Smeg Retro stand mixer review
A stand mixer – sometimes called a food mixer – is an appliance that helps with bread and baking recipes. Read our review of the stylish Smeg stand mixer, a machine with real wow-factor.
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Smeg stand mixer SMF03
Pros: appearance, flex beater is great for sticky mixes
Cons: tricky to clean, noise
Star rating: 3.5/5
Available from John Lewis (£449.95)
We can't imagine wanting to store this mixer in a cupboard; its curvy, Italian looks would be wasted.
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If you like to co-ordinate your kitchen appliances, Smeg offers this cream style in matching kettles, fridges and beyond – and if cream isn't your thing, there's plenty of other colours available. There's also a Dolce & Gabbana version available, but you’ll pay around £500 extra for the privilege.
Smeg appliances are undoubtedly stylish, but does this stand mixer pass the practical test?
It comes with a 900W motor, which isn't the most powerful we tested, but it’s a robust machine that weighs 9.5kg – that’s three times the weight of the budget Wilko model. This combo gives it the power and stability to work through heavy loads whilst staying rock solid.
The heaviness could be an issue if you need to move it – especially as the base of the machine has open sections which we noticed caught stray flour and spills which would need cleaning.
There was a long chute on the splash guard, so fingers didn’t have to get too close to the working mechanism when feeding in ingredients. We also liked the stainless steel bowl's handle, which made twisting it free easy, even with olive oil covered hands.
We also liked the flex edge beater – a three-pronged attachment that uses soft edges to get every scrap of mix from the bowl as it worked.
The smooth action of the speed control was pleasing, but because this is on top of the mixer, ingredients can drop into the groove – we’d recommend cleaning this out (with the machine unplugged) after each use.
In our tests, a background hum from the machine casing made it noisier than the KitchenAid and Kenwood, but it’s undoubtedly one of the best-looking machines we tested, so we'll forgive.
Available from John Lewis (£449.95)
Smeg retro stand mixer specifications
Speeds: 10
Watts: 800W
Attachments included: flat beater, wire whisk, dough hook, flex edge beater
Bowl capacity: 4.8L stainless steel
Splash guard: yes
Weight: 9.5kg
Model number: SM03
Read our round-up of the best stand mixers
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This review was last updated in March 2020. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.
