Kitchen KeenAdjustable Mandoline Slicer

Great product, works very well and easy to use

I will say at the very beginning of this review that the price point for this mandolin is too high, it certainly looks and feels like a quality product and is very nicely packaged, so ideal as a gift, it also comes with a pair of gloves, but more on these later, you also have a small brush to help you clean after use, but let down with the high cost factor.I have used this mandolin for cutting vegetables and making salads, the actual mandolin is very sturdy, it does not feel cheap at all, it is easy to adjust, as there is a knob on the side, which tells you the setting, you can also create, using the knob, a julienne setting, as there are small blades which you rotate with the knob, for added safety you have a food holder, this holder has steel pins which you can stab into the items you want to cut.With respect to the gloves, you get a pair, but oddly, there are made of cloth, if you rub this against the very sharp blade it does cut the cloth, it says you can use these gloves for safety, which I suppose you can, but my recommendation is you use the food holders, it is much safer as I don’t feel confident that any one should use the cloth gloves and feel safe, I have not tried it but I suspect the blade could cut the cloth if you use it vigorously, so be careful if you don’t use the food holder, also, another issue with the gloves, as they are of cloth, all the water soaks into the gloves, so you will need to wash them after each use, so really impractical, in the pouch with the gloves it tells you that you can use them for other activities, I am using mine as garden gloves! If you feel uncomfortable then you should use the gloves and the food holder together.So overall, a really great mandolin, in fact one of the best ones I have bought, but the price is a bit high, if they were a bit cheaper, this is easily a five-star product, but I am taking a star off to reflect the high price, so four stars.

I say it quite often in my reviews “as a wheelchair user”, but find it’s always fascinating how different items that are seen to be a ‘luxury’ to a non disabled person, can actually be an incredibly helpful aid to those of us who struggle. Anyway, as a disabled individual with dexterity issues, I can’t tell you how frustrating it can be trying to keep ahold of veg whilst trying to slice it all up - my hands getting colder and completely non functioning!This slicer is fantastic! No more cold hands as you just stab your veg into the holder (great safety measure also) and start slicing away! It’s taken a job that usually takes me half an hour and a lot of frustration, literally 5 minutes. They also include safety gloves which is great imo. It’s easy to clean and the time it saves is brilliant. Big thumbs up!!

I thought this Kitchen Keen Adjustable Mandoline Slicer would be wonderful for salads and stir fry etc, but having not used one before it was a surprise when it arrived and I saw how large it was.It is supplied in a branded box, the contents being the slicer and accompanying fruit/veg holder, some gloves, a brush and an instruction manual, the slicer comes in at 40 x 17 x 17cm with stand deployed, so a fair area to work in. I am no stranger to sharp tools, but I would not put my trust in a pair of gloves near the blade in this device – it is very sharp indeed - I will stick to the fruit/veg impaling device for my slicing! The slicer has an adjustment knob so you can set it or just see where it is set from previous activities, and a blade cover which I ensure is deployed when storing. The adjustment knob lowers the upper bed that you are sliding the fruit/veg down to hit the blade – I didn’t know that, but it makes engineering sense as the blade can be solidly fixed in place with no chance of it bending if at an angle to the oncoming food.The actual slicing action is very good, you impale the food with the holding device, and gripping that slide it down the onto the blade though I will admit that I had to put more pressure on harder fruit/veg than I thought would have been necessary, but after a few goes you do start to get the hang of it, and it does help speed things up a lot. When the adjustment reaches a certain point there are a set of blades deployed vertically to the cutting bed which will cut the food in a julienne style. It feels very solid too, it does not slip due to the rather large rubber feet, and it just has a quality feel overall. I was a little tentative with cleaning this device because of the sharp blades but also because the awkward shape jut by its nature means you have to manipulate it to clean the underside etc. I found cleaning the blade then covering it before cleaning the rest of it was my best option.Overall then a great device that does what it says on the tin at what appears to be a fairly average cost for a quality unit, be careful using it and you will get excellent results.

...also, it is difficult to clean & dry, in my experience.This manual slicer requires more pressure when pushing down on the fruit or veg piece than I expected, which leads to poor slicing when using for softer fruit such as tomato, also in my experience. Either that or the blade isn’t sharp enough. Despite a few attempts, I failed to get the neat circular slices shown on the box!When using to julienne a thick carrot and using the food holder to keep it in place, again, it doesn’t appear that it is sharp enough as the carrot got stuck in the blades which meant the prongs in the food holder simply ripped through the carrot as shown in my images below.Nevertheless, there was more success with oranges & apples (albeit a bit uneven in the slice) and far less tears over my onions, the latter being the main reason for acquiring having seen my favourite chefs apparently make light work of such using a mandolin!ooOooAs pictured in the above stock images, the ‘adjustable mandoline slicer’ comes complete with a basic plastic-type blade guard, a food holder, a pair of black coloured, ‘level 5 cut-resistant’ gloves (OK for smaller hands, in my experience), a small cleaning brush & instructions.The black & silver coloured set comes presented in a colourful cardboard box measuring around 41 cm x 18 cm x 8 cm.The blade guard is in place on release from the box, which shows the potential thickness of slicing as:~ SLICE 1-9 mm~ JULIENNE: 4.5 mm & 9 mmThe swivel blade & ridged, metal-type upper plate is controlled by a chunky knob on the side with a ratchet selection for the slice size and a push in & twist motion needed for julienne selection (I mention this because I thought I had got the blade stuck!)The rounded top handle is a good size, and the glove helps protect fingers but the design with the folding leg, (and despite the non-slip ‘feet’) makes the whole thing feel unstable when applying the aforementioned pressure and, when passing over a relatively sharp-bladed instrument, this is disconcerting.Also, the plastic-type 'food holder', with 6 prongs, has raised edges underneath to guide it across the blade. It is easy to get this incorrectly positioned or allow to twist, which results in the odd sliver of black plastic being sliced off and potentially ending up in the food (image below refers), also in my experience.At the end, it is awkward to clean properly, especially the underside of the ridged, metal-type lower plate as this is fixed in place. The upper plate lifts for cleaning but this leaves the blade fully exposed, so essential to return the guard before doing so!Granted, it is advertised as dishwasher safe, but it is relatively bulky with lots of areas in the plastic-type frame and around the blade mechanism, where water can accumulate, regardless of how you position it, again in my experience.It is also hard to get it completely dry so I tend to pop it in a warm oven to do so.Wedge-shaped, on the raised leg it needs a fair bit of space, measuring roughly 39 cm including the plastic-type frame x 17 cm allowing for the blade adjuster knob.It doesn’t store particularly flat due to the bulk of the folding leg/blade housing.[23 images attached]