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All Reviews

All Reviews

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carbon steel frying pan with seared steak on stovetop
Review ★★★★☆ 4.5

Made In 12-Inch Carbon Steel Frying Pan Review: A Lighter Workhorse That Earns the Burner

The Made In 12-Inch Carbon Steel Frying Pan is the brand's pitch to anyone who loves what cast iron does on a sear but hates lifting it off the stove. After working through the seasoning curve, you get a pan that gets blistering hot, builds a real non-stick patina, and weighs noticeably less than a Lodge of the same diameter. It is not a beginner's pan, but for cooks willing to maintain it, it earns a spot on the rail.

~$99–$129 Read review →
red enameled cast iron dutch oven on rustic wooden kitchen counter
Review ★★★★☆ 4.7

Lodge EC6D43 Enameled Cast Iron 6-Quart Dutch Oven Review: Le Creuset Performance Without the Le Creuset Price

If you have been staring at the price tag on a Le Creuset 5.5-quart, then sliding over to the Staub 5.5-quart, then quietly closing the tab — the Lodge EC6D43 is the pan that gets you off the couch. It is not as pretty as the French ovens, and it does not have the cachet, but functionally it is a heavy, oven-safe, enameled cast iron pot that braises, bakes, and stews exactly the way you want one to. For most home cooks, that is a very fair trade.

~$90–$130 Read review →
cast iron reversible griddle pancakes on stovetop
Review ★★★★☆ 4.5

Lodge LPGI3 Cast Iron Reversible Grill/Griddle Review: One Pan, Two Burners, A Lot of Breakfast

The Lodge LPGI3 Pro-Grid is the answer to "I want pancakes for six people without juggling two skillets." It's a 20-inch slab of pre-seasoned cast iron with a flat side for griddling and a ribbed side for searing, and it sits across two burners. For under $60, it does one thing extremely well — feed a lot of people at once — but it's worth knowing the trade-offs before you wedge it into your cabinet.

~$45–$60 Read review →
small black-handled paring knife on wooden cutting board with strawberries
Review ★★★★☆ 4.6

Wüsthof Classic 3.5-Inch Paring Knife Review: The Little Workhorse That Earns Its Spot

The Wüsthof Classic 3.5-inch paring knife is the kind of tool that doesn't get a lot of attention because it's busy doing its job. It's the small, forged German knife that sits next to your chef's knife and quietly handles every fiddly task — hulling strawberries, deveining shrimp, peeling shallots, scoring tomato skins. It's not flashy and it's not the cheapest option, but if you already trust Wüsthof's 8-inch chef's knife, this is the matching pair that finishes the set.

~$60 Read review →
large black cast iron skillet on a wooden kitchen counter with rustic background
Review ★★★★☆ 4.0

Lodge L10SK3 12-Inch Cast Iron Skillet Review: The Bigger Workhorse That Still Costs Less Than Dinner Out

The Lodge L10SK3 is the 12-inch big brother of the most-recommended cast iron skillet in America. It is heavy, it is plain-looking, and it costs less than a steak dinner. For most home cooks who already love their 10-inch Lodge — or who have never owned cast iron at all — this is the pan you graduate to when one chicken thigh stops being enough.

~$35 Read review →
classic chrome french press coffee maker on wooden kitchen counter with fresh ground coffee
Review ★★★★☆ 4.6

Bodum Chambord 8-Cup French Press Review: The Classic That's Still Worth Buying

The Bodum Chambord has been on counters and in coffee shops for decades, and the 8-cup (34 oz) version is the one most people picture when they hear "French press." It's a polished stainless steel frame around a borosilicate glass beaker, and at around forty dollars it sits right between the cheap big-box presses and the pricier insulated alternatives. Bottom line: it still brews a rich, full-bodied cup, but you should know exactly what you're trading away before you buy.

~$40 Read review →
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Japanese santoku knife with hammered tsuchime damascus blade and wooden handle on a wooden cutting board
Review ★★★★☆ 4.7

Shun Premier 7-Inch Santoku Knife Review: A Hammered Damascus Workhorse for Vegetables and Beyond

The Shun Premier 7-Inch Santoku (model TDM0702) is one of the most recognizable Japanese-style knives in the U.S. market — a hammered, walnut-finished blade with a thin geometry and a famously sharp factory edge. Bottom line: if you cook a lot of vegetables and want a lighter, more precise alternative to a Western chef's knife, the Premier Santoku is hard to beat at this tier — provided you treat it like a Japanese knife, not a hatchet.

~$200–$220 Read review →
Japanese Damascus serrated bread knife slicing crusty sourdough on wooden cutting board
Review ★★★★☆ 4.7

Shun Classic 9-Inch Bread Knife Review: Damascus-Clad Slicer With a Lifetime Edge

The Shun Classic 9-Inch Bread Knife (model DM0705) is one of the prettier serrated knives you can buy without crossing into custom-shop territory — and one of the few in that price tier that earns the looks with real cutting performance. It's not the right knife for every kitchen, but if you bake your own bread or routinely break down crusty loaves and ripe tomatoes, it's a tool that will outlive most of the gear in your drawer.

~$150–$180 Read review →
Chemex hourglass glass pour-over coffeemaker on a wooden kitchen counter
Review ★★★★☆ 4.1

Chemex Classic 6-Cup Pour-Over Coffeemaker Review: An Iconic Brew, With a Learning Curve

The Chemex Classic 6-Cup is one of those rare kitchen objects that genuinely earns its place in the Museum of Modern Art's collection. Invented by Peter Schlumbohm in 1941, it is still made the same way — a single piece of borosilicate glass shaped like an hourglass, hugged at the waist by a wooden collar tied with a leather cord. Eighty-plus years later, it makes one of the cleanest, brightest cups of filter coffee you can get at home. It is also fussy, breakable, and not the right brewer for everyone. Here is what to expect before you buy.

~$45 Read review →
red enameled cast iron square grill pan with grill ridges on stovetop
Review ★★★★☆ 4.8

Le Creuset Signature Square Skillet Grill 10.25" Review: Indoor Grill Marks With a Lifetime Pedigree

The Le Creuset 10.25" Signature Square Skillet Grill is what you buy when you want restaurant-style grill marks on a Tuesday in February and you do not want to drag a charcoal grill out of the garage. It is heavy, beautifully made, and priced like the heirloom it intends to be. Worth it for the right cook — overkill for plenty of others.

~$200 Read review →
tall wooden pepper mill on a wooden cutting board with cracked peppercorns
Review ★★★★☆ 4.4

Peugeot Paris u'Select 9-Inch Pepper Mill Review: Heirloom Grinder, Premium Price

The Peugeot Paris u'Select is what most cooks reach for when they finally get tired of replacing a $15 pepper mill every couple of years. It's a French-made beechwood grinder with a click-stop grind selector and a steel mechanism backed by a lifetime warranty on the mechanism itself. The bottom line: if you actually use pepper every day, this mill is hard to beat — but the price will sting anyone who only grinds a few twists at the table.

~$60 Read review →
modern Japanese chef's knife on wood cutting board with chopped vegetables
Review ★★★★☆ 4.7

Misen 8-Inch Chef's Knife Review: The DTC Darling That Still Punches Above Its Price

Misen launched on Kickstarter in 2015 with a simple pitch: take the geometry of a Japanese gyuto, build it from genuinely good steel, and sell it for less than the Wusthof and Shun knives it was competing with. Almost a decade later the formula still works. The 8-inch Chef's Knife is sharper out of the box than most German blades twice its price, holds an edge better than the Victorinox Fibrox, and feels noticeably more substantial in hand than its competitors at the sub-$100 mark. It isn't perfect — the handle is divisive and the fit-and-finish doesn't quite match a Shun — but for under $100 it remains one of the easiest knife recommendations to make.

~$85–$94 Read review →