Nostalgia Breakfast Station includes a coffee maker, griddle, and toaster oven. Does it really work? Here is my Nostalgia Breakfast Station review.
Where to Purchase
The price of the Nostalgia Breakfast Station ranges from $50 to $90 depending on where it is purchased. It can be found online at the product website or Amazon, and can also be found in a variety of stores such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Kohl’s, etc. Available colors include red, aqua, or off-white.
About Nostalgia Breakfast Station
Nostalgia Breakfast Station is a 3-in-1 unit with a retro 1950s design. The official product website is nostalgiaproducts.com, which was registered in June 2008. The screenshot below shows how the product website looked in June 2019.
Claims & Features
- Coffee pot with reusable filter (4 cup capacity)
- Toaster oven with grill, bake, broil, and toast functions
- Griddle with nonstick surface (includes glass cover)
- Removable parts for easy cleaning
- 30 minute timer (automatic shutoff)
Nostalgia Breakfast Station Review
After numerous requests to review this item, I ordered one from Amazon in May 2019. The first thing I did upon receiving it was to disassemble the Nostalgia Breakfast Station in order to clean it as recommended in the minimal instruction booklet. After cleaning, I reassembled the unit.
For my first test, I made a meal that my dad used to make: a fried egg sandwich consisting of eggs, bacon, and toast with a cup of coffee. I started making the coffee while heating the griddle with some vegetable oil. The coffee was finished rather quickly, so it might be best to preheat the griddle before brewing the coffee. Then I proceeded to place bacon and eggs on the griddle, and toast some bread in the toaster oven.
One of my first observations was that there is no temperature setting, with the dial simply reading on or off. I also noticed that everything seemed to take longer to cook than expected. After 7 minutes, everything was still cooking, and I felt that using a regular griddle or oven would have been faster.
The coffee and toast finished first and both turned out well. At this point, I attempted to flip the fried egg on the griddle using a spatula, but it was difficult to flip and stuck to the surface. Although the bacon may not have been ready to flip, I flipped it anyways. A short time later, the fried egg and one piece of bacon were finished cooking, yet the rest of the bacon was still not done.
This first test led me to suspect that griddle had an uneven cooking surface. Moreover, the heating element under the griddle did not extend all the way to the edge which would certainly lead to a cool spot. By this time, my fried egg and toast were getting cold, so I removed the bacon although it was not as crispy as I like.
All the components of the station worked, but it took around 20 minutes to finish cooking this simple breakfast, and the bacon was not as crispy as I would have liked. It will take a bit of planning in order to have everything finished at the same time.
After eating and allowing the unit to cool, I disassembled it for cleaning. The cleanup process was surprisingly quick and easy. Then I reassembled the Breakfast Station to prepare for my second test which involved scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, and coffee. Based on what I learned from the first test, I started cooking on the griddle first, then put on the coffee, and finally added the toast. Even with just two eggs, the yolks spread out across almost the entire surface of the griddle. There was an open area in the middle where I placed the sausage. As the eggs cooked, I tried to move them into a more condensed area, but using a regular griddle or pan on a stove top would have been less chaotic.
As the sausages and scrambled eggs cooked, I started the coffee and toast. I then placed the included glass pan over the griddle which smashed some of the eggs and sausage. The eggs, toast, and coffee were all done around the same time, yet the sausage still needed more time to cook. After several more minutes, the sausage was ready. Despite feeling hectic, everything in this second test turned out fairly well.
To sum up what I’ve learned so far, the griddle cooks much slower than the coffee and toast. Also, the griddle is as hot as other griddles and cooks unevenly. There is also no temperature control. I used the glass lid over the griddle in my second test, and it may have sped up the cooking time somewhat.
In my third test, I used a digital laser thermometer to test various surface inside and outside of the unit. The middle of the griddle was a fairly consistent temperature, but the temperature on the sides dropped significantly. Because of this, I decided to make a grilled cheese sandwich in the center of the griddle. With the sandwich on the griddle, the glass lid barely fit over it. However, the sandwich finished in under 5 minutes, and it turned out well.
My final test was a comparison between the Nostalgia Breakfast Station and the Power AirFryer Oven 360. For this test, I cooked a small frozen pizza in each unit after preheating. After about 9 minutes, the pizza in the Breakfast Station appeared to be done while the pizza in the AirFryer still had 9 minutes to go. Using my digital laser thermometer, I realized that the inside of the pizza made in the Breakfast Station was not fully done, while the pizza from the AryFyer was cooked more thoroughly.
In general, complaints for the Nostalgia Breakfast Station on Amazon were similar to what I experienced. It is a compact and portable 3-in-1 unit that includes a griddle, toaster oven, and coffee pot, yet there is no temperature control, the griddle is shallow, and the glass lid doesn’t always fit over the food well. It isn’t that bad considering the price as long as expectation aren’t too high.
Below you can see my full review of the Nostalgia Breakfast Station.
Alternatives
You can get the Nostalgia Breakfast Station from Amazon for about $57. The Power Airfryer Oven 360 is a more expensive yet far more versatile kitchen appliance that takes up about the same amount of space (no griddle or coffee maker, though). This $60 competitor by Courant is probably the closest you’ll find to the Nostalgia, however. It may be worth comparing comments between the two.
Television Commercial
Your Nostalgia Breakfast Station Reviews
Have you used Nostalgia Breakfast Station or something like it? Leave a comment below and a star rating above to let us know your thoughts.