Breville Bambino Plus.

The Gavler Review.

Breville Bambino Plus Review: Fast, Small, and Nearly Foolproof

The Breville Bambino Plus sits at rank eight on our Best Espresso Machines list with an 8.0. It compresses most of what makes Breville's bigger machines good into a body just 7.6 inches wide, using Breville's ThermoJet heater to reach brewing temperature from cold in under 10 seconds. Tom's Guide names it "the reigning champ of entry-level espresso machines," and The Coffee Chronicler's Asser Christensen goes further: "it's the new budget semi-automatic espresso machine that other brands have to beat." The headline convenience — an automatic milk-steaming wand — is also the machine's most-debated feature, with Reviewed.com's own editor pointing buyers toward the cheaper manual-wand Bambino instead because of reliability complaints.

What it actually is

The Bambino Plus pulls from a 54mm portafilter at up to 15 bar with real PID temperature control, and TechRadar's Sophie Bird clocked it brewing a shot in 21 seconds with "a fantastic thick crema on the top." The Coffee Chronicler measured the brew pressure directly and found Breville "nailed it with the 9 bars" at the puck despite the 15-bar pump spec — "contrary to what some people might think, more is not better." Home Grounds' Julia Bobak measured the water tank at 64 ounces, nearly double the 34-ounce tank on a comparably sized De'Longhi Dedica. The signature convenience feature is automatic milk steaming: insert the wand, press a button, and it steams and auto-purges in a little over a minute, with a well-shaped jug that makes latte art forgiving — Home Grounds rated milk frothing 4.5 out of 5 in a category-by-category breakdown, ahead of every other score the machine received.

In use

TechRadar's decibel readings put real numbers on how unobtrusive it is: "the machine averaged 53 decibels" during espresso brewing, "similar to the sound of a hair dryer," dropping to 51 decibels while steaming. The Coffee Chronicler's long-term account backs the reliability up with an anecdote spanning years, not weeks: "My mother asked me, which espresso machine to buy and I suggested the Bambino Plus. She has now had it for four years and it's still going strong." On shot quality, the same reviewer put it directly against a well-known rival: "With something like the Gaggia Classic Pro, you might get a fantastic shot occasionally, but with the Bambino Plus, it's the rule, not the exception."

The auto-steam wand is where the story gets more complicated. Reviewed.com's David Kender, in a piece comparing the base Bambino against the Plus, did not mince words: "the performance of the automatic steam wand is mixed, and user reviews suggest there may be reliability issues... Note that the Breville Bambino Plus... has a 'Frequently Returned' tag at the top of its Amazon product page." Kender's conclusion was blunt — "we found multiple complaints about the automatic steam wand on the Bambino Plus, so you should save yourself the hassle and get the base model." That is a sharper critique than a simple design quirk; it's a specific, sourced reliability flag on the feature that differentiates the Plus from the cheaper Bambino.

Smaller, consistently repeated gripes round out the picture. Both Home Grounds and The Coffee Chronicler independently flagged a stiff, fiddly portafilter — "you need to have a pretty good grasp on it when you twist the portafilter in and out, or it'll slide around on your counter," per Home Grounds — and both independently flagged a drip tray that's quick to overfill and prone to a steam-purge mess. Auto-volume dosing runs about 2 grams of variance shot to shot, per The Coffee Chronicler's own measurement, a finding Reviewed.com corroborates secondhand via Serious Eats' testing. There's also no dedicated power button; TechRadar and Home Grounds both note you hold two buttons at once to shut it off, which Home Grounds calls "a minor quibble" but is worth knowing going in.

Strengths

Speed and consistency are the Bambino Plus's real selling points, backed by measured numbers from three separate outlets: a 21-second shot time, a 3-to-10-second heat-up, and steady 9-bar puck pressure regardless of the 15-bar pump spec. The auto-steam function, when it works, produces genuinely good latte-art-capable microfoam from a well-designed jug — Home Grounds' 4.5-out-of-5 frothing score reflects that. At $500 for a machine this fast and this compact, with PID stability and a 64-ounce tank most rivals its size don't match, it's an easy machine to recommend for a small kitchen.

Trade-offs — who should skip it

Skip the Plus specifically — not the whole Bambino line — if you want the most reliable version of this machine; Reviewed.com's reporting on the auto-steam wand's clogging and power-loss complaints, plus Amazon's own "Frequently Returned" flag, is a real, sourced reason to consider the cheaper manual-wand Bambino instead. Expect a stiff portafilter that fights you on insertion, a small drip tray that needs frequent attention, auto-dosing that drifts by a couple of grams shot to shot, and no dedicated on/off button. None of these are dealbreakers on their own, but stacked together they're the price of the size and speed.

How it compares

Against the Lelit Bianca V3 (rank six on this list) and the Rancilio Silvia Pro X (rank seven), the Bambino Plus isn't competing on the same axis at all — those machines are prosumer instruments for people who want to profile shots or run dual boilers; the Bambino Plus is the fastest path to a genuinely good shot with almost no learning curve. Against the already-reviewed Gaggia Classic Evo Pro (rank four), the trade is convenience versus control: the Bambino Plus automates temperature and milk steaming, where the Gaggia hands more of the process — and more of the learning curve — to the user.

The Gavler verdict

An 8.0 for being the easiest genuinely good shot of espresso in a 7.6-inch machine, backed by measured heat-up times, decibel readings, and a long-term four-year ownership account that all point the same direction: fast, consistent, and easy to live with. The one real asterisk is the automatic steam wand itself — the feature that justifies the "Plus" in the name has a documented reliability complaint from Reviewed.com's own reporting and Amazon's return data. Buy the Bambino Plus for a small kitchen where speed and simplicity matter most; if wand reliability worries you, the cheaper base Bambino is the safer bet.

Common Questions

Is the Breville Bambino Plus worth $500?

For a first real espresso machine in a small kitchen, yes — Tom's Guide names it 'the reigning champ of entry-level espresso machines,' and The Coffee Chronicler argues it's 'the new budget semi-automatic espresso machine that other brands have to beat.' The main catch is the automatic steam wand, which several outlets and Amazon's own 'Frequently Returned' tag flag as less reliable than the base Bambino's manual wand.

Breville Bambino Plus vs Breville Bambino — which should I buy?

Reviewed.com's David Kender found multiple complaints about the Plus's automatic steam wand — clogging, losing power over time, and a sensor that may not work with third-party milk pitchers — and recommends most buyers save the roughly $100 difference and get the base Bambino with its manual wand instead.

How fast does the Breville Bambino Plus heat up?

Breville's ThermoJet heater brings it to brewing temperature from cold in under 10 seconds; The Coffee Chronicler independently measured 'no more than 3 seconds' from standby, versus the 10 to 30 minutes often needed by traditional boiler machines.