Absolutely gorgeous, but has character.
4/5
Had this for a few months now. Gorgeous cooker and I love it - but several drawbacks to consider. The daft gas safe thing on the hob means you can't cook quickly, like a chef, or in a panic! You have to hold the knobs in for at least 5 secs for them to light. They are quite vicious, even the simmer hob, so slight lack of control. The dials have too much play in them - without a corresponding heat difference in the gas, so again, lack of subtlety. You get used to it. The cast iron pot stands are heavy, but lovely. However, the design is bizarre. Pots can tip over on the cross shape. Why not make them pot shaped, i.e. round? The ovens are wonderful and cook everything well: ready meals to roasts. Best roast potatoes ever. The 'small' grill/oven is a Godsend for small needs and cooks as well as the big oven. Lots of space in both ovens and, being electric, you don't need to shift things around. Going to go really ambitious this Christmas! The small oven is there for different temperatures that I would have put beneath hotter stuff in a gas oven. The shelves in the ovens, however, do not run smoothly on the shelf racks, you have to wiggle them, and the racks themselves are annoyingly 1mm too close together to allow the lowest possible pan to slide in easily when the oven is fully utilised. Steam escapes from the main oven and floods the hob, for no apparent reason. But this is intentional, apparently. The engineer who came out to check the hob's inability to light, or stay alight (I wasn't imagining it), said the whole thing is run by a computer... Anyway. I adore this cooker, with all its annoying little ways, but I know how much I rely on reviews to decide massive household expenditure. Buy it. You will regret some stuff, but you will learn to love it. It wants to love you.
