Breville Bambino Espresso Machine Review

You can spend thousands of dollars on an espresso machine. Many do, and insist that if you don’t—if you don’t have a dual boiler or an E61 group head (I know what that is now!)—you’re a sucker and wasting your money. I humbly disagree. To those seeking value over perfection, the Breville Bambino is an excellent pick and costs far less than you'd expect.

I’ve been a professional product reviewer for over 20 years. I’m not the world’s foremost expert on coffee, but I am an expert on product reviews, including finding the needles of truth in a haystack of internet bullshit. Here’s what the actual experts have to say.

Our Pick: Breville Bambino Espresso Machine

👉 Price: About $300
👉 Design: Compact and minimalist
👉 Best thing about it: Great espresso at a cheap price

The Breville Bambino is the best espresso machine for most people. This is a category few experts agree on, but there is some small consensus here.

The Bambino is a compact, affordable machine that nails the basics: consistent temperature and pressure. Its Thermojet water heating system allows it to start up in just 3 seconds—a speed that competitors with large boilers can’t match. Breville’s improvements over previous versions also mean that the thermal transfer is more consistent through a cycle.

The base model Bambino has a manual steam wand for milk frothing. With practice, you'll be making your flat whites and latte art in no time. For about $100 more, Breville also makes the Bambino Plus, which has an automatic steam wand with a temperature sensor in the tip. However, the performance of the automatic steam wand is mixed, and user reviews suggest there may be reliability issues. Most people will be better off saving money and opting for the base model.

Everything on the Bambino is button-activated. For better or for worse, there are no knobs. No one will mistake this for one of those giant prosumer models that look straight out of a cafe. But with practice and paired with the right grinder—Coffee Blog recommends the Baratza Encore ESP and Reddit’s r/espresso recommends a 1Zpresso like the X-Ultra—you can serve up some truly outstanding shots with the Bambino.

How We Chose a Winner

In order to determine what experts had to say about the best espresso maker, I decided to take the same path that most consumers would: I started with Google. Boy, what a mistake. If you’re not already aware, the usefulness of Google to find reliable recommendations has eroded considerably and requires quite a bit of digging to find real expertise.

I sorted through all the crap and read every legitimate roundup of “best expresso makers” in the first 50 search results (see our sources.) Then I went through a similar process YouTube and TikTok. And of course, I read Reviewed’s own decade-plus of coverage on espresso makers. In fact, our original roundup review of espresso makers chose the Breville Barista Touch Impress as the best overall, but at 5x the price of the Bambino, I'm comfortable erring on the side of affordability.

This review reflects the combined results of all these sources.

What Experts Say about the Breville Bambino

👉 Experts don’t agree on much, but enough of them like this machine.

I was not shocked to learn that coffee nerds disagree about what is the best espresso maker. That’s what passionate nerds do. Coffee is a lifestyle, a status symbol, and sometimes a national identity all rolled into one. In fact, the only thing that the experts seem to agree on was that none of their recommendations were good enough! Chasing the high of some mythical perfect cup, every recommendation is clad with caveats. “This is a pretty good espresso machine… if you don’t want to sell your car to buy the upgrade model. But you should.”

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to learn that at least 5 of the more reputable sources of espresso expertise gave top marks (or at least very strong endorsements) to the Breville Bambino.

What made the Breville Bambino good enough for Serious Eats, Reddit’s r/barista, Reddit’s r/espresso, Coffeeness, and Craft Coffee Spot to recommend it? In short, great espresso from a trusted name at an affordable price.

Breville is a reputable brand in the coffee space. Few would name them the G.O.A.T. of espresso, but their products are built on a foundation of reliability and quality components across a spectrum of price points. The Bambino is decidedly entry-level, but that doesn’t reflect the quality of the shots it pulls. The components are decent, the Thermojet water heating system is fast and consistent, and the espresso—after taking the time to dial it in—tastes great.

This is not to say that the Breville Bambino was held up as the paragon of espresso making. Most experts preferred something in the $1,500-$2,000 range, but none could agree on which particular model. A significant number of those experts, however, agreed that the Bambino is great, considering it’s only $300.

It’s worth noting that the experts more frequently recommended the Bambino Plus over the base-model Bambino, but we found multiple complaints about the automatic steam wand on the Bambino Plus, so you should save yourself the hassle and get the base model.

One other notable gripe came from Serious Eats, who points out that the automatic volume detection was not consistent and that you may want to stop your shots manually. Breville also allows you to create and save a new volume setting.

What Actual Owners Say about the Breville Bambino

👉 Be aware of the shortcomings of a machine at this price point and expect that frequent maintenance is required.

Owners are just as split as professional product reviewers when it comes to espresso machines in general, and the Breville Bambino in particular.

The Breville Bambino has a 4.2-star average on Amazon, with an unusually high percentage of 1-star reviews. About half of them complain about receiving a used or dirty product. Gross, but that’s an Amazon issue and nothing to do with the product itself. The other half cite insufficient water temperature and pressure or components breaking prematurely.

These performance complaints, sadly, are probably the realities of this price point for something as mechanically complicated as an espresso machine. Hot water at high pressure is stressful on parts. There’s a reason that espresso machines can cost many thousands of dollars. When you’re talking about products in the $300 range, it’s amazing you get a good cup most of the time (as the positive reviews will cite). But quality control may have suffered.

Note that the Breville Bambino Plus, the model with the automatic steam wand, has a “Frequently Returned” tag at the top of its Amazon product page. As mentioned previously, the steam wand is not great. It appears to clog or lose power over time. The automatic sensor on the Bambino Plus may not function properly with any milk container other than the included milk jug. That’s why we recommend the base model Bambino, not the Bambino Plus.

Other customer reviews online, including Reddit, praise the Breville Bambino for its price-to-performance ratio.

What is the Best Espresso Maker? Here's what all the experts think.

Don’t believe our recommendation is trustworthy? There’s no need to because it’s not just our opinion. We did the research for you, reading and watching what the best voices on the internet had to say about espresso makers. Below is a summary of the most informative resources that impacted our decisions.

But first, here are some notes about what we did not consider. Regarding products, we ruled out fully-automatic espresso machines and pod machines. We’ll do more coverage in the future on fully-automatics and we already have a great roundup of pod espresso makers.

For sourcing opinions, there was a lot of garbage recommended by Google that we had to sort through. I'm sure FerrariChat, CollegeConfidential, and Schizophrenia.com are all useful in their way, but why they're ranked so highly when searching for "best espresso maker" I couldn't say. We also tried to avoid bias, so any content from retailer websites or manufacturers was not included. Finally, we did not use AI bots for sourcing because several reputable websites block ChatGPT and other AIs. And at least for now, AI search results aren’t very good at separating actual experts from websites that simply have large audiences.

If you’re new to espresso making or just curious, consider this as background reading, because you’ll be learning from some of the best.

Source	Recommendation
Reviewed (original roundup)	Breville Barista Touch Impress
Serious Eats	Breville Bambino Plus Espresso Machine
Bon Appetit	Lelit Mara X
Reddit r/espresso	Lelit Bianca V3
Meticulist	Crossland CC1 V2
Home-Barista.com	Anything with E61 group head
Reddit r/barista	Breville Bambino
Wirecutter	Profitec Go
Epicurious	Lelit Mara X
Lifehacker	Miele Milk Perfection 6360
Home-Barista.com	Lelit Elizabeth PL92T
Coffeeness.de	Breville Bambino Plus (best entry level)
Business Insider	Casabrews Espresso Machine
Good Housekeeping	Breville Barista Express Impress
Wired	Breville Barista Express Impress
Coffee Blog	No single winner
Reddit r/coffee	Breville Bambino
James Hoffman	Breville Dual Boiler or Profitec Pro 500
The Review Lab	De'Longhi Magnifica Plus
James Hoffman (2)	Rancilio Silvia
Craft Coffee Spot	Breville Bambino
Coffee Coach | Ryde Jeavons	Breville Oracle Jet and Lelit Mara X
@rob_mcgee	Gaggia Classic Evo Pro
@jameshoffmancoffee (3)	Rancilio Silvia
@ryantagcoffee	Lelit Bianca V3
@coffeebygian	Gemilai Owl
@brandonleewilks	Ascaso Steel Duo V2
@jimmythebarista	Profitec Move

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Upgrade Pick: Lelit Mara X

Finding consensus on a runner-up was just as hard as finding a top pick, but the Lelit Mara X received wide praise from many corners of the espresso community. With knobs to open the steam and hot water wands, a manometer, and a proper group head that can be easily serviced (or just appreciated on its aesthetics), it’s a far cry from the spartan Breville Bambino. It’s also about 5x the price of the Bambino, but with that investment comes outstanding performance, beautiful design, and very little compromise.

Lelit is a storied Italian espresso brand, and the Mara X sits at about the middle of its product line. The quality of the espresso is unimpeachable, according to all the experts. It’s just an outstanding machine. Quiet too, thanks to a pump that slowly ramps up the pressure. Expect about 24 minutes to hit the right temperature when starting it up. Thanks to its heat exchange, you can prep your milk at the same time as the coffee.

The Lelit Mara X is available in four colors: stainless, white, black, and pale yellow “gold”. The levers and knobs all feature either maple or Zebrano wood, making this a stunning kitchen centerpiece.

Runner-Up: Rancilio Silvia V6

The Rancilio Silvia may be the Goldilocks between the Breville Bambino and the Lelit Mara X. Priced under $1,000, it’s the entry-level model from Rancilio, a brand mainly operating in the professional restaurant space. That’s evident from the heft of its commercial parts and the speed and power of its steam wand. Put succinctly by espresso expert James Hoffman, “The Silvia was a beast.”

The Silvia has been around for nearly 30 years. The current V6 model, like its predecessors, is straightforward and no-nonsense in both looks and operation. In many ways, it’s as powerful as its professional siblings, but that means a steady, experienced hand is needed to pull the best shots. Casual newcomers may have a hard time getting the feel.