Breville Countertop 3-in-1 Convection Microwave Review

I have used microwave ovens for many years but for this review I tested an appliance beyond everything I could imagine. First of all, let me say, “Air fry, where have you been all my life?” I can’t believe the first time I used air fry was with the Breville Countertop 3-in-1 Convection microwave. Now that I’ve tried it, I can’t stop finding things to air fry. The fact that everything I cook comes out crispy and delicious with no effort at all is amazing.

Air Fry just scratches the surface of what the Breville Countertop 3-in-1 Convection microwave can do. It’s also a convection oven so it can bake, grill, and microwave everything you want to cook. I’ve started to think of it as a second oven because it’s large enough to fit bigger dishes but it sits neatly in a corner of your counter.

Here’s my look at the Breville Countertop 3-in-1 Convection microwave.

Appearance and features of the Breville Countertop 3-in-1 Convection microwave

The Breville Countertop convection microwave is a 3-in-1 convection microwave. That means you get an air fryer, convection oven, and microwave, all in one. Measuring in at 1.1 cu.ft, it’s roomy enough to fit large plates.

• 1400W convection, 1100W microwave, and 1100W grill to let you bake, cook, grill, and reheat
• Included tray with legs and grill so you can grill, bake, or use air fry
• Power smoothing inverter technology will adjust the power intensity so your food isn’t overcooked
• Temperature controls let you adjust the settings for time and temperature, even if you’ve already started cooking
• 12.4″ glass turntable will rotate or can be locked into position if you don’t want it to rotate
• 19 settings including Smart Cook, Smart Reheat, and Smart Defrost so you can use your oven without having to go back and check in on your food
• Fast Combi speeds up the cooking process by combining the oven, grill, and microwave at one time
• Cook from Frozen lets you pop in a frozen steak or chicken breast so you can cook your food from frozen
• Soft-close door stops the door from slamming shut
• Variable beep functions let you turn the volume up, down, or mute your notifications

Testing the Breville Convection microwave

The Breville 3-in-1 has so many different functions, it will take you a while to work your way through them all.

19 different functions to choose from

With the Breville 3-in-1 convection microwave, you can choose any number of pre-sets to quickly cook, melt, grill, or keep your food warm. There is a popcorn button you can tap to make popcorn, and the butter and chocolate melt and soften settings will soften butter and melt chocolate perfectly. I was impressed with how it just softened the butter and didn’t turn it into an oily puddle.

Baking with the Breville Countertop convection oven

When you tap oven the Breville Countertop 3-in-1,  the oven function turns on. You can turn the dial to adjust the time or turn the second dial to adjust the heat. It offers the same heat as your range does, so to test it I turned it to 350 degrees and let it pre-heat for a few minutes.

When using the oven you’ll need to use the included tray with legs. The microwave will always tell you when you need to use the tray so there’s no guesswork involved. I had just made a batch of oven-baked french toast, so I put a cookie sheet of it in my own oven and added a few pieces to the tray and popped it in the Breville oven.

I set the timer for 15 minutes and the heat for 350 degrees. My own oven was set to 375 for 20 minutes. At the end of both timers, I compared my french toast. Both were crispy on the bottom and cooked perfectly on top, and I was impressed I couldn’t really tell the difference between my oven-baked french toast and the toast I made in the Breville.

Air frying with the Breville Countertop 3-in-1

Air fry lets you cook everything without adding oil, and you can cook french fries to chicken strips or egg rolls. It’s definitely my new favourite way to cook.

I wanted to make the most Canadian thing I could possibly make, so I got to work making a big plate of poutine. I put the fries in the tray, followed the instructions on the microwave for how long to cook the fries and let the oven do the work.

It took 25 minutes to air fry my french fries, and I was shocked at how crisp they were when they came out. I tried it with crinkle-cut and shoestring french fries, and the only difference is that you need to adjust the time slightly to ensure shoestring fries aren’t overdone.

Once the fries were finished I just added hot gravy and cheese curds and we were good to go.

Reheating with the Breville microwave

With a tap on the microwave button you have access to all of the microwave functions on the Breville Countertop 3-in-1. I recently tested out the Breville Smoothwave microwave and I found the functions on this microwave to be similar. There’s cook, reheat, and defrost, and there are options within each.

The Breville microwave has sensors that assess the humidity levels of what it’s reheating and will adjust the temperature and time so your food is cooked perfectly. It’s so easy to just put a plate in the microwave, walk away, and have it reheat. You don’t have to constantly check-in and see if the food is cooked or stir it. The microwave will beep halfway through cooking so you can stir if you want to, but you don’t have to. The food still comes out great.

Should you choose the Breville Countertop 3-in-1 Convection microwave?

There’s so much you can do with the Breville Countertop 3-in-1 microwave, you’ll be working your way through you all of the options for a while . I tried everything from pizza to poutine to baking french toast and it was all perfectly cooked.

Defrost worked well and didn’t cook anything it was supposed to be defrosting, and the reheat option takes all the time out of reheating your food. Just press the button, walk away, and it’s ready. The soft-close door is a nice addition to this stylish, compact microwave, and the brushed stainless steel looks great on the counter while wiping clean easily.

The Breville Countertop 3-in-1 microwave is the perfect example of just how far microwaves have come over the past decade, and it really does give you all the options of a second oven in a compact, countertop package. I loved using this microwave, and I think you will too. You can find the Breville Countertop 3-in-1 Convection microwave on Best Buy right now.