OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer Review

We purchased the OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer so our reviewer could put it to the test in her kitchen. Keep reading for our full product review.

A mandoline is a slicing tool that quickly and easily cuts fruits and vegetables into uniform pieces. Mandolines usually offer variable thicknesses and some include multiple blades for a variety of cuts. They’re great for slicing vegetables for salads, crudite platters, homemade potato chips, potato gratin, and fruit tarts. The OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer features one straight blade for slicing and it’s adjustable design lets you choose from three different thicknesses. It’s an affordable kitchen gadget at only $25, but how does it perform? Keep reading to find out. 

Ease of Use: Comfortable and convenient

We found the OXO Good Grips mandoline to be very easy and comfortable to use. It also saved us a ton of time slicing vegetables into uniform pieces—a task we used to unsuccessfully do by hand with a knife. 

We used the mandoline to thinly slice cucumbers for a creamy cucumber salad, onion for topping pizza and green salads, and potatoes for baking into chips. Based on what we regularly slice, we found the three thickness options to be more than adequate. We also found it easy to select our desired thickness by moving the soft, non-slip coated knob on the side. The thicknesses are clearly marked by numbers with diagrams, which is a handy visual if you happen to forget which setting is which thickness.

Although the mandoline’s blade is sharp (we were able to slice a full-size cucumber in about 30 seconds), we found it performed best with firmer produce. The prongs on the handguard are too short to firmly grip most fruit and vegetables, so with softer produce—like tomatoes and mushrooms—we felt like we had to apply extra force to the handguard which ended up squishing our food. To avoid this, we started off by holding whatever we were slicing by hand; then, we switched to using the handguard once we had a smaller, easier-to-handle piece of produce. Alternatively, you could try wearing a protective glove to keep your fingers safe around the blade and avoid the handguard altogether. 

Design: Simple and straightforward

The OXO hand-held mandoline is designed with a single straight blade for slicing and a sturby ABS plastic body that’s comfortable to hold. The blade is adjustable to create three different thicknesses, but it can’t create fancier cuts, like julienne or waffle cuts. That being said, we found it to be the perfect size and function for our needs.

We love how the mandoline fits over a bowl or plate to catch whatever you’re cutting and the “feet” and handle are non-slip so it feels secure and sturdy in our hand. The surface of the mandoline is clear, which we find helpful as we can keep an eye on how much we’re cutting and ensure our slices are even.

The only design flaw we found was with the hand guard—it just didn’t work well with larger pieces of produce since the prongs are too short to firmly grip most foods. The entire mandoline is actually rather small (it’s 3.8 x 0.5 x 11.5 inches) so some foods may have to be cut into halves or thirds before slicing. The smaller size does make the mandoline easy to store in a drawer, though. And the handguard snaps onto the surface of the slicer, so it stores in one neat piece and helps keep hands away from the blade when rummaging around a drawer.

Cleaning: Dishwasher safe

The mandoline and handguard are top-rack dishwasher safe, but they’re easy to clean by hand, too. You might want to keep a dishwashing brush on hand if you opt to hand wash, since some food residue can cling to the blade and be hard to reach with a sponge. You’ll definitely want to use a tool to keep your fingers away from the sharp blade during cleaning, too.

Price: Plenty of value for a small price

The OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline will run you about $25 full price or $15 on sale. Even if you pay the MSRP, it offers plenty of value and convenience for the price. While higher-end mandolines tend to be made of better-quality stainless steel and they may include blade attachments to create a variety of thicknesses and cuts, they can cost upwards of $50 to $100. If you’re simply looking for a tool that makes slicing easier and faster, you don’t need anything more than the budget-friendly OXO.

Competition: Lots of options

Prepworks Adjust-A-Slice Mandoline: Priced around $20, Prepworks’ mandoline (view on Amazon) slices in three different thicknesses and also includes blade options for creating julienne cuts. Like the OXO, this model also includes a handguard to hold food in place while slicing and is dishwasher safe. It may be worth choosing over the OXO if you plan to julienne vegetables for salads and stir-frys. If you don’t have a need for julienne cuts, save the money and stick with the less expensive OXO for slicing.

OXO Good Grips Chef's Mandoline Slicer 2.0: If you’re looking for a high-end mandoline that can do it all, check out the Chef’s Mandoline Slicer 2.0 (view on Amazon) which also comes from OXO. With an $80 price point, it’s more of an investment but allows you to cut seventeen different thicknesses, plus make straight cuts, waffle cuts, julienne cuts, and larger French fry cuts. It includes both straight and serrated blades for cutting through hard and softer fruits and vegetables, respectively. Like the less-expensive OXO slicing mandoline, the cutting thickness is adjusted with a knob on the side and a handguard is included. The stainless steel construction is durable and easy to clean and it’s designed to stand on sturdy angled legs.