Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35513 in Kitchen & Housewares
• Brand: Kenwood
• Model: ES547

Manufacturer's Description
If you want an espresso machine that looks fantastic in the kitchen then the Café Retro. It has been designed with toggle switches, illuminated on/off switch and an analogue temperature gauge for a funky look. Its high-pressure steam nozzle froths milk for the perfect cappuccino and the unique Thermocreme feature creates a thick, creamy espresso. An Integral cup warmer and integral cord storage accompany this stylish espresso maker.

Customer Reviews

Good machine, but a few niggles
We owned this machine for about a year and a half before we managed to kill it. For the price, it makes a good espresso very quickly with a very good crema - we bought preground coffee for espressos which always worked very well - but is not as ideal as freshly ground obviously. The coffee warmer is a bit of a joke (does NOT warm anything). The temperature dials are fun. Make sure you warm the filter holder first before making coffee as this will help ensure a hotter coffee. The water holder is a bit fiddly as it is inserted from the right hand side and you need to make sure the tubes are properly sitting in it after refilling - it does not hold a huge amount. The frother works very well. We did have problems with the machine after a few months - leaking out of the filter holder and not producing much coffee - also the holder would continue to drip coffee into the cups while waiting for the machine to heat up to steam for frothing - and quite often the cups would get filled before you had a chance to top with milk! On the whole, it is a good first machine with a fun look. We have now upgraded to a Gaggia Classic (a lot more money but very well built and produces great hot coffee - funnily enough the crema is not as thick as the Kenwood's!)

A review in context
I personally find context can help a review. My context is that while I love coffee, obviously, I drink very little, typically 1 or 2 a day, and usually americanos at that. However I travel in europe a lot and was increasingly finding myself drawn by the very good coffee I regularly experienced.
After much soul-searching, I opted for the Cafe Retro, aided by a Father's Day voucher. As an engineer, I loved the design, something missing in most of those I looked at, and the price seemed very competitive.
Having had it a few weeks here are my first impressions:

Size: fits well into the kitchen without being overwhelming.

Manufacture & design: Has a nice feel. The lights look well but if your kitchen catches the sun they are useless as you can't tell whether they are on or off. And the main power on light is on the opposite side (the off side) of the switch when the machine is actually switched on, a stupid mistake. The water reservoir seems small at 0.75 ltr but since this mahine is for espressos, it's quite sufficient. The steam attachment is fine, no quibbles there.
The machine seems to heat up quite quickly, in fact quickly enough that the cup-warmer doesn't really, warm cups that is, and that's just an espresso cup. I recommend some boiling water in the cup beforehand. Warming the filter holder (as the manual says) before putting in coffee is also essential, otherwise the coffee will be too cool.

Using a finely ground filter coffee is essential. I already had a very good Moulinex blade grinder but it is just not sufficient for grinding fine enough for this, so if you intend grinding your own, then factor in the cost of a burr grinder, hard to find and around stg£50 or £60.

Coffee:
The key factor, the coffee it makes, is however very good. I had a double espresso this morning (just arabica rather than robusa mind you) and I was zinging afterwards.
I used it to make a mocha last night with the steamer and it tasted far better than my microwave attempts.

Concerns:
That "lights" issue is not as small a matter as it seems. Without a good Power indicator it's too easy to leave the Kenwood switched on, something I've already done too many times. With obvious implications for longevity/reliability. I will try to remember to update this review in 6 months since reliability is vital for any electronic product.
My biggest concern is the thermostat. On the coffee setting, which should hold the tmeperature around 90/100 deg C, it regularly overshoots, up to 120 deg C. The longer you leave it switched on before making that coffee (eg. if the postman calls etc) the hotter it gets and the harder it seems to struggle to maintain a consistent temperature (I'm talking about 10/15 mins here). Based on the first two weeks, I am seriously nervous about the implications for ongoing reliabilty, which is why I'm dropping the rating to 3 stars.

Gorgeous retro design, glorious coffee...
Ok, I admit it - I fell in love with the Kenwood Cafe Retro as soon as I saw it. The curves, the flick switches, the cute little analogue temperature gauge; they all made me think how great this machine would look in my kitchen. But of course, looks aren't everything and a coffee machine that doesn't make great coffee really is rather pointless, no matter how nice it looks (unless, I guess, you're allergic to coffee and you want it simply as an ornament!).

Thankfully, the Cafe Retro squarely delivers on the taste front! Wonderfully smooth espresso that is extremely authentic, even when using supermarket pre-ground coffee. My next step will be to get myself a burr grinder to see just how much better it can get!

It heats up extremely quickly from a cold start and also has a milk frother which can be used to make cappuccinos. All in all, I can have no complaints about the ES547 - it looks great and, most importantly, makes great tasting coffee. I'd definitely recommend it; it delivers better coffee than many machines that are more than twice the price...