Ninja Crispi Pro Review: A Glass-Bowl Air Fryer Done Right

Plenty of keen home cooks who already own a good oven have long viewed the air fryer as an interesting but dispensable gadget. More than a month of everyday use with the Ninja Crispi Pro, priced at £249.99, tells a different story. It will not replace an oven, but it makes certain dishes so much quicker and cheaper to cook that it earns a permanent place on the worktop — and its defining trick is a set of glass bowls that let you watch your food so it never burns. For someone who cooks regularly and already leans on the oven for most recipes, the real revelation is not that it replaces anything, but that it makes small, everyday dishes worth cooking again.

• You regularly cook for one or two people.
• You love side dishes, breaded food or quick, small batches.
• You want an air fryer that is genuinely easy to clean and maintain.

• You regularly cook for several people at once.
• You expect it to replace your oven completely.
• You usually prepare large trays or family-sized recipes.

The Ninja Crispi Pro is a different kind of air fryer. Its headline feature is a set of interchangeable glass containers that let you cook, serve, store and reheat food without ever having to move it from one dish to another. The containers are generously sized and adapt to the volume of food you are preparing, which makes the Crispi Pro especially well suited to situations where firing up a full-sized oven would be impractical because of the energy it uses.

The glass bowls are an advantage in both use and efficiency. Because they are transparent, you can see whether your food is cooked or browned to taste without constantly opening the drawer and interrupting the process. That said, it pays to set expectations. Although the containers are deep and look capacious, in this type of appliance the available surface area matters far more than height, so when you try to cook large quantities the usual limitations of any air fryer soon appear.

An air fryer that is easy on the eye and easy to use. This is an air fryer that does not look much like what we are used to. The basket has an unconventional finish that is closer to an oven dish than the typical pull-out basket, but beyond the design, the sheer ease of use is the highlight. A very intuitive system of buttons and a central dial is all it takes: turn to choose the mode, adjust the time or temperature, and press to start cooking straight away. From the very first moment it is clear this is an appliance designed not to complicate your life.

The glass is the star of the show. Being able to see the food while it cooks is more useful than it sounds. Keeping an eye on how the food is browning at a glance is a real help, especially when you have not yet mastered the timings of a new recipe. It saves you pulling the basket out every few minutes, which keeps the heat in and saves energy. The handles and protective feet on the containers are another welcome touch, since they let you take the bowls straight to the table to serve, or store them as they are in the fridge without dirtying more dishes. And on top of all that, the bowls are not only dishwasher-safe: when you wash them by hand, the dirt — even grease — comes off remarkably easily. It is the kind of small convenience that, day after day, does more to change how often you reach for an appliance than any single cooking result.

More capacity than it looks... and also less. The depth of the containers first seemed a great advantage, comfortably accommodating bulky items such as a whole chicken or roasted peppers. In use, though, it became clear that in an air fryer the useful flat surface matters far more than depth, because food needs to be well spread out for the hot air to cook it evenly. With recipes such as pasties, chips or breaded vegetables the result improves when the food has enough space between the pieces, which is harder to achieve in such a deep bowl.

Where it surprised most. The biggest surprise was discovering how well it cooks certain foods, to the point of changing cooking habits. Traditional frying, or heating the oven just for a small portion, had often been avoided because of the energy involved; with this appliance some of those recipes came back onto the menu. Home-made chips turn out very well, breaded food keeps a crisp texture, and chicken wings emerge with a proper crunch thanks to the constant circulation of hot air. It also proved outstanding at reheating pasties or slices of pizza, avoiding the chewy texture the microwave leaves in the dough.

The cannelloni experiment. One of the more intriguing tests was to pit it against dishes that belong to the traditional oven, so a batch of cannelloni went in. The individual portion came out better than expected, but the exercise helpfully exposed the real limits of the format: cooking for one makes complete sense, whereas making a family-sized tray is another story — not because of the quality of the cooking, but because of capacity.

The Ninja Crispi Pro (UK model AS090UKSD) measures 31.08 x 29.79 x 28.01 cm and pairs a 2.3-litre and a 5.7-litre glass container, with an optional 3.8-litre bowl. It offers cooking functions including AirFry, MaxCrisp, Recrisp, Roast, Bake/Prove and Dehydrate, draws 2,050W and covers a temperature range from 40°C to 240°C. The bowls are borosilicate glass with BPA-free handles, the base is BPA-free plastic and stainless steel, and the rack has an aluminium nano-ceramic coating. It sells for £249.99.

The Ninja Crispi Pro convinces precisely because it never tries to be something it is not. After more than a month, the oven is still in use for some regular recipes, but the air fryer has carved out a space of its own in the kitchen — a space that previously sat empty between the microwave and the conventional oven. Its glass-container approach brings real advantages in convenience, cleaning and everyday experience, but what truly makes the difference is that it makes certain dishes far more accessible day to day, above all when cooking for two or three people. Home-made chips, breaded food, wings, small side dishes and individual portions are all things that get cooked more often here, simply because the process is quicker, more convenient, more efficient and less reliant on traditional deep-frying. In practice it has quietly changed a few habits, bringing back small fried portions that the energy cost of heating a whole oven had made not worth the effort.

If you do not cook for more than three people, this is an easy recommendation. It is a genuinely easy air fryer to use, both for its controls and for the fact that you can see the food and stop it before anything burns. The glass-container solution is a real bonus when it comes to cleaning, serving and even using the bowls as storage tubs. Who, in their right mind, would rather dirty several dishes when a single one will do the lot?

This is an editorial buying review based on published specifications and current UK pricing.