The Best Mandolines

The Super Benriner Mandoline Slicer is our favorite mandoline; it had the sharpest blade we tested, slicing and making julienne from even the toughest foods as if they were butter. Better still, it slices in an incredibly wide range of thicknesses. Simple and fairly compact, it’s easy to set up, clean, and store. Just one caveat: It lacks a good hand guard, so you’ll need a cut-resistant glove to use it safely.

We also liked the OXO Good Grips Chef’s Mandoline Slicer 2.0; it was the easiest to use of all the models. It sliced most foods evenly and in many thicknesses; a clearly marked, accurate dial made it exceptionally easy to set just how thin or thick we wanted our food to be. It’s just not quite as sharp as the Super Benriner, so it sometimes choked on fibrous produce, and it can julienne in only two preset widths and thicknesses. It’s also more expensive and bulkier to store. 

Finally, the inexpensive Kyocera Soft Grip Adjustable Mandoline Ceramic Slicer is our Best Buy. It’s much more limited than our favorites: It can make only thin slices, it can’t make julienne, and it’s too small to accommodate large produce such as eggplants. But its size and simplicity make it easy to use, clean, and store. And we think its lower price justifies its limited functionality somewhat; it still performs the difficult task of making even, paper-thin slices better than most of us can muster with a chef’s knife. If all you want is a tool that can shave vegetables or fruit into salads or make potato or other vegetable chips, this might be the mandoline for you.

What You Need to Know

At its best, a mandoline allows cooks to slice fruit and vegetables much more precisely, consistently, and quickly than with a chef’s knife. Most models operate similarly. You hold food in one hand and slide it down the mandoline’s platform and across a blade or blades, slicing it; by adjusting the height of the platform, you can control how thickly the mandoline cuts. Some have attachments that allow you to julienne or make waffle cuts as well. Used properly—and safely—the mandoline can be a magical device, turning out paper-thin or chunky slices that look like they’ve been cut by a machine and in record time. But too often, these tools disappoint us; They cut poorly, skid around, or are just plain dangerous to use. We tested a host of products to find the best options on the market.

What to Look For:

• The Ability to Cut in a Wide Range of Thicknesses: All the mandolines came with blades for slicing, the task we use a mandoline for most frequently. The ability to slice in different thicknesses was our top priority, so we privileged it above other functions...
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