Is this the most stylish air fryer ever? I put the Our Place Wonder Oven Pro to the test – here's my verdict as a home economist and expert reviewer

Back in 2024 the Our Place Wonder Oven was the talk of the town (or maybe that was just amongst kitchen appliance reviewers) because it looked so impossibly cute. We were all getting bored of the best air fryers being big black boxes and then came the Wonder Oven with its adorable pastel shades.

Whilst I reviewed the OG version for a sister publication, I agreed with Ideal Home’s appliances editor, the Wonder Oven is small, and the controls are basic at best. So I’m delighted the brand has launched a bigger Pro oven, with digital controls. It still looks nice and comes in three great colours, but it’s the cleverer, more grown up version.

In a nutshell

The Our Place Wonder Oven Pro will set you back £100 more than the original Wonder Oven, but in my opinion it’s well worth the extra investment. It offers more than double the cooking capacity, making it far more usable, even for smaller households.

Furthermore, the digital controls and automatic preheat offer much greater accuracy than the analogue dial controls on the smaller version. The Pro comes with two additional cooking functions, dehydrate and proof, for most people they’re not game changing added functions, but still nice to have.

I do find it annoying that the accessories can’t go in the dishwasher. And while I would have loved some cooking time and temperature suggestions listed in the manual, I still managed to successfully cook lots of different foods across the various functions.

From roast chicken in under an hour, to perfectly toasted bagels, air fried fish and chips, and beautifully baked homemade cookies, I whipped up a real variety of foods in this oven and on the whole it did a great job. Though it’s worth pointing out that when lots of steam is produced, you can end up with puddles on your kitchen worktop.

Who reviewed this air fryer?

Helen McCue

Helen is Ideal Home's expert kitchen appliances tester, with a wealth of experience that spans a Home Economics degree and a stint at the Good Housekeeping Institute. Over the last three years, she has tested dozens of products for Ideal Home from her home in Buckinghamshire, including a long list of air fryers, blenders, bean-to-cup coffee machines, vacuums and sleep essentials.

Helen used the Our Place Wonder Oven Pro at home for 10 days. She tried out most of the cooking functions and used it in place of her usual air fryer, oven, and toaster. She found it useful for cooking a variety of foods and meals, and enjoyed its colourful good looks bringing joy to her kitchen worktop.

Unboxing and first impressions

Unboxing this oven from its fully recyclable cardboard and paper packaging, was made somewhat easier by the fact that it’s relatively lightweight and easy to lift. I reviewed the blue salt colour which added a fun pop of colour to my beige worktops. It’s nice looking, but not in an attention seeking kind of way.

The accessories can all be stored inside the oven, so it’s neat and tidy when not in use. It comes with a mesh style air fryer basket, a non-stick bake pan, and a wire rack similar to the shelves in your normal oven. There’s also a removable stainless steel crumb tray that slides into the bottom below the heating elements, to catch drips and crumbs.

The steam function is simply an inlet in the top of the oven covered by a cap that you can fill with water to make sure you add the right volume of water into the hole. It’s a basic feature that’s easy to use, though there’s little guidance in the manual on how best to make use of it. It can be used on all functions apart from dehydrate and proof. You just have to add the water after the preheat stage.

The digital touch controls are well laid out and very simple to use. The touch controls make an audible beep when pressed, but thankfully this can be turned off. You can also turn the internal light on and off as needed, making it easy to check browning levels during cooking.

Each cooking function has a preset time and temperature as a starting point. The timer is adjustable in 1 minute increments for most functions (apart from dehydrate). Similarly, temperatures can be adjusted in 5C intervals for most functions. Adjustments are easy with the big dial control on the right.

It’s worth noting that there isn’t a countdown timer for the preheat. The display shows the word ‘preheating’ so you know what’s going on, and once the preheat stage is complete, it beeps and the countdown timer immediately starts. Which means, ideally you have to stay close and pop your food in as soon as you hear the beep. Luckily, the timer pauses whenever the door is open.

One thing that bugs me is the use of American terminology on the control panel. The ‘Broil’ function is what we in the UK would call a grill. It's fine if you know that, but not everybody will, so there’s potential for confusion. Similarly for the ‘Proof’ function, in the UK we usually say ‘Prove’, though this one is admittedly, more of a minor niggle.

Be aware that the instruction manual gives all the details on operation but little-to-no guidance or suggestions on cooking temperatures and times for common foods. So you will have to wing it a bit when it comes to selecting settings.

The accessories all have to be washed before use and it’s at this point you realise they can’t go in the dishwasher, something that’ll no doubt feel frustrating to most busy cooks.

What's it like to use?

Toast function

The first thing I did after setting up, was use the toast function to toast a bagel. Since this setting doesn’t require a preheat, I popped my bagel sliced side up, on the wire rack. And even though my instinct was to put the rack in the upper shelf position, I followed the recommendations in the manual to put it in the middle.

I went with the default time and temperature settings. As it started toasting, and both the top and bottom heating elements lit up, I understood why my bagel was best placed in the centre. It toasts both sides simultaneously.

After three minutes, I enjoyed a nicely toasted bagel that had an appealing golden colour. It’s as quick as a standard toaster, plus it can toast much thicker slices too. So if you wanted fewer appliances in your kitchen, you could ditch your toaster.

Even during this first use, I was struck by how useful the large glass viewing window is. Almost the whole door is a window, which makes it really easy to see inside and keep an eye on your food while it cooks.

Air fry function

I used the air fry function to make jacket sweet potatoes. I’d microwaved them before coating the skin in oil and salt. Then I set the air fryer to 200C. I would have loved a timer to show how long the preheat takes, in this instance it took 5 minutes to preheat to 200C, which is fine, it’s just frustrating not knowing how long you need to wait.

The potatoes were ready in 20 minutes, which is similar to the time they take in my usual Ninja air fryer, and the skin was lightly crisped with good browning.

To further put the air fryer through its paces, I made fish and chips. The chips were made from scratch, the breaded fish was from the supermarket freezer aisle. As I always do, I soaked the fresh cut potato batons for 30 minutes, then coated in oil.

I spread the chips out on the wire basket and turned them a couple of times. After 18 minutes I added the frozen fish alongside the chips.

The fish cooked quickly in just under 14 minutes. The crumb was lovely and crunchy and the fish remained moist. The chips ended up being in for just over 30 minutes, I could have taken them out a few minutes sooner but didn’t want them to cool down while the fish was still cooking.

The chips were very good, they had a lovely crisp texture on the outside and were nicely cooked inside. All in all it was a great result and I was impressed that I could fit two portions of fish and chips in the basket.

The air fryer function was my first choice when cooking some chicken thighs. But I was concerned about the thighs drying out due to them having no skin on. So once the air fryer had heated to 190C, I added a cap full of water to the steam inlet.

It’s hard to say how much difference the steam function makes, but the chicken thighs cooked in 12 ½ minutes and remained moist and juicy, so I was happy with the result.

Roast function

I roasted a selection of vegetables on the roast setting at 215C. This time the preheat took 3 ½ minutes. I stirred the veg a couple of times during cooking and was impressed that after just 20 minutes, the heavily loaded tray of onions, peppers and mushrooms had become perfectly roasted, with some lovely charring and caramelising.

Excess steam vents out of the base of the door and the viewing window can fog up with condensation when cooking certain foods. I noticed when roasting vegetables, a lot of steam was escaping, and consequently little puddles formed on the worktop below the door. This is definitely something to keep an eye on, especially if you’ve got wooden worktops that could become damaged if you don’t spot and mop up these puddles.

After my success with the roasted veg, I used the roast function again for a whole chicken. I decided to cook it at 170C and initially set the timer to 60 minutes. The preheat was speedy, taking just 2 ½ minutes. I coated my chicken in oil, and seasoned it with salt and pepper, then popped it on the baking tray on the lowest shelf position.

I didn’t want the chicken to dry out during the early stages of cooking, so this felt like another good opportunity to use the steam function. I poured a cap full of water into the inlet and hoped for the best. Steam is created automatically and I could hear the sizzling sounds as the water was heated inside the oven.

The chicken roasted in 55 minutes. The skin was golden brown and apart from one small area towards the back of the chicken, it was even in colour. The meat was tender and moist. The skin didn’t crisp up quite as much as I hoped for, which could well be due to the addition of the steam at the start, though it’s hard to say.

On the whole though, it cooked quickly and the taste and texture was great. What’s more, there was plenty of space for a large 2kg chicken. I’m not sure if it was due to the steam function or moisture from the chicken, but once again, puddles formed on my worktop below the door. I checked the manual, and it is listed as something you should expect, which is somewhat frustrating.

Broil (grill) function

For a pasta bake that was cooked, but just needed some cheese melting on top, I opted for the Broil (grill) function. Preheating to 230C took 4 ½ minutes. And I was surprised that in just six minutes the cheese was golden, perfectly melted and crisp around the edges. It was super speedy and effective.

The next day I tried the reheat function for a bowl of leftover pasta bake. I popped it in the microwave first for a couple of minutes, then after eight minutes reheating at 175C, the cheese topping had crisped back up and it tasted just like the night before.

Cookies are one of my favourite sweet treats to bake, because they’re best served warm and you really can’t get the same freshly baked, slightly gooey and melty texture from shop bought cookies.

I used the bake setting at 170C and was able to fit six cookies onto the tray with plenty of space to stop them melting into one another. I didn’t bother lining the tray, because the non-stick is really good so I didn't feel the need to.

The chunky cookies took 15 minutes and baked to perfection, I was really happy with the result. And with just a 3 minute preheat, it was much quicker and more convenient than cooking them in my normal oven.

Personally, I’m happy to bake six at a time, because I like to keep the cookie dough balls in the fridge or freezer and bake them on demand. But if you’re cooking for a crowd, you’ll either need a second tray, or to cook back-to-back trays of six at a time.

What's it like to clean?

As I’ve already mentioned, the accessories can’t go in the dishwasher, which is a bit annoying. The wire air fry basket is particularly fiddly to clean by hand and I recommend a brush. Luckily the tray has a good non-stick coating and is very easy to clean.

As far as the inside of the oven goes, the removable crumb tray in the base certainly helps make life easier. After roasting a chicken, I did have to spend some time wiping all the grease splatters from the sides. And I imagine the stainless steel interior will become harder to keep clean after prolonged use.

Due to the heating elements, the top of the oven is virtually impossible to get to, which is a bit frustrating when you can see the grease and food splatters. Luckily, I found the exterior stayed looking as good as new with just the occasional wipe over.

How does it compare to competitors?

The obvious comparison is the smaller Our Place Wonder Oven. It’s £100 cheaper which is a big draw. But even for a two person household, it’s small and depending on what you want to cook, it may not meet your needs. That said, for very compact spaces or single person homes, it could be a great option. So long as you accept that the dial controls are very simplistic.

Alternatively, if you can forego the colourful good looks of the Our Place ovens, you could save some money by opting for a more generic looking model. There are several top performing Ninja air fryers that could fit the bill.

Should you buy the Our Place Wonder Oven Pro?

If you’re choosing between the Wonder Oven and this new Pro version, then I think I’ve already made no secret of the fact that I think the Pro is hands-down the superior choice. It’s a much better investment for many reasons, including the larger capacity and user-friendly digital control panel.

It’s not without faults and for me, the pools of condensation on the worktop are a big annoyance. And I really do wish the accessories could be chucked in the dishwasher. That being said, I like the look of it. And if you want an air fryer oven that’s not an eyesore then I think you’ll be able to get over these niggles.