I bought the Ninja Foodi Digital Air Fry Oven at Costco as a birthday present to myself and am absolutely delighted with the purchase. I had owned a cheap basket style air fryer before and while it worked okay it had some fundamental issues that made me want to try something different.
The two biggest problems with the basket style air fryers are that are big and bulky as well as being a pain to clean. The Ninja Foodi solves both of these problems.
Does Not Take Up a Lot of Space
When the Foodi is in use it looks like an oversized toaster oven with dimensions of approximately 20 x 15 x 8 inches. And, while the fryer does not take up much space, it has more capacity than any air fryer that I have used before.
The Ninja’s big party trick is that when you are finished using the oven, and it has cooled off, you can simply rotate it on its hinged base and store it in an upright position to reclaim your counter space!
Now how slick is that?
When the Ninja Foodi is in the upright position it takes up less than 140 square inches of counter space. I think the stainless steel air fryer looks lovely and I enjoy leaving it on the counter.
Easy to Clean
The Ninja Foodi is easy to clean but isn’t perfect in that aspect.
Let’s say that you want to air fry some chicken wings. You would place the wings on the wire rack which fits inside the sheet pan (both are included).
As the wings cooked the grease would drip onto the sheet pan which is removable and can be cleaned in the sink or dishwasher.
There is some splatter from the wings though, especially if you have the fryer loaded up, and any grease that gets past the pan ends up on the crumb tray. The crumb tray is located at the bottom of the cooker beneath the heating elements.
Any grease that makes it to this tray will cause some smoke but it isn’t much. The crumb tray is removable for easy cleaning but once grease gets burnt on it will become discolored.
And finally, and grease that somehow manages to get past the sheet pan and the crumb tray will be collected on the easy access bottom panel.
The bottom panel is not removable but what little grease that accumulates there is easily cleaned with a paper towel.
If you want to cook something that doesn’t produce grease/drippings then you can replace the wire rack and sheet pan with the included mesh tray. You would want to use the mesh tray for things like French Fries and you will want to clean the crumb tray after use.
Using the Air Fryer
The Ninja Foodi has nine settings that include:
- Air Fry (Wings, French Fries, Nuggets)
- Air Roast (Sheet Pan Meals, Roasted Vegetables)
- Air Broil (Fish, Steaks)
- Dehydrate (Jerky, Fruits)
- Keep Warm
- Reheat
- Bake (Pizza)
- Bagel
- Toast
The settings have pre-programed times and temperatures but are adjustable through the intuitive control panel.
I have used the heck out of the air fry mode, especially when making dumplings from Costco. The capacity is massive, the controls are intuitive and the heating is even.
That is pretty much all I can ask for.
I have used the Bake function to cook an Amy’s Frozen Pizza and the pizza came out fantastic. The pizza took longer to cook than indicated on the instructions but I do not know if that was because of a cooler oven or poor instructions.
Either way, I was fine with the extra wait considering how well the pizza turned out.
The Ninja is also a perfectly acceptable toaster that can toast eight pieces of bread at once if you use both of the racks that are included. I haven’t tried the “Bagel” setting but, given how well it makes toast I am sure that it can handle a couple of bagels just fine.
Costco Value
I bought this air fryer at Costco for $179.99.
The least expensive option I have seen to buy this product online was the Big Retailer that Starts with an “A” where a brand new unit costs $210 and a refurbished unit costs $185.
While the Ninja Foodi Air Fryer is not a massive bargain at Costco it is the least expensive place I have seen to buy one.
Bottom Line
I love this air fryer and give it a strong recommendation.
