The Ninja Luxe Café Pro Would Like to Make the Decisions For You
Ninja’s Luxe Café Pro, sold in the UK as the ES701UK, is an unusual proposition at £699.99. It combines a burr grinder, a 53mm portafilter espresso group, a drip coffee function, a cold brew mode, a steam wand and a separate milk whisk into one chassis, then adds a system called Barista Assist that monitors brew temperature and pressure and tells you which way to move the grind dial. Tech Advisor gave it an Editors’ Choice award; Expert Reviews recommended it while listing a substantial set of irritations. Both are correct, and the gap between them is the review.
Confirmed specifications
- UK price £699.99, 749.95 US dollars
- 53mm portafilter, described by Expert Reviews as unusually deep, with single, double and quad baskets supplied
- Integrated burr grinder with 25 settings
- Bean hopper capacity 227g, per Tech Advisor
- Seven cup sizes from 175ml to 530ml, and more than ten drink options
Three machines sharing one chassis
- Espresso, with ristretto and lungo options that the cheaper Premier model does not offer
- Drip filter coffee, which is the function most often forgotten in coverage and the one that justifies the counter space for households that drink both
- Cold brew, produced in a fraction of the time an overnight steep takes
- A dual froth system pairing a conventional steam wand with a separate whisk, including an extra-thick froth setting
- A mug warmer on the top plate, which Tech Advisor notes lets mugs slide
Barista Assist, and the moments it guesses wrong
This is the machine’s defining feature and the reason to buy it. The system watches brew temperature and pressure during extraction and then recommends a grind adjustment, which shortcuts the process that puts most beginners off espresso entirely. Expert Reviews credits it directly, describing the machine as well suited to people who want guidance rather than full manual control.
It is not infallible. Tech Advisor’s review reports that it occasionally throws out a seemingly random recommendation, which is a specific and awkward failure mode for a system whose whole purpose is to be trusted by someone who does not yet know enough to overrule it. Expert Reviews separately found the grind setting could jump mid-process without intervention, which undermines the repeatability that dialling in depends on.
A 53mm basket and a plastic tamper
The portafilter is 53mm rather than the 58mm standard used by most prosumer machines, which limits aftermarket basket and accessory options considerably. Expert Reviews describes the basket as unusually deep, and the practical consequence is that dosing and distribution behave differently from what most online tutorials assume.
The integrated tamper draws the sharpest criticism. Expert Reviews calls the plastic lever cheap-feeling and difficult to use consistently, noting the difficulty of gauging tamping pressure. That matters more than it sounds, because inconsistent tamping produces channelling, and channelling is precisely the fault Barista Assist will try to correct by telling you to change the grind.
The milk system is the strongest thing here
Both reviews land in the same place on milk. Expert Reviews found the automatic frothing produced consistent, good-quality microfoam. Tech Advisor went further, describing the milk as legitimately better than many coffee shops manage. Having a whisk alongside a steam wand covers both the flat white end of the range and the thick, spoonable foam that a cappuccino traditionally calls for, and the automation removes the skill barrier that keeps most home users from ever producing decent texture.
For a household where milk drinks are the majority of what gets made, this alone may settle the decision. It is the part of the machine that is genuinely competitive with equipment costing considerably more.
Ergonomic faults that testers keep repeating
- Water tank access described as awkward in Tech Advisor’s testing
- A removable drip tray section that reviewers found frequently falls out
- A grind size wheel positioned where it is difficult to reach
- A recessed bean hopper that makes it hard to see how many beans are left
- Insufficient clearance under the portafilter to fit two espresso cups comfortably
- Lighting placement that Tech Advisor judged suboptimal for watching an extraction
How it compares with the Premier below it
The Luxe Café Premier, the ES601UK, is the same concept a tier down. Which? lists it at £479.99 to £529.99 with a 250g hopper, a two-litre water tank, dimensions of 37cm in each of height and width by 34cm deep, a weight of 11.17kg and a two-year warranty conditional on registering with Ninja. It has a manual steam pipe rather than the dual froth system, no cup warmer and no smart controls.
Expert Reviews puts the recommended price gap at £150 and notes the Premier has been available around £480. What the extra buys is the ristretto and lungo options, the extra-thick froth setting and the dual froth hardware. For a household that mostly makes milk drinks, that is a reasonable premium. For anyone who takes espresso black, the Premier does most of the same work for meaningfully less.
Who should be looking elsewhere entirely
Anyone who wants full manual control will find this machine actively obstructive. Expert Reviews is blunt that espresso enthusiasts will find the automated adjustments frustrating, and the 53mm group, the fixed tamper and the software-mediated grind recommendations all point the same way. A traditional single-boiler machine paired with a separate grinder at a similar total cost gives more control and better upgrade paths.
Equally, anyone who genuinely wants one-button coffee should look at a bean-to-cup machine instead. Tech Advisor is explicit that this is not the machine for simple one-button operation. Which? raises the fair structural question about the whole category, asking whether a three-in-one design ends up a jack of all trades. On the evidence of both reviews, the Luxe Café Pro mostly escapes that charge, but it does so by being very good at milk and merely competent at everything else.
Sources: Expert Reviews, Ninja Luxe Café Pro ES701UK review · Tech Advisor, Ninja Luxe Café Pro review · Which?, Ninja Luxe Café Premier ES601UK review · CoffeeGeek, Ninja Luxe Café Premier full review
