Ninja Foodi Max Multi-Cooker review

A fast and versatile countertop appliance, the Ninja Foodi Max Multi-Cooker is ideal for large families.

Reviews
By
last updated
Recommended
(Image: © Future)

TechRadar Verdict

The Ninja Foodi Max Multi-Cooker is the perfect kitchen accompaniment to roast, fry, crisp, bake, dehydrate and more, and a great way to kickstart some cooking inspiration.

Pros

  • +

    Ideal for large families

  • +

    Cooking features for a complete meal in one pot

  • +

    Impressive crisping technology

Cons

  • -

    Bulky on the countertop

  • -

    Best for large families

  • -

    Heavy design

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

One Minute Review

The Ninja Foodi Max is a great buy for those days when you crave home-cooked food, but can’t be bothered to actually cook at home. It features nine cooking functions on board its easy-to-navigate body that lets you roast, bake, grill and crisp foods and more with ease, saving you time and energy in the process. It's one of the best Instant Pot alternatives we've tested.  

The Ninja Foodi MAX 7.5L Multi-Cooker OP500UK (to give it its full name) can in fact pressure cook meals up to 70% faster than traditional cooking methods, and air fry with up to 75% less fat than traditional methods. Its whopping 7.5 litre capacity makes it a great option for large families, but you will however need the countertop room or ample storage space to house it.

(Image credit: Future)

Ninja Foodi Max Multi-Cooker price and availability 

The Ninja Foodi Max 7.5L Multi-Cooker OP500UK is the largest multi-cooker in the Ninja family, and is currently on sale direct on Amazon and over on the Ninja website for £199.99 ($259 / AUS $361). The 6-litre Ninja Foodi 7-in-1 Multi-Cooker OP300UK version also usually retails for £199.99, showing the litre-to-price saving that can be made here.. 

A popular design in the multi-cooker space, you’ll also find the Ninja Foodi Max Multi-Cooker OP500UK available to buy at all the regular appliance haunts, from Best Buy in the US to John Lewis in the UK.

(Image credit: Future)

Design

  • Capacity to cook for up to 6 people 
  • One-pot versatility 
  • Pressure cooks 70% faster than traditional cooking methods

The Ninja Foodi Max is Ninja’s largest multi-cooker to date and a step up from its 4.7 and 6L versions. At first glance, the Ninja can seem quite imposing – at 42cm high, 38cm wide and 11.3kg it isn’t the kind of appliance that will blend into the background, but more an appliance that is designed to be a key part of your kitchen and its ‘working triangle’. That is unless you have a separate pantry to hide away the large countertop appliances.

Its curvaceous black and stainless steel body is however stylishly realised. On board you’ll find an easy-to-navigate digital display featuring all the cooking options that can be actioned with a simple press of a button. With so many cooking functions to choose from including pressure cook, steam, grill, air crisp with no oil, bake, roast and dehydrate, it can make your traditional built-in oven seem rather redundant. As well as a cook and crisp basket, there’s a two-tier reversible rack to cook mains and sides simultaneously, which is good for layering vegetables with meats, poultry or fish.  

(Image credit: Future)

The design’s 7.5 litre cooking pot and 4.7 litre cook and crisp basket is easy to clean – it comes with ceramic-coated, non-stick, dishwasher safe parts, but after use we simply washed the cooking pots in warm soapy water and gave the rest of the machine a wipe down with a damp cloth.

Performance

Set up of the Ninja Foodi Max Multi-Cooker is simple: plug in straight out of the box and you’re good to get cooking. The digital control panel is also very simple to follow and switches between the main features in one press of the button – choose from pressure cook, air fry, slow cook, steam, bake/roast, sear/sauté, grill, yoghurt and dehydrate. 

(Image credit: Future)

It comes with TenderCrisp Technology that will crisps foods once cooked, for that authentic oven-cooked taste. While it does come with an instruction manual, we intuitively had a play and were able to work out how to use it within seconds. When you choose a preset cooking option it will suggest the most common temperature you’d need and give you a time for that function, which make life easier than having refer to the manual.

To find out how well it can cook a chicken and to discover if the TenderCrisp Technology lives up to its promise, we popped a raw medium-sized chicken into the pot and pressed the roast function. We topped it with oil and seasoned it and left it to run for the suggested time of 30 minutes on 180 degrees. If at the end of the 30 minutes you think the chicken still needs more time, it’s easy to add more time manually – in our test however the chicken looked ready to eat. The results were impressive as it didn’t just roast the chicken but left it incredibly tender, retaining moisture on the inside and crisping on the outside. 

(Image credit: Future)

We were also curious to see how well the dehydration setting works on fresh ingredients so we chopped up bananas and placed them in the pot. While the results were as tasty as store bought banana chips, it did take us up to six hours on the suggested 60 degrees to make them as the machine slowly sucked the life out of the bananas and then crisped.

Buy it if… 

You feel regularly stuck for cooking inspiration
The Ninja makes it easy to simply pop ingredients inside and leave to work its magic until its ready to eat. Use it to conjure up delicious curries of Friday night dreams or Sunday roasts that will secure your place as top family cook. 

You’re short on time
If you need to get dinner in a hurry, then this appliance is worth having to hand as it can pressure cook 70% faster than traditional models and also cook from frozen. Ultimately, the Ninja Foodi MAX 7.5L Multi-Cooker OP500UK provides a shortcut to creating heart-warming family meals, without you having to have have ever attended a cookery class. 

Don't buy it if...

You have a small kitchen
If you’re short on storage space, this 7.5-litre design may feel a little too imposing on your countertop. If you like the idea of a multi cooker however, we suggest you take a look at the Ninja Foodi Mini 4.7L Multi-Cooker OP100UK instead. 

You have two or less members in your home
The Ninja Foodi MAX 7.5L Multi-Cooker OP500UK is designed to cook for up to six people. So if there are two or less mouths to feed in your household, it’s likely you won’t need such a large capacity design. While it can be used to create small portions, it would make sense to opt for a smaller version. 

Emily Peck
Emily Peck
Lifestyle journalist

Emily is a lifestyle journalist who writes for a range of publications including TechRadar, Livingetc, Wired, Ideal Home and GQ. She writes about interior design and smart home, gardens, wellbeing, food and fitness and has tested everything from food processors to paddleboards, and bee hives to the best beds. When she’s not typing away at her computer, she can be found tending to her Dorset-garden, trying the latest water sport at the beach or acting as chauffeur to her two young kids.