After years of testing the booming countertop convection oven category (read: air fryers), I’ve become somewhat of an expert (and a snob). Ultimately, two aspects outweigh everything else when it comes to air fryers, especially air fryer toaster ovens: cooking real estate and heating speed. Our Place’s new Large Wonder Oven addresses both.
I was able to test out the Large Wonder Oven thanks to a press sample, and right out of the box, it has a higher quality feel than many other air fryer brands. The oven is almost all steel and glass with no large plastic pieces to be concerned with, save for the knobs. It towers over its sister product, the editor-loved original Wonder Oven, with double the cooking area of a typical air fryer and enough room to feed a family of four easily. The heating speed on this oven is fast, especially considering the size, and it was ready to tackle frozen fries after just five minutes of preheating (something a typical toaster oven can’t do). The convenience of air fryers lives and dies with that heating efficiency; and so far, the Large Wonder Oven does it as needed.
Our Place Large Wonder Oven
Now, real estate is a double-edged sword for any air fryer toaster oven. Too big and you’re losing precious countertop space and/or storage space, too small and you’re not fitting in more than two servings of fries or tater tots, so you’re spending twice as long cooking for more than a couple of people. Thankfully, despite its admittedly large footprint, the Large Wonder Oven looks good on the countertop and actually has the interior cooking space to justify its large presence. Its generously sized basket fits an entire bag of tater tots with enough room for crisping. It took on four large slices of sourdough toast with no overlap, something a similarly sized air fryer can’t manage due to tighter interior space. With three rack levels, it can do vegetables, protein, and starches all at once (if you need it to) to have a full dinner ready all from one kitchen tool. It even brought a hardened baguette back to life with the steam function.
The Large Wonder Oven also comes with stuff to actually achieve the six functions it advertises (air fry, bake, roast, toast, reheat or broil) including a large bake pan, two wire racks, an air fryer basket, and a crumb tray. All easily slip in and out for cleaning, and notably, the trays hold steady when you pull them out to grab your food. Other air fryer trays will come tilting down once they’re more than halfway out of the oven, and there’s nothing sadder than tots lost to the floor. The crumb tray is easy to remove for cleaning, and all the parts are easy to clean in the sink except for the basket, but those are always difficult to scrub.
I appreciate the color offerings for Our Place’s tools, like the muted charcoal “char” and the pop of color in blue salt and spice. However, I will note that the “steam” color is not off-white but closer to beige, if that makes any difference for shoppers. Plus, it lacks a few things that I like about other air fryer toaster ovens, like an auto-shutoff mechanism when you open the door (helpful for avoiding wasted heat and energy) and a heat buffer around the dials as the surface of the air fryer does get very hot. I’d caution home cooks with small children or curious pets to be wary when the oven is engaged. But one thing I don’t miss about a standard air fryer toaster oven? An electronic interface. Simple dials are great! No air fryer truly needs to be that granular with settings, and ultimately, the presets don’t make a difference in the doneness of food. You’re going to be temping your chicken and watching your cookies either way, as you would with a full size oven.
There’s more to test for this machine but I can conclude that, for families of four or more who have the countertop space, this air fryer hits the spot.
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