OXO Good Grips Handheld review

What the maker puts in writing

• “The handheld mandoline slicer for kitchen easily adjusts to 1 mm (0.04 in), 2.5 mm (0.10 in), or 4 mm (0.16 in)”
• “The large non-slip handle and stable foot are designed for comfort and security while slicing potatoes, cabbage, onions, cheese or fruit”
• “Slice directly onto a plate, on a cutting board or hook over a bowl so never have to make awkward movements or interrupt the flow of your food preparation”
• “The mandoline food slicer features a clever window so you can assess volume while slicing. This veggie slicer won’t let you end up with too many sliced cucumbers or more potatoes than your gratin called for”
• “engineered to streamline and simplify the task at hand, whether you use it as a general vegetable slicer, meat slicer, cheese slicer or even a fruit slicer”

The window, and the best explanation of it on this shelf

What you lose track of on a mandoline is quantity.

Slicing is fast and rhythmic: you watch the vegetable and the blade, not the pile. And so you go through the whole cucumber for a salad that needed half.

OXO’s sentence is the clearest on this shelf: the window means it won’t let you end up with too many sliced cucumbers or more potatoes than your gratin called for.

No other maker here has thought of it. OXO fits one on all three of its models — this, the Large Adjustable (“window shows slices below”) and the Precision (“transparent runway shows ingredients as they pass over the blade”) — and this is the listing that says why.

And where the slices go

Slice directly onto a plate, on a cutting board or hook over a bowl.

Which is the other practical problem: a handheld mandoline has to be held over something, and holding it over a board means the slices spread and fall off the edge. Hooking the foot on the rim of a bowl frees both hands for the pushing.

Benriner does the same (“hooks onto bowls to collect slices”), and Mueller Austria solves it differently with folding legs — unfold to slice onto a board, fold to slice into a bowl.

The gap: no guard is mentioned

All five bullets describe the handle, the foot, the window and where to slice. None describes a food holder or guard.

On a mandoline that matters more than on any other kitchen tool. The blade is fixed and razor sharp, and the injury comes at the last slice — when what is left is too small to hold and your fingertips pass over the edge.

At least eleven of the eighteen listings here describe a holder. The serious ones:

• Fullstar — a steel-tipped guard, contrasted with plastic ones
• Joseph Joseph — three grips: pinch, center, flat
• Gramercy — cut-resistant gloves in the box
• Ibergrif — a blade lock for storage and cleaning
• OXO Precision — automatic, height-adjustable, stores underneath

OXO’s own two dearer models both state a holder. Assume this ships with something basic, and buy a cut-resistant glove whatever you choose.

Which OXO

This — $18.85 — 160 g — three settings, the window, hooks over a bowl, no holder stated. Large Adjustable — $34.92 — 70 g — the same three settings, plus a stated food holder. And published at less than half the weight of this one, which for a model called “large” cannot be right. Precision — $34.94 — 230 g — five options including julienne, an automatic height-adjustable holder that stores underneath, and the only dishwasher statement of the three.

On capability, the Precision. On value, this — if you already own a glove.

What is not published

No blade steel, where Gramercy publishes 4CR15 and Fullstar 420. No julienne. No dishwasher statement, though OXO’s Precision states one. No slicing surface width — only Benriner gives one, at 2.5 inches. No warranty.

Availability

On sale at around $19 on the American Amazon store at the time of checking.

Prices and availability are what Keepa reported on the date this page was updated; both move.