The Breville Bambino is the best espresso machine for coffee lovers on a budget. At just $299, you’d be hard-pressed to find a similarly powerful machine for less. I’ve tested 30 coffee makers this year, and there’s nothing I’d recommend more than this for cost-conscious coffee lovers.
Although I adore its older sibling, the Breville Bambino Plus, the Bambino’s $299 price tag (compared to the Plus’s $499 price tag) is much more digestible for beginners. But don’t think this is a machine just for newbies — it’s stuffed with tons of premium features like a PID controller and a powerful steam wand.
So, is this machine for you? Short answer: yes. 100% yes. But if you want the long answer, well, you’ll have to keep reading this Breville Bambino review.
Breville Bambino review: Cheat sheet
- Who is it for? Compact homes, beginner baristas, or coffee snobs alike
- What does it do well? Everything — PID controller, powerful steam wand, the lot
- What are its weaknesses? I’ve been wracking my brain, and… no?
- Anything else to know? Yes: buy it. Buy it now
Breville Bambino review: Specs
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Price |
$299 / £329 |
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Weight |
10.9 pounds |
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Dimensions |
13.7 x 6.3 x 12 inches |
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Bar pressure |
9 bar |
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Heating system |
ThermoJet |
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Water tank capacity |
46 fluid ounces |
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Accessories |
Milk jug, tamper, cleaning accessories |
Breville Bambino review: Price & availability
The Breville Bambino is $299 from Amazon U.S., while in the U.K. it sells under the brand Sage and will set you back £329 from John Lewis. In the U.S., this is a fantastic deal — it’s $200 cheaper than the Sage/Breville Bambino Plus, which is Breville’s next-step machine.
In the U.K., the Bambino Plus is just £399 — that’s a difference of £70. I’d recommend getting the Bambino Plus over the Bambino, as you get a more powerful steam wand and auto milk frothing for just £70 extra.
The Bambino is the cheapest machine offered by Breville, and my overall recommendation for budget-conscious coffee lovers. You could also check out the $149 De’Longhi Stilosa, $229 De’Longhi Classic, $299 De’Longhi Dedica Duo, or the $129 Casabrews 3700 Essential if you’re looking to save as much $$$ as possible, but honestly? The Bambino is the best bang-for-buck option amongst these options.
Sure, it’s $150 pricier than the De’Longhi Stilosa, but for that extra investment, you get a premium, pure metal finish and a PID controller, which are both key markers of a high-end product.
However, if you want more of a “serious” espresso machine on a relatively small budget, I’d recommend checking out the Gaggia Classic ($499). This machine is famous in the coffee world for its repairability and modability. You can install a PID controller yourself and switch out the steam wand should you so desire.
Breville Bambino review: Design
As with every other espresso machine under Breville’s belt, the Bambino is utterly gorgeous. It comes in silver and black, which is fewer colorways than its older sibling, the Bambino Plus, but as you can see from the photos above, being plain doesn’t always mean being unimpressive.
Breville’s Bambino range is the cheapest, most compact series the brand offers. At just 6.3 inches wide, the Bambino is even dinkier than the Plus (7 inches), so I’d recommend the Bambino for super-small households. Like the Plus, the Bambino weighs around 11 pounds, so much, much lighter than other espresso machines on the market.
Despite being very similar, the Bambino and Bambino Plus have a few key design differences, most notably the steam wand controls. While the Bambino Plus has three circular buttons on its front — single shot, double shot, and steam — the Bambino has just two. These control single and double shots.
If you want to activate the steam wand, you have to press a little button on the right side of the machine. There’s also a hot water button (the resulting hot water spurts out of the steam wand, so ensure your wand is purged if you want a milkless Americano, for example).
There’s also no auto milk function on the Bambino. Personally, I never use the automatic milk frothing function on my Bambino Plus, but my boyfriend, who is less of a DIY barista and more of an I’d-be-happy-with-an-automatic barista, uses the auto function all the time. It just depends on your preference.
Overall, the Bambino looks like a compact Breville machine, and I mean that as a very high compliment. Breville has really mastered the suave yet usable aesthetic. There’s a reason why you see so many Brevilles/Sages in Instagram and TikTok videos.
Breville Bambino review: Espresso
I mentioned earlier that the Bambino has a PID controller. If your eyes kind of glazed over that, let me explain exactly what that means now.
A PID controller is a nifty piece of tech built into premium espresso machines. Personally, I would never buy an espresso machine without one. Some really fancy machines (like the Smeg EMC02 that I dream about on a semi-regular basis) have a custom temperature control, but Breville’s PID controller is factory-set to 200°F. This means all the water used in espresso extraction will be precisely 200°F. Not a degree hotter or colder.
A PID controller basically ensures that you get consistent, technically accurate espresso every single time. You won’t have any burned or undercooked shots, which is paramount if you want to seriously get into coffee. Keeping as many core variables the same as possible each time allows you to get scientific with your shots and tweak the variables you do want to change individually, when you want to experiment.
Now, I’ll talk about the Bambino’s ability to make espresso. In short: awesome. Damn, this is such a good machine. This machine’s functionality vs. cost is darn near unbelievable.
For just $299 and a little practice, you can pull barista-quality shots every single time. Every espresso I made had a rich, thick crema and deep, intense flavor with no bitterness and no sourness. Here’s a photo of a particularly delectable shot I made on the Bambino. This shot was extracted in 28 seconds to a ratio of 1:2 (18g in, 36g out) with artisan Ethiopian beans.
As you can see, the crema is perfectly caramel-colored and thick. It tasted divine, with a bright, punchy top note and a malty, toasty base note. I guzzled this shot with no milk or water, which is how you know it was a delicious shot of espresso.
You can also customize pre-infusion time. I pulled another shot with a custom pre-infusion time of 10 seconds, and then extracted 36g. When it was finished, the time on my Wacaco Exagram Pro scale read 34 seconds, which means it poured a touch too quickly, but tasted divine just the same.
Although you can do all these fancy-schmancy things on the Bambino, like custom pre-infusion time and custom shot volume, please don’t let that put you off if you’re a beginner. My parents have a Bambino at home and they get on with it perfectly, using the included pressurized baskets and (shudder) pre-ground coffee from the grocery store.
You can also just use the Bambino as it comes, with the preset shot volume and pre-infusion times. That’s the beauty of this machine: it’s so versatile. The ideal machine for a household with a coffee snob (guilty) and a hot bean juice guzzler who doesn’t know what pre-infusion is, let alone care about customizing it.
Breville Bambino review: Milk
After pulling your shot, the Bambino takes just four seconds to switch from espresso to steam. This is the same speed as my Bambino Plus, the same as the De’Longhi La Specialistas I’ve tested, and much faster than the Gaggia Classic, which requires a tedious, time-consuming process called “temperature surfing”. Thanks to the Bambino’s ThermoJet boiler (basically Breville’s name for a Thermoblock), you can switch between espresso and milk and back in no time. Casabrews’ machines require boiler purges after steam, which gets very frustrating.
Despite this speedy ThermoJet heatup time, I was a little skeptical of the Bambino’s one-hole steam wand. A one-hole basically has less power than a four-hole, as there are fewer holes from which steam can come. However, I love to be proved wrong, and oh boy, was I proved wrong.
The Bambino’s steam wand is super flexible, much better than the De’Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo and Opera’s low-lying and inflexible steam wands. The Bambino’s wand has a ball joint rather than a prescriptive up-down joint. Consequently, I’d recommend the Bambino over the La Specialistas if you want to seriously perfect your milk texture.
With the provided milk jug (complete with Breville’s standard angled milk spout for easier latte art pours), I was able to get beautiful latte art. This is with oat milk, which is famously trickier than dairy milk.
As you can see, the milk is shiny and creamy, with the ideal texture of melted ice cream. I was able to get the all-important vortex while steaming this milk, which is the marker of a powerful steam wand.
Although not quite as powerful as the Bambino Plus’s four-hole steam wand, the Bambino’s steam wand is still a force to be reckoned with. You can easily get barista-quality milk texture with just a little practice.
Breville Bambino review: Storage & maintenance
One of the best aspects of the Bambino is its compact size. This is an ideal espresso machine for small households. If you’ve only got one countertop of space, I’d recommend the Bambino or the Bambino Plus. The Bambino is just 6.3 inches wide, 0.7 inches smaller than the Bambino Plus.
In terms of cleaning, the Bambino is very easy to maintain. The drip tray is completely removable and has a little red tab that pops up when it’s due to be emptied. I found it very easy to just clean it in the sink with some warm, soapy water.
If you live in a hard water area (like me), then you’ll need to be on top of descaling. I descale my espresso machine once a month. You can get a water tank filter, which will assist with the everyday maintenance of the inner pipes. These are $16 from Breville and should be replaced every three months. De’Longhi’s water filters are $19 from Amazon, which is a touch pricier than Breville’s. Filtering your water is an expense, I know, but it’s worth it in the long run.
With proper maintenance, Breville machines can last years, although when they do break, they’re harder to fix than all-metal boiler-fed machines like the Gaggia Classic and Rancilio Silvia — which have a stellar reputation for reliability and repairability.
If the Bambino breaks within a year, you’re covered under warranty. This is the same as Casabrews and De’Longhi but less than Ninja’s 2-year warranty.
Breville Bambino review: How does it compare?
If you want a professional-quality coffee for as little money as possible, you have no other options. It’s gotta be the Bambino. I guess you could go for the Bambino Plus too (my personal espresso machine), but this is an extra $200. The Bambino is much better value — that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.
So, if you want to save as much money as possible, I’ll chat about a few more options. The De’Longhi Stilosa can brew delectable espresso for just $149, but it looks a little plasticky, and there’s no PID controller. In terms of PID-controlled machines on a budget, you’re looking at the Gevi Espresso Machine with Grinder ($349), but I wouldn’t recommend this machine for serious coffee lovers due to the disappointing steam wand and poor grinder.
You could also check out the Casabrews CM5418 Pro ($299), which is 100% (in my mind) a dupe of the Bambino. However, it only comes with dual-walled portafilters, which is a major ick. Breville supplies you with single- and dual-walled portafilters with the Bambino, so you know it’s a machine designed for coffee lovers on a budget.
Breville Bambino review: Verdict
If you couldn’t tell from the zero “cons” listed at the top of this review, the Breville Bambino is an excellent espresso machine. It’s quite literally the dictionary definition of perfect.
Considering it’s just $299, I’d recommend the Bambino for those looking to save as much money as possible without sacrificing on quality. You can very easily brew barista-quality espresso and steam barista-quality milk — trust me, I spent 3 ½ years behind the bar of various coffee shops. I would happily open a cafe with the Bambino as the head barista.
If you want delicious, quality coffee at home, then I wholeheartedly recommend the Breville Bambino. Those looking to spend a little more might be better off with the Bambino Plus, but I’d be content with the Bambino. Thanks to its PID controller, customizable pre-infusion time, and a powerful steam wand, the Breville Bambino is a must-have in every coffee lover’s household.
