Before you spend £170 on the Always Pan Pro, here's what happened when I cooked 12 different foods in Lakeland's £85 lookalike instead

Around 10 months ago I reviewed the Lakeland Only Pan and was impressed by its performance and price tag. It even made its way onto our list of best non-stick frying pans, so when Lakeland launched the Pro version, I was all ears.

At £85, it’s only £25 more than the original Only Pan, but its stainless steel finish and hybrid PFAS free non-stick interior (think Hexclad) combine to make this a far more enticing product for serious foodies.

It doesn’t have the pastel coloured appeal of its cheaper sibling, but offers a more professional appearance. What’s more, it can also go in the oven and grill. So I got my hands on a sample and put it through its paces to see how it compares and whether it's worth the extra cash.

In a nutshell

The Lakeland 10-in-1 Tri-Ply Only Pan Pro is a sturdy stainless steel pan with an aluminium core for fast, even heating. It comes with a stainless steel lid, steamer basket, and a silicone spatula. Its ceramic hybrid interior offers non-stick cooking without PFAS chemicals, and the scratch resistant design allows you to use metal utensils.

Suitable for all hob types as well as the oven and grill, the deep sides make it a multi-purpose pan that can be used for anything from steaming vegetables, to slow cooking a chilli and plenty in between. The price is very reasonable, but die-hard dishwasher fans take note, for longevity it really should be hand washed.

I found the non-stick coating to be very effective and there wasn’t anything I used it for, that didn’t cook perfectly. If safety is a big concern in your household, if children cook with you for example, be aware that the helper handle and the lid handle get hot. On the whole though, I think it’s a great all-rounder that’ll work hard in your kitchen.

Who reviewed this pan?

Helen McCue

After completing a Home Economics degree, Helen went on to work for the Good Housekeeping Institute and has been reviewing home appliances ever since. She lives in a small village in Buckinghamshire in the UK, where she reviews all sorts of home and garden appliances using her wealth of experience. She's been doing so for Ideal Home for over four years.

Helen used the pan at home for two weeks for all of her usual meals as well as some additional foods and meals that she knew would put it through its paces. She used it on a gas hob and in an electric oven.

Unboxing and first impressions

There weren’t any surprises when I removed this pan from its packaging, which is mostly cardboard, with the addition of a few plastic bags. My first impression was that the quality appears to be great. It combines all the hardwearing, long lasting qualities of stainless steel, with what looks to be a hardwearing non-stick interior.

At about 1.35kg, the pan itself is weighty, so having the second helper handle opposite the main handle, will certainly come in handy when it’s full. The stainless steel lid appears to fit well, and the steamer basket simply widens the scope of what can be cooked in the pan.

Personally, I’d have loved the spatula to be metal, as I’m trying to move away from plastic and silicone utensils, but that’s a minor issue. It’ll definitely come in handy.

You don’t get an instruction manual with it. Instead, most of the info about use and care is printed on the back of the box. I knew the pan was recommended to be washed by hand, but had hoped the spatula, lid, and steamer basket would be listed as dishwasher safe, no such luck though.

Cooking in the Lakeland 10-in-1 Tri-Ply Only Pan Pro

Pan fry

Call me crazy, but the first thing I made in this pan was a three egg cheese omelette for my lunch. It’s a bit risky in a pan you haven’t used before, but thankfully worked out well. The omelette cooked evenly and the only issue I had was that the deep sides of the pan made it difficult to fold and roll the cooked omelette. Nevertheless, I managed it and ended up with a very tasty lunch.

Continuing on the egg theme, the following day I used it for a couple of fried eggs. I heated a splash of oil over a medium heat and then cracked in two eggs. It was immediately obvious that the non-stick was doing its job, and the spatula slid under them easily.

The two eggs cooked evenly and quite quickly, it was an effortless experience with no sticking to worry about. The only slight frustration, again, was that due to it having higher sides than a normal frying pan, I found it a bit awkward to get the spatula in at the right angle to pick up the eggs. Though not a big enough issue to deter me from frying eggs in it again.

When frying sliced halloumi, I kept the pan on a medium/ high heat to ensure it browned and crisped nicely. The result was great, but I did notice that the parts of the halloumi closest to the centre of the pan didn’t brown quite so well as at the edges.

I think the uneven browning happened because the pan is ever so slightly convex, meaning there's a bit of a dome in the centre so the oil pools around the outside. You don’t notice it much, but on this occasion it made a difference to the browning.

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Other things I successfully fried included a butterflied chicken breast, a salmon fillet, and I even used it to dry fry a home made flatbread. No matter what task I threw at it, it was up to the job.

Simmer and saute

For a tasty weeknight Indonesian prawn curry, I sauteed onions before adding spices and a curry paste. The addition of coconut milk created a sauce, and then I added my vegetables. After simmering for a while, I popped in my raw prawns.

During all the sauteing and simmering, I noticed the pan was responsive to changes in the hob temperature, so it was easy to control the heat in the pan without anything burning or becoming overcooked.

Similarly, when I cooked a big batch of bean chilli, I sauteed the vegetables and spices without any sticking or burning. Then I used the steamer basket as a colander to drain and rinse my tinned beans.

I simmered the chilli on the hob for 30 minutes with the lid off, to reduce it down slightly. Then I put it in the oven for an hour at 150C with the lid on. This thickened it further and helped develop a richer flavour.

The pan fits easily in my oven, but it has to sit diagonally on the shelf. The finished chilli was super tasty and the pan came out of the oven with no warping. I love that I can pop it in the oven, this is the kind of versatility I want from my cookware.

Stir fry

It was just big enough to make a prawn and vegetable stir fry for two hungry adults. It got nice and hot and cooked the stir fry vegetables perfectly. Everything cooked evenly, with just the right hint of char. I was using raw prawns, which I added near the end, and they too cooked to perfection.

Boil

A pan this shape and size wouldn’t be my usual choice to boil up a big batch of rice, but I gave it a go nevertheless. First I emptied a kettle full of boiling water into the pan. I was doing some batch cooking for the freezer, so I added 450g brown basmati and simmered with the lid on for 24 minutes.

It didn’t ever boil over, but water did slowly continuously dribble down the outside of the pan during cooking, leaving it with a bit of a scummy coating to be washed off. The rice itself cooked beautifully though.

There wasn’t much water left to drain away at the end, but even so, I emptied the rice out into the steamer basket, which worked as a great colander to allow excess water to escape.

Steam

Broccoli is my favourite steamed vegetable, so I chopped a large head of broccoli into similar sized florets. For the amount of water, I winged it and threw in a mug full of boiling water from the kettle.

I then popped in the stainless steel steamer basket filled with the broccoli and simmered it with the lid on, on a medium heat. It took eight minutes for the broccoli to soften to my preferred, slightly al dente texture.

It’s worth noting that the lid handle gets hot, so you need an oven glove to lift it off. I then had to use a fork to lift the handles of the steamer basket so that I could grab them with an oven mit. But all in all I was pleased with the result.

What's it like to clean?

It is recommended that you wash this pan by hand, and to be honest I was completely unbothered by this. During testing, I had no issues with sticking, so cleaning it in the sink was quick and easy.

The stainless steel exterior does need a bit of a buff to keep it looking shiny, and like all stainless steel, it’ll probably need a deeper clean from time to time, but the non-stick on the inside stayed pristine.

The only issue was the band of stainless steel just above the non-stick. This part did very quickly become stained with brown fatty deposits, so it’ll need a regular scrub with something like bicarbonate of soda to keep this area clean.

How does it compare to similar pans?

In comparison to the Lakeland 8-in-1 Only Pan, it’s without a doubt a big step up in quality. For an extra £25, if you can stretch the budget, the Only Pan Pro is worth the investment. Okay, so it doesn’t look quite as pretty as the pastel coloured Only Pan, but what it lacks in style, it makes up for in quality. Plus it can go in the oven and grill, so it’s even more versatile.

And in comparison to the very premium Our Place Always Pan Pro I think you’ll be pushed to justify paying almost double for a similar style pan. I would argue that for most home cooks, the Lakeland Only Pan Pro will offer exactly the right amount of functionality and durability at the most cost effective price.

Should you buy the Lakeland 10-in-1 Tri-Ply Only Pan Pro?

As I said above, if you can afford it, my advice is absolutely go for this over the original Lakeland Only Pan. It’s more durable, has a longer guarantee, and gives you the option to use it in the oven and grill too. And in my book, a non-stick pan that allows you to use metal utensils is an absolute winner.

There aren’t many downsides, yes you have to hand wash it, but most decent quality pans recommend hand washing these days. The main handle stays cool most of the time, but the lid handle and helper handle can get hot, which is something to consider. The main takeaway though, is that in terms of performance it’s absolutely up to the job.