OXOGood Grips V-Blade Mandoline Slicer, White

A mandoline slicer is a must for an OCD cook like me. The perfect slices you see in cooking shows cook evenly and quickly and look great on the plate- but they're impossible with a knife. Oxo has always provided good, solid kitchen gadgets, and their track record in my kitchen drove me towards this unit when I began the hunt for a mandoline slicer.Upon unpackaging, this slicer seems a bit daunting. There are (2) extra blades in a seperate case along with a spacer to go with the food holder, and an additional (3) blades are housed in the unit itself along with the (1) installed slicer blade (a total of 6 blades included). All fit nicely within their respective slots / containers, and you can't shake any of the spares loose.The instruction manual is pretty good. Good diagrams with supporting text. It has a bit of a learning curve (pages titled "How to Cube" require you to reference "How to Change V-Blades" and "How to Change Cubing Blades"). Also, each blade is color coordinated with the thickness know along the side, which matches the manual. This assures that your cubes will always be, well, cubes!Your first and most basic slicing is simple. Food + food holder + back and forth motion = perfect slices (my first-cut items were a bell pepper and an apple). More complex operations require some reading- unlock, open food track section, open cubing / julienning blade section, remove / install cubing / julienning blade, install slicer blade, close up, unlock. But again, the slices were perfect (my next item was an onion- cubed perfectly within about 10 seconds). The crinkle blade adds some drag (USE THE FOOD HOLDER) but results in beautiful food.The cubing feature alone is well worth the price. The food first passes over the vertical sawtooth blades and is scored, and then each subsequent pass a 90 degree turn scores the food in the opposite direction and the slicing blade seperates perfect little cubes from the food. Repeat until the end. Chopping an onion like your favorite Food Network star is complex and often leaves a good chunk of food un-choppable. This baby makes little pieces of 90% of the onion. Nice.Cleaning is fairly simple. A stainless model would be nicer dishwater-safety, but longevity of the product is my goal, so I hand-washed after use. The dishwasher is said to dull blades anyways, so it's better to just take it for a dunk in some warm soapy water. Rince and let air dry on a towel and bam- you're good to go.A storage container for the whole setup would be nice, but hey - this will probably remain on my counter anyways. I can't imagine a meal that wouldn't benefit from use of the mandoline.One or two uses of this unit and you'll be an expert. Also, you can chop everything in about 5 minutes and put it all in little bowls mis-en-place style and host your OWN cooking show.

Oxo Good Grips is a brand the represents excellence in kitchen equipment. This mandolin works like a charm so no matter what I'm slicing, I can get just the right thickness. It's easy and safe to operate and it cleans easily as well. Oxo mandolin helps me to cook like a pro!

I hate slicing produce for cooking and salads, probably because I am not very good at it which means I have had my eye out for a decent, inexpensive mandoline for quite some time. This Oxo Mandoline slicer was recommended by Cooks Illustrated and it was very reasonably priced, so I treated myself. After using it, I keep asking myself why I ever thought of it as a luxury. It takes less than 10 minutes to grab it from its storage area, slice the produce and clean it up. A minute or so extra if I need to change the blades. I don't find the switching from the slicing blade to either of the julienne blades to be complicated or onerous and once you learn the sequence, it is quite easy. I wasn't sure about the quality since it is plastic except for the blades, but no worries there, it really is quite sturdy and very easy to clean. I like that the legs are non-slip. After use, I find I don't need to take it apart at all to clean, unless it has gotten very dirty. Rather, I use a long-handled vegetable brush and the kitchen faucet sprayer to clean it up. It can stain when using with carrots, or red peppers, but a little soap, and some careful (beware the blade if you don't remove it!) light, scrubbing with a non-scratch pad takes care of that.I use the hand guard without fail, and the only quibble would be that the guard pins that stab into the food to hold it from slipping are a bit too far apart when using it to slice cucumber rounds or other small diameter produce. You do need to cut cucumbers at least in half to properly hold the cucumber under the guard for slicing. It takes a bit of practice, but with the guard I can make perfect slices right down to the last 1/2 inch or less of the produce most of the time. A chopping blade set for this mandoline is made by Oxo which allows you to chop onions with ease. I plan to buy that when I can as well. Overall, I am very pleased with the purchase and the delivery. I would count this as one of my better purchases of all time.

One of my absolutely best kitchen gadgets. It's well made, sturdy, takes up very little space and it slices and juliennes easily and absolutely perfectly. An indispensable tool in the kitchen!