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81 of 81 people found the following review helpful.
nice looking, works well, interface a bit complicated
By Douglas Figueredo
First off this is a VERY attractive appliance. The picture on the website does not do it justice, as weird as that may seem. It is substancial, well built, and looks and feels like something from a professional kitchen. Even though the measurements are documented, the oven just seems bigger. Personally, I think it's too big for a counter and would be best mounted into a unit. There could be some problems with mounting because you absolutely DO need the recommended space above, behind and to the sides - you can't get away with putting it up against anything if you plan on using the steam feature.Good things:The convention over works exactly as it should - I made a cake and it came out super-fluffy and perfectly cooked in and out, and very moist. Also made a sandwich and the bread was nice and crispy and the tomatoes inside were perfectly cooked. I made two chickens - one with the steam and one without. Both were good, but the one with the steam did get brown (lightly) and looked better, although they both tasted great and moist.Microwave works fine. Downside is that there is no spinning wheel, so you have to stir and flip things around - AND - the microwave keeps stopping to tell you to do that. A bit annoying.Although the job wheel feels very expensive and all the options are laid out well - I would prefer some buttons, espcially with the microwave. You can't just pop something in and start nuking. YOu have to press the microwave button and then use the wheel to go down one selection and then press enter and then use the wheel to spin to a time and then you can finally hit start. They should have moved that up one level to make it faster.You get several well built pans and racks with this, which is very nice bonus.The instructions are overwhelming, but when you actually go to use the oven, it makes sense.Putting the water in for the steam function is very easy - a little box/cup thing comes out, you fill it and put it back in. done.The auto sense microwave warming part works really well. I always want to doubt that it will work, but it actually does.Overall it's a very intelligent unit, looks gorgeous and can completely replace your oven and microwave. Downside is that interface, which although it is slick, I don't much care for it and seems to require more thought than I care to put into microwaving something.I would give it 4.5 stars because of that - but really it's a very nice oven.One more thing - oddly enough, it does not put out excessive amounts of heat compared to your regular oven. You can open it during cooking and not get blasted by heat (although you should be careful). And cooking the chickens didn't heat up my whole kitchen or apartment like the oven usually does. The steam will kick up the humidity, but not that much.Update - I wanted to add that I made a Flan recently and it came out perfectly. Usually I make it in a regular oven in a water bath. I skipped the water bath and just put it into the Sharp and chose convection oven - it came out perfectly cooked from edges to the middle! Anyone who has made a Flan will know how hard it is to get the center to cook correctly without overdoing the sides. I was pretty happy with this.
63 of 65 people found the following review helpful.
Great oven, love cooking with SuperSteam! ** Updated 5.2011**
By Menthol Rum
I love to cook and I was intrigued by the SuperSteam and its method of cooking. A simple convection microwave combination is nothing new but this is the most advanced cooking apparatus I have ever used. I was hoping that SuperSteam wouldn't be a useless gimmick. It wasn't. The oven itself is boxy and larger than I expected. I can see it would work nicely installed, as it takes up almost all of a 36" countertop and just barely fits under the upper cabinet. It is a good looking machine, solid feeling and even has a sleep mode option for the display, so it won't light up a dark room if that's what you want. Just another nice touch.I have made several dishes in the less than two weeks I have had this and I am impressed, giving this over 90% satisfactory rating. (That's just a personal measure). I like the idea of cooking the same foods, but lighter, which steam allows you to do. My first dish was a salmon fillet (18 minutes), which came out done to perfection and easily the best salmon I have made. A few things to note, I used an olive oil mister and barely used any oil at all, mostly just for flavor. The filet came out perfect - inside and out. It is amazing to see that steam can cook and crisp, believe me, it can. It does a crispy outside and moist inside like I've never seen. One big downside when I make salmon, the odor remains for days, despite my cleaning attempts. No such issue here, and cleaning was very simple. Scallops came out just perfect as well. I have many more dishes to test and now my expectations are high for future meals. Lastly, many of us are used to the "intelligent" cooking process of our ovens and microwaves. With one exception, the cooking program was spot on and the one miss was not that bad. All in all, I have learned to trust the cooking programs, where I never used to, even with good products. This is the best cooking intelligence I have seen.I made simple things in the microwave, like steamed veggies and rice. All run of the mill and they came out great. My other microwave is more powerful, but it's not an issue for me. It may be just me, but it doesn't feel like it gets that hot, but it definitely does. It doesn't throw as much heat as a standard convection oven at all.This is not a simple oven. You can't just start using all the functions without reading the instructions. I am a die hard ignorer of manuals, yet I had to read this manual. You just can't use most of the functions well or properly if you don't. There's a lot to this oven and to get the most out of this oven, you'll need to read the instructions. It's not that hard and if you spend 15 minutes reading, you'll be fine. This isn't an oven that you can use the more advanced settings with no instruction. There is a water reservoir to fill and one to empty, there are different pans depending upon how and what you are cooking and there is a simple operating knowledge you will want to be familiar with before starting. Again, if you spend this kind of money on an oven, you'll want to spend the time to learn how to use it.What will really make this great is if Sharp would create an online community or join with an existing online cooking community that can create and share recipes for the SuperSteam. They have a nice collection of recipes that comes with the oven, but I would hope to see more from a community of cooks that take to this oven.This is not an inexpensive machine but I feel it is an excellent value. I look forward to the creations I'll make with it and I recommend that if anyone is remotely interested in the Sharp SuperSteam, you need to check it out. Hopefully, you'll be as impressed as I am.**April 2010 Update **I am using the Sharp SuperSteam almost daily. I am writing this update because of how much I love the "brains" in this unit. The auto sense works great when cooking, but the reheat on the microwave needs a mention as well. It reheats leftovers just perfectly. Last nights, pizza, perfect. The curry rice, perfect. It's just another feature that makes this a top notch machine that you should consider for your kitchen.**May 2011 Update**I'm still loving the versatility and the cooking results of this fantastic oven. You have to use it to understand how well it works. I am still as happy today as the first day that I used it with the results and simplicity.I only recently needed to descale and it was incredibly simple and effective. I used filtered water only from the refrigerator for the reservoir, so the amount of minerals in the water was the reason it took this long to need to descale (as per the instructions). It was a very simple process and worked very well. You will want to put all the parts in a good location, as I did, so when the instructions tell you to get the part for the descaling, you have it. Also, I should mention the cleaning mode is great as well. It is not a self-cleaning, but it heats up to make cleaning by hand easier. The function works well and this oven looks like it will last a long time.
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful.
Commercial quality at a non-commercial price
By Modern Blue Argonaut
I had a friend who had one of these built into her kitchen. My first thoughts were (in my head): rich people, grrr! Restaurants also commonly use these (called combi ovens because they cook in three modes: micro, convection, and steam), although a commercial oven like this would run at least two to three times the price. Now that I've tried it I have to wonder if these shouldn't be standard equipment in new homes along with a glass cook top. Singles, couples, and condo owners might want to consider having one of these installed in their next kitchen along with a glass cook top rather than a full sized oven and microwave.This uses far less energy that an electric oven. At 700 watts, it even uses less energy than my microwave which was surprising. My microwave, a GE Spacemaker XL 1800 uses 1100 watts and can't cook nearly as many types of food as this oven. Although the price is a more by a few hundred dollars, I think the upgrade to the Sharp Supersteam makes sense because it can do so much more.It's also more versatile in that it can steam, microwave, or even use convection to heat and cook foods. It is large enough to bake a batch of cupcakes, roast a chicken, or make meals for up to four people at a time. I made brownies for my first dish and following the directions on the brownie mix, I didn't need to change anything and they came out more moist than if I had baked them in my full size oven. Next, I made a variation of a recipe in the included cookbook and baked some salmon brushed with seasoned mayo and sprinkled with dill. It came out moist, delicious, browned, and wasn't dried out like it would be if I grilled it. Tonight we made Asian Style Meatballs, which was one of the included recipes and they were.. delicious! The recipe book has thirty seven recipes to get started which undoubtedly will get modified to suit your own tastes. It's also easy to look at the recipes and make adjustments based on what vegetables and seasonings you have on had, but the recipe book will go a long way in providing a road map for the ovens capabilities and cooking options. There is also five pages of charts detailing portion sizes, cooking times, oven settings, preheat/no preheat, and more to help guide you in adapting recipes should the need arise.Although this can function as a microwave, I'll continue to use my GE microwave since it's installed above my oven, but I plan to use this Sharp Supersteam in place of my traditional oven on every occasion except for Thanksgiving dinner. I did like the ipod style scroll wheel. It looks so much more upscale that having a numbers pad. You just dial your cooking selections along with the cooking time. It guides you every step of the way including asking if you'd like to preheat the oven.My main complaints with this oven are:1. Lighting is poor. It only has one light, which is much darker than my microwave.2. Since the door pulls down this would not be ideal to mount high since you would have trouble seeing your food and are more likely to burn yourself. My friend has hers mounted waist high, but up to chest high should be okay, or use it on your countertop.
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