compact little oven, I was slightly less taken aback by its stature.

It is surprisingly compact though, and add to that the three analogue dial controls, and it does look a bit like a toy oven that you might have played with as a child. The controls are very simple, the left dial controls the temperature and the one on the right is for the timer. The central dial allows you to switch between the various cooking modes.

There are no other controls to master so it really is very straightforward, however, dials like these are not super accurate, which can be frustrating. For example, the instructions say to preheat it for 2 ½ minutes before cooking, but it’s virtually impossible to be this specific with the timer dial.

There isn’t a start/ stop button, twisting the timer dial starts the oven. It switches off when the timer runs out, with a ‘ding’ sound that reminds me of an old fashioned microwave. Or, if you want to switch it off earlier, you have to manually force the timer back round to zero, which does feel a bit like you’re breaking it.

It comes in a choice of four colors and I was sent the salt blue version, the other options are a gray/ brown, beige, and a peach color. The accessories include a wire rack, bake pan and an air fryer basket. There’s also a removable crumb tray that slides in below the bottom element, to make cleaning easier.

Speaking of cleaning, I was disappointed when I read in the manual that all of the accessories have to be hand washed. They’re the perfect size to fit comfortably into a dishwasher, so not having this option is a shame

The small drop down door doesn’t sit flat against the counter when open, because the handle gets in the way. But it has a large viewing window for checking your food as it cooks. Plus there’s a really bright internal light that stays on while cooking.

On the top of the oven a small water inlet allows you to add up to two teaspoons of water for a steam infusion, which is supposed to stop foods like bread from drying out, although I’m skeptical that such a small amount of water will have a very big impact.

Our Place Wonder Oven review: Performance

Every time I used the oven, I tended to set a timer on my phone, as it’s not easy to be very accurate with the dial timer. Similarly, I found it tricky to select temperatures in-between those marked, with any accuracy, so there’s a bit of guesswork involved there too.

Toast

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There’s space to fit two cut bagels on the rack to toast, which surprised me. Unlike with the other cooking modes, I didn’t bother with the 2 ½ minute preheat. Instead, I put my bagel on the rack and started toasting on the highest temperature setting.

The viewing window meant I could easily keep an eye on the color of the bagel. And it was perfectly toasted after just 3 ½ minutes. Because there are heating elements above and below, both sides get toasted so there’s no need to turn it.

I also used it to toast some sourdough bread that I put in direct from the freezer. The four slices toasted evenly in just 6 minutes, which isn’t bad given that they were frozen and I didn’t preheat it first.

Bake

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I used the bake mode a couple of times, both times I followed the directions to preheat the oven first for 2 ½ minutes. First I baked a batch of falafel and despite the compact size of the tray, 16 falafel balls fit on it comfortably. I set the temperature to 365F/ 185C and after 18 minutes the falafel balls were evenly baked. They were nicely crisped on the outside and still moist and fluffy on the inside.

Chocolate chip cookies were next on the agenda, but to give them enough space, I could only bake four at a time on the tray. The first batch at 365F/ 185C were burnt on the bottom, so I cooked the next batch at 340F/ 170C and they cooked beautifully in 8 minutes. Moreover, they didn’t stick to the tray and baking in small batches across a whole weekend meant I got to enjoy warm, freshly baked cookies on multiple occasions.

Air Fry

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Frozen breadcrumbed fish filets are an air fryer staple in my house. I preheated the air fryer to 375F/ 190C and then placed the frozen fish filets in the basket, on the upper shelf. And to avoid any problematic fishy mess on the lower heating element, I placed the bake pan in the lower shelf position. 

Normally I’d expect these fish filets to take somewhere in the region of 10-15 minutes depending on the air fryer, but they were cooking for 20 minutes before they were hot enough inside. And the crumb, though crunchy, didn’t become as crisp and crunchy as it would in my usual air fryer.

To further assess the air fryer, I cut up 1 lb/ 500g chunky fries and soaked them in cold water for 30 minutes before drying and lightly coating in oil. This time I preheated the air fryer to 400F/ 200C. I put the fries in the basket and kept an eye on them.

The bright internal light coupled with the viewing window makes it easy to see how your food is cooking and stopped me from continually having to open the door and check the color of the fries. I gave them a couple of good shakes, but they were slow to cook.

I removed them after 34 minutes, which is easily 10 minutes longer than I’d expect them to take in an air fryer. Moreover, they were nowhere near as crisped as I’d like, which coupled with the extended cook time, was disappointing.

Broil

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When I wanted the brown the cheesy topping on an otherwise cooked pasta bake, I put the broil/ grill on the highest temperature setting (450F/ 230C).After the 2 ½ minute preheat it took just 10 minutes for the cheese to melt and turn a delicious golden brown.

Reheat

To warm and refresh a couple of day old, slightly hard and stale croissants, I preheated it on reheat mode to 280F/ 140C. This time I decided to do a bit of an experiment, warming the first croissant for five minutes without steam. And then adding a teaspoon of water to the inlet for the second, which I also heated for five minutes.

The results were good, both croissants tasted crisp and fresh again. If I’m honest there wasn’t a huge amount of difference between the one with steam and the one without. But the one with steam was a little fluffier and slightly less crunchy on the outer pastry.

Roast

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I roasted up a tray of chopped vegetables using the roast mode. On the bake tray, I squeezed a small red onion, half a green bell pepper, a whole red bell pepper and a couple of portobello mushrooms.

After the initial 2 ½ minute preheat I roasted them at 400F/ 200C for 25 minutes giving them a good stir halfway through. The result was exactly what I was looking for, nicely roasted vegetables, with some charred edges on the peppers and onions.

Later I roasted some halved baby tomatoes that I sprinkled with salt and pepper as well as a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. They took just 20 minutes to roast at 400F/ 200C.

The noise level is pretty consistent regardless of the cooking mode and it averaged around 65dB, which isn’t offensive. I should also point out that the exterior became warm but not too hot to touch. And the handle and controls were always cool to touch.

Cleaning

Overall I didn’t struggle with cleaning any of the accessories and the bake pan has an efficient non-stick coating. But I’d have preferred to be able to put them in the dishwasher. The inside of the oven wipes clean pretty easily, though I expect over time it’ll become a bit more caked in greasy residues that are hard to remove. 

How does the Our Place Wonder Oven compare?

The Our Place Wonder Oven is compact, so if you're looking for an alternative with the capacity to cook for a crowd, I’d highly recommend the Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven DT201 or Smeg's Countertop Air Fry Oven with Steam. It is a bit more expensive, but with accurate digital controls plus ten cooking functions and a huge capacity, it’s a great choice for families.

Alternatively, if your main priority is having something that’s super compact. It’s also worth considering the Instant Vortex Mini 4-in-1 Air Fryer from our best air fryer guide. It’s more compact and also cheaper than the Our Place Wonder Oven. It’s a much better air fryer, plus it still offers roast, bake, and reheat modes. But you’ll have to go without the toast and broil settings. 

Should you buy the Our Place Wonder Oven

If your kitchen is small and you want a super compact multifunctional toaster oven that also looks cute, then Our Place Wonder Oven will certainly tick those boxes. But you’ll have to be okay with the compromises, like the analogue time and temperature dials that make it hard to be accurate with the settings.

The capacity is ideal for 1-2 person households, and most of the cooking modes are quick and efficient. However the air fry mode doesn’t perform as well as a standalone air fryer. And it’s annoying that the small accessories can’t be cleaned in the dishwasher.