I tested the Balmuda Toaster Pro, a nearly $400 toaster oven that promises crisp toast, steam-enhanced heating, and a Salamander Grill Mode for finishing foods with top-down heat. Over several days, I compared it to a regular toaster and countertop oven, then tested it with toast, pizza, croissants, pancakes, cheese toast, garlic bread, and pizza bagels.
Where to Purchase
You can buy the Balmuda Toaster Pro from Amazon at this link. While you’re there, take a look at the Wonder Oven or the Breville 4-slot toaster, both of which are featured in this review.
Balmuda Toaster Pro Review
The Balmuda Toaster Pro is a high-end toaster oven that I purchased for $379. At the time of my review, it had a 3.9-star rating on Amazon with only 55 reviews, so this is not exactly a mass-market appliance with thousands of customer opinions behind it, although the non-Pro version is perhaps more well-known. Balmuda says this toaster was developed with insights from professional chefs and uses steam to create toast that is crisp on the outside while staying soft and moist inside.
It includes six cooking modes, including Shokupan Mode, Golden Toast Mode, Pizza Mode, Croissant Mode, Oven Mode, and the Toaster Pro-exclusive Salamander Grill Mode. That Salamander mode is supposed to mimic concentrated top-down heat, somewhat like a broiler or blowtorch finish.
On paper, this is positioned somewhere between a toaster and a countertop oven. It is more versatile than a basic toaster, but smaller and more specialized than a full countertop oven. Because of that, I wanted to compare it not only on its own, but also against two appliances I already own: my $220 Breville 4-slot toaster and my $180 Wonder Oven, which is a countertop oven that also has a steam feature.
Before I got into the actual cooking tests, I had to spend some time with the instructions, and that is where some of my first concerns came up. Balmuda includes a small 5cc water cup, which is used for the steam modes. The water is poured into an inlet at the top of the unit before cooking. For the steam modes, this is a big part of the overall experience.
The controls are very simple and oddly satisfying to use. There is a mode dial on one side and a timer dial on the other. The timer goes in 30-second increments up to 5 minutes, then uses one-minute increments up to 10 minutes, then jumps to 15 minutes (I’m not sure how that works if you want 12 minutes, for example). That is fine for toast and quick snacks, but it becomes limiting if you want to cook something that takes longer than 15 minutes.
The instructions also mention that foods should be no taller than 2.1 inches (I mistakenly said 2.5 inches in my video review), which limits what can realistically fit inside. This is not a tall toaster oven. It is meant for bread, pastries, pizza slices, and small snacks, not larger dishes.
One of my biggest frustrations before even cooking anything was the tray situation. Balmuda says to use a heat-resistant dish or aluminum foil for foods that may drip, but the baking tray is not included. The tray is sold separately, and when I looked, it was not available on Amazon. Balmuda sells it on its website, but it adds another cost to an already expensive appliance.
The instructions also say not to use parchment paper and not to use baking sheets, which makes things more confusing because Balmuda itself sells a separate baking tray. I assume they mean not to use random baking sheets that may not fit or may interfere with the heating elements, but for a consumer, the wording is not very clear. If you are going to advertise pizza as one of the main uses, the tray situation should be easier than this.
For my first test, I started with basic white bread in Shokupan Mode. Balmuda gives you the mode, but the timing still takes some trial and error. I started with 3 minutes and used the recommended water. The toaster steamed up inside, so I could tell the steam function was doing something, but it also made it harder to see the toast through the window.
After 3 minutes, the toast looked pretty good, although a little darker than I personally prefer. The top side looked nice and the bottom had some rack marks, but overall it was an acceptable slice of toast. When I tasted it, it was nicely toasted, but not quite as soft and fluffy inside as I expected based on the marketing. Still, it gave me a useful baseline.
Next was a three-way comparison between the Balmuda, my Breville toaster, and my Wonder Oven. I used the same generic white bread in each appliance and tried to get a similar level of toasting. The Breville was set to level 3, the Balmuda used Shokupan Mode for 3 minutes with steam, and the Wonder Oven was set to toast at 450 degrees with its steam function.
All three produced decent toast. The Breville was probably the most even between both sides, although it was a little dry, which is expected from a regular toaster. The Wonder Oven did a good job, although it was slightly darker on one side. The Balmuda had a little more softness in the center, but it was not dramatically different. I would give the Balmuda a slight edge on interior softness, but not necessarily on evenness.
That first day left me thinking the Balmuda was good, but not mind-blowing. It worked fine as a toaster, but for nearly $400, I needed to see more.
On day two, I focused on reheating and reviving foods, which is where the Balmuda started to perform better. I tested frozen premade pancakes, leftover pizza, and a day-old croissant.
For the frozen pancakes, the package called for 375 degrees for 3 minutes in a conventional oven, but the Balmuda only offers 350, 400, and 450 degrees in Oven Mode. I went with 350 degrees for 4 minutes, with no steam, since Oven Mode does not use water. The pancakes went directly on the rack because they wouldn’t drip.
The pancakes came out surprisingly well. They were evenly heated, had a slightly crisp exterior, and were cooked through. I even used a thermal imager and they looked pretty even. This was probably an easy test for the Balmuda, but it passed with no complaints.
The pizza test was more interesting because Balmuda has a dedicated Pizza Mode. I had a cold leftover slice from the fridge and wanted to see if the Balmuda could make it taste closer to fresh. Because Balmuda warns against placing drippy foods directly on the rack, and because the official tray was not included or available, I made a small foil boat to catch any cheese or oil. The manual allows foil as long as it does not touch the heating elements.
I used Pizza Mode with 5cc of water for 5 minutes. The result was excellent. The pizza was hot throughout, the top had a nice crispness, and the inside still felt moist and fresh rather than dried out. This was one of the strongest tests of the entire review. It tasted more like pizza fresh from the oven than a typical reheated slice.
For the croissant test, I used a day-old store-bought croissant and placed it directly on the rack in Croissant Mode with water. I set it for 3 minutes. This also turned out extremely well. The outside was flaky, the inside was warm and soft, and it tasted much better than it looked going in. If you often have day-old pastries or bakery items, this is one area where the Balmuda really makes sense.
After day two, I was much more impressed. The pancakes, pizza, and croissant all turned out as good as I could have hoped. The pizza and croissant especially made a better case for the Balmuda than the basic toast test did.
On day three, I wanted to test more realistic snack foods and the Salamander Grill Mode. I started with cheese toast. First, I lightly toasted a slice of white bread in Shokupan Mode for 90 seconds with water. That gave me the light toast I wanted. Then I added shredded cheese, placed it on foil (because cheese can drip), and used Salamander Mode with no water for 1 minute.
The result was very good. The bread stayed crisp, and the cheese was fully melted without burning. Some people might want a little more browning, but I thought it landed in a good place. It was a simple test, but it showed that Salamander Mode can be useful for quick top-down finishing.
Next was frozen garlic bread. The package instructions called for 400 degrees for 5 to 6 minutes in a toaster oven on a baking tray. Since I did not have the Balmuda tray, I used foil again. I cooked it in Oven Mode at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. At that point, the edges were done, but the top still looked a little soft. This seemed like a perfect time to use Salamander Mode, so I added 1 minute of Salamander finishing.
That worked exactly as I hoped. The garlic bread went from almost done to nicely finished. The top looked better, the bread was evenly toasted, and the final result was very good. This was one of the best examples of how Oven Mode and Salamander Mode can work together.
For my final test, I made simple homemade pizza bagels. I used a room-temperature bagel and lightly toasted it first in Golden Toast Mode for 90 seconds with water. It did not look very toasted, but it was enough to firm up the surface so the sauce would not soak in too much. Then I added pizza sauce and mozzarella, placed the bagels on foil, and used Salamander Mode.
I started with 1 minute, but it needed more time. I originally thought of putting it in there for 30 seconds, but the Balmuda’s lowest timer setting is 1 minute, so I restarted it and watched closely. After a total of about 2 minutes in Salamander Mode, the cheese was melted and the sauce was hot. It didn’t brown dramatically, but the finished pizza bagels tasted good. The bagel was crisp, the sauce and cheese were cooked nicely, and it felt like a realistic use for this appliance.
After all of my testing, I think the Balmuda Toaster Pro delivered solid results. Most of the foods I cooked turned out very well. The pizza, croissant, pancakes, garlic bread, cheese toast, and pizza bagels were all successful. The steam function does seem to provide a slight improvement with certain foods, especially reheated pizza and pastries, although I think the marketing may overstate how dramatic the difference is.
The Salamander Grill Mode was also useful. It worked well for cheese toast and was especially helpful for finishing the garlic bread. It didn’t dramatically brown the pizza bagels, but it still melted the cheese and completed the snack nicely.
There are some definite positives here. The Balmuda looks nice, the controls feel good, it is quiet, and it makes very good food. The modes are useful, and when you use it for the right foods, it can produce excellent results.
The biggest problem, however, is the price. At nearly $400, this is an expensive toaster oven. If you add the optional tray, you are over $400. That’s hard to justify when you can buy a very capable countertop oven for less than half the price. My Wonder Oven has steam, larger capacity, more modes, a longer timer, comes with trays, and costs less than half the price of the Balmuda.
The missing tray is another real con. For a product that advertises pizza and other foods that can drip, the tray should really be included. Having to improvise with foil throughout the review was not ideal. I will probably end up buying the tray because I plan to keep using the Balmuda, but I don’t think buyers should have to spend extra for such a basic accessory. $34 for their tray also seems unreasonable.
The limited clearance is also worth mentioning. With only a little over 2 inches of usable height, you will not fit many dishes in here. It is great for toast, bread, pastries, pizza slices, and small snacks, but it is not a full countertop oven replacement.
The 15-minute maximum timer is another limitation. It’s fine for quick snacks, but I tried a Hot Pocket separately, and at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, it was not done. If you need more than 15 minutes, you’ll have to start the timer again and babysit it. That is not a dealbreaker, but it is another reminder that this is a specialized toaster oven, not a general-purpose oven.
In the end, I think most people who buy the Balmuda Toaster Pro will probably like it. It makes good toast, excellent reheated pizza, great pastries, and does a nice job with simple snack foods. But it is not the only game in town, and the performance difference is not always huge compared to cheaper alternatives.
If you love toast, pastries, and reheated pizza, and you want a premium appliance that looks nice on the counter, the Balmuda Toaster Pro may be worth considering. But if you are mainly looking for versatility, value, capacity, and included accessories, there are plenty of countertop ovens that make more sense for a lot less money.
The Balmuda Toaster Pro is a good product, and I enjoyed using it. I just think the price, missing tray, limited clearance, and short timer make it a harder recommendation than the cooking results alone would suggest.
Video Review
You can watch my full review below.