Breville Bambino Plus BES500BSS (Stainless Steel)

It's a Little Bit Impressive – Introduction ------------ Do you dream of making a quick cappuccino before reading the paper or browsing Facebook? If so, the Breville Bambino Plus MAY be the machine for you! It is an excellent brewer with a small footprint. What is the Breville Bambino Plus? ----------------------------------- The Breville Bambino Plus occupies a curious niche between the pod machines, such as the Nespresso, and serious entry-level home Barista machines, such as the Gaggia Classic Pro or Rancilio Silvia.

And it does so rather well.

It allows the home barista more control over coffee, coffee grind (should you choose to grind your own), dose, tamp pressure and extraction time -- although the last has defaults -- than a coffee pod appliance, like the Nespresso or its Aldi equivalent. The results are rewarding for people who don't have time, money or inclination to delve into the whole coffee hobby, such as those who buy more expensive machines, like a Gaggia Classic Pro or the Rancilio Silvia.

But that's not to say the coffee is far worse. On the contrary, the Bambino is an excellent example of how spending more money on coffee machines quickly becomes a case of diminishing returns. In fact, it brews coffee better than it ought to.

My Purchase ------------- A disclaimer. I bought the Bambino from Gray's online auction site as a 'retail return'. Auctions often mean many things, some of which are not good. Happily, in my case, the machine was in perfect working order barring a slight discolouration on one side. Nevertheless, the term "caveat emptor" should be on the mind of anyone bidding in these auctions.

What You Get -------------- The Bambino is a coffee machine with a narrow and short footprint. A 54mm portafilter with plastic insert; two dual wall baskets - one single dose and the other double; a stainless steel jug; a tamp; a blind filter; a 'razor' tool to help measure the dose; and two cleaning tablets.

The build quality is suitable as an appliance, albeit with plastic and thin stainless steel bits. The heating element is a 'thermojet', a type of thermocoil, which has a metal tube running through a heated metal block. The main advantage of a thermojet over the usual thermoblock, which doesn't house a metal tube but instead has a cut-out channel for the water, is a likely improvement of the appliance's longevity. The joining of two metal blocks in a thermoblock can mean leakage over time if the seal weakens. This leakage should not, I believe, happen so readily with a thermojet.

The Bambino has a PID for a 93-degree C brew at 9 bars of pressure. Most home baristas see this as an ideal temperature and pressure set-up. While you cannot change these settings, unlike some higher-end espresso machines, they are good values to use. A temperature probe is located on the base of the drip tray and allows the Bambino to steam milk automatically. Unlike most inexpensive coffee machines, the Bambino has a three-way solenoid valve for back flushing.

The Bambino will automatically prompt for back flushing and de-scaling cycles after a set number of uses by cryptically flashing lights on its front. You need the manual to decipher these.

The drip tray itself is small, but removes easily and there is a float to show when it is overfull.

Buttons -------- Across the top of the Bambino are three horizontal buttons and two vertical buttons close to the steam wand. The first two are for single shot and double shot espressos. The buttons allow for a volumetric flow, which can be re-programmed or remain at a default setting. The home barista can also manually control the flow.

The third button starts the steaming function, and the two horizontal buttons are for the milk temperature (top) and milk texture (bottom). The three milk temperature settings are about 50 degrees C (one light), 60 (two lights) and 70 degrees (three lights). The three milk texture settings are smooth, from latte art (one light) to full-body cappuccino (three lights).

Press the double shot button to turn the Bambino on, and both the single shot plus steam button to turn it off. I can vouch that, once turned on, it takes about 3 seconds to get up to temperature.

Espresso --------- I brewed espressos using both home-ground and store-bought, pre-ground coffee. I used the dual wall filter basket, although you can buy regular single wall baskets and better portafilters for the Breville. One feature of the Bambino is pre-infusion, which allows a small dose of water at low pressure to wet the coffee puck.

The Breville has a dosage 'razor', a distribution tool allowing one to size the dose. I used it once and shelved it. I recommend, for best results, buying and using a small set of coffee scales. In both cases, I aimed for 16 grams of coffee for a 32-gram shot with a 25-35 second brew time.

The result from my own finely ground coffee in the dual wall filter basket was good to excellent. While I pulled shots from my Rancilio Silvia with more texture and clarity, they're not proportionally better for the price differential. The espresso quality from the Bambino was at least as good, if not better than from most cafes -- specialty cafes excluded.

However, the result from pre-ground coffee was mundane. I couldn't hit the flow with time, yet still achieved a 'crema' from the pressurised basket. The difference is that pre-ground coffee is better for use as a base for a cappuccino, which leads nicely to milk-steaming...

Cappuccino ------------ The milk pitcher provided by Breville is designed to be placed on the temperature probe at the base of the drip tray. It's essential to position the stainless steel milk pitcher ON the temperature probe; otherwise, it continues steaming without stopping.

I was sceptical at first but found it formed an excellent foam in a quick time. I recommend using the milk's mid-points (two lights for temperature; two for texture). The steam wand only moves up and down -- no other direction -- and after steaming, the Bambino auto-purges the steam wand.

There is an ability to steam manually, should you want to, but this seems to go against the intended use of the Bambino Plus, which is excellent coffee with minimal input. This brings me to the workflow and the best reasons to buy the Bambino...

Why Would You Buy It? ----------------------- The Bambino is great if you want a quick cappuccino or espresso in the morning without too much fuss. In the time it took me to make a cappuccino on the Bambino and clean it, my Rancilio Silvia was still in its 15-20 minute boiler warm-up.

Yet the quality of the Bambino's coffee was not far off what one might expect from the more expensive Rancilio Silvia. So the Bambino wins concerning ease of use and coffee quality, and it makes a persuasive argument at its price point.

Why Wouldn't You Buy It? -------------------------- The reasons to buy more expensive machines, such as the Silvia or even Gaggia Classic Pro, are for finer control over the coffee inputs and build quality/serviceability.

First, what do I mean by build quality? While the Breville Bambino Plus is well built, I suspect it's not designed to last decades nor be easily serviceable by the home barista. There exist decades-old Gaggias and Rancilios because you can open them up and replace components, including the boiler. The Gaggia and Rancilio, and other espresso machines, are designed to be easy to service on and upgrade.

If something goes awry with the Bambino outside of the warranty period, then the average home user will not be able to open it up and service it. That's not to say the Bambino won't last years, if not decades, but that after the warranty period, should it fail, then the cost to repair it may prove too much over the cost to replace it.

The second reason is control. Many expensive espresso machines allow the barista control over brew pressures, brew temperatures and water flow. For example, the Decent DE1PRO allows all or some of these parameters to alter during the brew cycle. While this can be rewarding, it is often time-consuming and, please note, expensive.

Conclusions ----------- I brewed some exceptional espresso shots and excellent cappuccinos. The workflow was quick, which is good if you are time constrained in the morning, and the quality is as good as, if not better than, most cafe bought coffee. While the Bambino's design is primarily for those who want a high-quality brew with minimal fuss, it could also be a start to a wonderful coffee journey.

If you want the best from the Breville Bambino Plus, I recommend buying a set of scales and a good grinder. That way, if you venture into a more serious coffee hobby and purchase higher-end machines, you won't have to buy these. Yet, the espresso quality and convenience from the Bambino Plus begs the question: why would anyone upgrade?

I'm not sure. It sounds like a two-cappuccino problem.

Pros: Bought this for the smaller footprint, which is good. Automatic milk frother Cons: The wand is so tight to put on and machine of course is too light to give resistance. Head cleaning cycle indicator comes on, cannot over ride making it impossible to finish making coffee. After six months head cleaning indicator playing up, will not… Read more

clean. was able to use manual clean so I can use machine, The drip try capacity is shallow and spills occur regularly. Water tank does not have filter, but I bought a jug to filter water to use in tank.

I am disappointed in this machine. I haven’t had it a year and could not in all honesty say it is worth it’s purchase.

Cannot bypass the cleaning cycle. Ruined many a coffee and left to work angry many times because you can't bypass the cleaning cycle. Breville and its designers must be having a great laugh at what could only be described as an "f-you customers" malicious design every time a user vents their frustration online at this failure of a machine. Well, here's another review for you to enjoy, laugh it up boys. Show details

Looking good – I have been using the Breville Bambino Plus for over two weeks now and I agree with other reviewers that it's not easy to see the bottom tray filled up so quickly with the automatic purging and also the milk splatter with the auto steam wand cleaning. I have resolved that by using a small jug and also a small jar for the steam wand cleaning as… Read more

shown in the two video clips. The automatic purging uses 75ml of water each time, now I have decided to press it again to stop after just a few seconds which is enough to clear the coffee debris. Otherwise, I am quite happy with it, we are enjoying good Cappuccino.

Quality at-home espresso, easily! – The Breville Bambino Plus (BBP) is a very capable machine. I've been using it for a few weeks now and I'm pretty impressed. Once you know what you're doing, it's so easy to use. It allows for a fairly quick workflow, especially with the rapid head up time (3 seconds, compared to 30sec+ in the Brev. Barista Express). The auto foaming function is so… Read more

easy. If you don't want to have to concentrate on getting the perfect foam, the BBP does it all for you, and I find running the milk while preparing the portafilter is so easy. The auto-purge after foaming the milk is also really convenient, it means you won't forget and come back to a blocked steam wand. My only issue with this function is that it sends milk all over the drip tray and sometimes the surrounding bench area, which means you're always going to need to have a sponge handy. My other gripe is also that the drip tray fills so quickly. A larger capacity would have been nicer. Also, what is the point of the razor tool? You dose 19g of coffee only to throw 10% of it away? Not too sure why its included. One inclusion that I do miss is that it doesn't include single-wall filter baskets out of the box. I don't get why they would go to all the effort of making a machine optimised for a barista experience at home without including a single wall basket. Especially if you are going to be grinding your own coffee!

Apart from those minor issues, I could not be happier with the machine. The only thing easier than this machine would be using a fully automatic machine, which is much more expensive than the BBP. Overall, the Bambino Plus offers quality coffee without too much hassle and is more than capable, and has enough customisation to be a flexible machine. Oh an be prepared for additional purchases - things like de-scaler and coffee residue cleaning tablets are all additional things you're likely going to need to purchase. Generic brands are significantly cheaper than Breville ones!

Makes fabulous coffee when working – Makes fabulous coffee when working. I use it to make 4-6 coffees daily in my home. The temperature sensor / auto-cut-off on the steam wand is great and it makes lovely cafe (better than most) quality milk. It heats up really fast. Fabulous coffee with good beans and the right grind (that took me some learning with previous machines). Easy to… Read more

clean. Great small footprint for compact kitchens.

We bought another one for where my wife works - she makes one or two coffees a day there.

The machine/s that makes the 4-6 coffees per day turned out to be unreliable. 1st one broke down after 2 months as it got stuck in clean mode and would not restart. 2 weeks at the repairer then a new replacement unit (same problem with another reviewer). Replacement unit broke down after 12 months (still in warranty) with the buttons not working without multiple presses, then developed a water leak during extraction - water coming out behind the group head, dripping through the vents under the machine making and droplets showing up behind the lights at the front. Off to the repairer again.

I would buy another one again for its compactness, great coffee extraction, speed of heat up, ease of use and cleaning. Hopefully later units will be more reliable.

Consistently good coffee – Took about a week to get good coffee - playing with the grind etc - but now I consistently get good lattes from the machine. I like my coffee hot and strong and this delivers in both respects. It is VERY quick to warm up compared to my old machine and does not take up much bench space. Being small the drip tray needs emptying quite often. The only… Read more

minor issue I find is that it is a very lightweight machine. This is mainly a problem when inserting and removing the portafilter - the whole machine tends to move so have to grab the machine with one hand and the portafilter with the other.

Adorable new addition to the family! – My new little Bambino Plus is adorable! It's tiny kitchen bench footprint is ideal, it's easy to use and it's little drip tray is the perfect size for keeping the machine as regularly clean as a baby's proverbial! It's not as technical as some, but comes with dual walled Portafilter baskets and single walled in two sizes and you are able to… Read more

adjust the steam temperature or liquid flow with the push of a cute lil' button. Besides it's fresh, shiny appearance, it's well-proportioned water reservoir and self cleaning steam nozzle are beaut features this baby brings to the family. The only downside is that the warming tray does not keep your coffee warm, but as we drink it straight away, that's not really an issue. We are back to drinking coffee the way Breville intended it!

Have bought Breville Coffee machines for over twenty years, the most recent bambino plus broke down in the first twelve months. Instead of a replacement, it was sent to some repair factory for 6 weeks where they said there was nothing wrong with it and sent it back. It’s still broken , so am I supposed to give it back to breville to send back to… Read more

the repairer. It seems insane to pay freight to another state, pay the repairer for doing nothing and then pay freight back to your state . What a waste of resources. The customer service team couldn’t give a crap. Just another complaining customer. Waiting so long to have nothing done on your machine would not make you buy breville products. Would it be cheaper and use less resources just to replace, at least it would work!!!!

When combined with the DT50 grinder this machine produces consistent espresso and is good value. Its shortcomings are the excessive vibration which sometimes unlocks the porta filter while pouring a shot, shifts your cup from under the group head while pouring and makes an infernal racket as the tray vibrates. Storing glasess on the top is a no.… Read more

The cleaning function is also poorly designed in that you might be halfway through a round of coffees and are forced to clean. The cleaning function also leaks under the unit. Plenty of design flaws but it’s compact and does what I want at a good price.

Cleaning process is not a great experience – While I like the coffee making process and milk frothier the cleaning process is a real pain. You can be in the middle of making a coffee then all of the sudden it stops and you have to commence the cleaning process before you can commence making the coffee again. Also the drip tray is far to small and overflows easily. I would not purchase this… Read more

particular model again.

Breville need to do a lot better in making the cleaning process more intuitive giving the user a warning in advance that it will either require a cleaning cycle or descaling.

Great coffee machine – Have been using this for more than half a year now. Great coffee machine, it's compact and simple to use. The main trick/skill is to figure out how much coffee is needed and how to pack it in the portafilter. This takes a couple of tries to get right but once done the process of making a coffee is very simple and efficient. The cup of coffee that… Read more

comes out is cafe standard (to my taste). You have 3 levels of how hot you can make your coffee and the 3 levels of how much froth you want when steaming your milk. May not be enough granularity if you're a coffee connoisseur but for me it's great as it's easy to use and the coffee tastes great. The only issue that could be improved is the movement of the cup when the coffee is pouring, the machine is vibrating and sometimes the cup moves from under the portafilter. I solved this by placing a sticky rubber mat used to hold mobile phones, hopefully this is fixed in the next iteration of the product.

Great espresso machine with tips – Milk frother awesome. Makes great coffee. Some tips: * Take the frother out of the milk before it stops and wipe it straight away with wet washer. Stops the end getting clogged and keeps it cleaner * With the automatic purging, use a small cup and tip it down the sink. THen you don't need to empty the tray very often * Use a small washer on top to… Read more

stop vibrations of the above-mentioned cup and tamper * Clean with these tablets (cheaper than Breville) https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/174461062567

Awesome- if you don't have much bench space! – The machine is the ultimate pocket rocket! Coffee tastes great, we use it 3 times daily. It's easy to clean, easy to fill up with water. Milk frother heats up nice and hot. Sometimes the single handle cup gets stuck but I think that's because I jam-pack the coffee in. If you don't like bench clutter and want a minimalist machine- this is honestly worth every cent. No regrets. The silver machine looks so pretty on the kitchen counter too! Show details

Perfect home coffee machine for those will little time and little skill – We were in the market for a home coffee machine for a while and weren't sure which way to go. We settled on the Bambino and a very happy with our choice. The major benefits for us were the large water reservoir - we aren't filling it all the time, it's very easy to clean, it tells you when it needs some TLC - run the cleaning cycle, de-scaling etc… Read more

which isn't all that often and the milk frother's automatic mode means I can be doing other things in the kitchen whilst the milk is being perfectly heated. There are enough settings for milk temperature and texture for what we need. The portafilter has a nice solid feel to it and is easy to lock in place. Whilst the Bambino doesn't come with a built grinder, we love its slim profile and sits nicely next to our separate grinder. All in all we are very happy with this product.

The best purchase! Love it! – I love coffee and since having my first baby and being on maternity leave, I have found a new love for it! I wanted a machine that had a small footprint (I have limited bench space) but I didn’t want to compromise on quality. I settled for the Breville Bambino Plus and what a good choice that was! The machine itself is compact and semi automatic… Read more

which makes it super easy to make my coffee with minimal cleaning and mess. The taste of the coffee is phenomenal (I make sure I buy good coffee beans which I’m sure would help) to the point where I would say it tastes the same as what I’d get at the cafe. This machine has honestly been the best purchase, well worth the money.

Great coffee but irritating portafilter – I bought this machine because the reviews said that the coffee was good and because of its size. And I've had it now for 1 year and I would agree that the coffee it makes is brilliant. In fact, the coffee is so good that I find it hard now to find a coffee as good as my home made one. The machine is consistent, easy to clean and use. I had… Read more

another De Longhi machine and it was always stopping for one reason or the other, which was extremely irritating. BUT!!! there is a caution....the portafilter was initially so tight that I did have to hug the machine (like some of the other reviewers) to get it in or out. It's much better now but it was like that for MONTHS!!! The other really irritating thing is that the filter basket that sits inside the portafilter always gets stuck to the machine so you need to wriggle the portafilter to dig that filter basket out. So many people have complained about it, I don't know why Breville just can't fix it. Fiddling around with that first thing in the morning before my coffee is not what I want to do, but there you have it.

OK but some annoying oversights – I got mine at the factory outlet in Brisbane with a minor dent which no one will ever notice. Good looking and makes an excellent coffee. Getting the portafilter in can be hard. Sometimes the filter basket gets stuck to the machine. Auto frothing is fine but I do it better manually. Update: Getting the portafilter in was hard and the filter… Read more

basket sticks to the machine. I did some DIY to modify the portafilter and it works fine now but I do think this was an oversight of Breville quality control.

Very disappointed – I am so disappointed with this machine. Issue 1: The filter baskets get stuck in the machine after extraction. Difficult to remove. Issue 2: Also, the auto milk frother does not produce the silky microform with my Bonsoy milk, no matter what setting (heat / froth strength) I'm setting it on. I used the Breville Creatista at work for years, which… Read more

has an auto milk frother as well, with outstanding results every single time.. I wanted to get away from the capsules type machines, so I choose the Bambino. Brilliant idea, gorgeous looking little machine, but frustrating to use and does not deliver. Im also struggling to get a good coffee out of it, but thats most likely user issue then the machines.

An awesome performing espresso machine in a small space saving design – This unit produces great espresso as long as you dial in the coffee grind to the right fineness. It produces 3 different levels of milk temperature and textures depending on taste and preference. I would recommend this product to a starting out home barista or intermediate level coffee enthusiastic wanting to produce quick and easy espresso! Show details

Love everything about it except for one issue – The product looks good on a countertop, doesn’t take up space, ready to make coffee in 3seconds, and the frother auto cleans. That’s so much reason to love the product. One thing they missed out on which is a key part of making expresso is the tightness in locking the portafilter. You really need to exert some force and hold the machine to get it locked. Show details

Fantastic Machine but Breville do make better ones – We are not new to coffee machines and have had top of the line Sunbeam, Breville, Nespresso also fully auto Saeco machines. Purchased this to take while based OS working. Back in Oz we still have the BES870. (Another fantastic unit) First thing we liked is the size and weight, which meant we could put it in our suitcase after a short stint in Oz… Read more

and take it with us. We also immediately purchased a Non Pressurised filter basket from Ebay, which is essential especially if you’re grinding your own beans. Our advise is to do the same asap and get a grinder and you will not regret it as getting the grind right is the first essential step to great coffee. (Baffling why Breville don’t include non pressurised with this unit) The machine produces Excellent Coffee, Consistent pour, Auto milk frother is a great option and works better than expected. Manual milk frothing also works very well too. It appears that this unit may be targeted at beginners and those that want ease of use. However it can produce coffee very close to to Brevilles top of the line Oracle Touch. Pros: Compact, cute, easy to use, very quick, consistent coffee, quiet, light weight, large water tank. Self cleaning milk frother, programmable milk heat and froth levels. Cons: Non Pressurised basket not included, needs a grinder which takes up space, No off button means you must push 2 buttons together to switch it off. (I switch it off at the wall) Conclusion: If you want an easy quick and small coffee machine I think this is the best there is. If you want the best possible coffee I think the BES870 is slightly better and has built in grinder. If money is no issue then Oracle could be even better but you may need an apprenticeship for it.

Brilliant for the first month but then problems – I loved this machine for the first month so I was very disappointed when the 2 cup filter basket started to flow coffee from the left side only meaning I could no longer make two coffees. I contacted Breville and they said that due to the double wall filters, they are prone to coffee build up in the inner wall and they need to be replaced (and… Read more

purchased) at least once per year and possibly every few months depending on how often it is used. I was sent out another basket but I still have the same issue. I really wish this machine worked properly because the size is great, it makes a nice coffee and the milk frother is perfect. I also think that for the price you should not need to purchase replacement filters.