10 best sandwich toasters, tried and tested for making toasties

The Breville press is designed to handle all kinds of bread – think sandwiches, paninis, tortillas and ciabatta – letting you get as creative as you like with the fillings thanks to the generous space between the plates. It may be bulkier than other sandwich makers we tested, but the stainless steel design would suit most kitchen styles, as long as you have the counter space.

It’s on the pricier side but this gives versatility, and we could not fault any of the creations that we made using this press. Five minutes was needed to create perfectly melted cheese toasties every time, and the truly non-stick plates made cleaning with a damp cloth quick and easy.

Considering its low price point and cooking results, we can see why this is a bestseller. It took on average six minutes to cook a toasted sandwich, which is a little longer than other products we tested. We liked that the locking handle ensured an even cook, even with thicker bread. This is a good pick if you prefer a traditional, sealed-edge toastie. We found it a bit tricky to clean because it has fixed, ridged plates, making it harder to get into every crevice. You need to use a damp cloth and washing up liquid to remove the grease after cooking.

This versatile machine was our favourite multi-use appliance for sandwiches, paninis and waffles. The deep fill plates mean that you can get extra cheese and ham into your toastie, and we found that a cooking time of five minutes resulted in a golden brown, delicious sandwich with sealed edges. We found that it works best with pre-sliced bread, as thicker slices create too much of a hard crust. Although it’s on the more expensive side, it’s good value if you make use of the different plates. It’s dishwasher safe and can be stored upright, saving valuable kitchen space.

If rose gold suits your kitchen interior, this is the perfect pick for you. Although it’s designed for “deep fill” toasties, we found combining extra filling with thick sliced bread made it tricky to close the locking latch and required some extra force. It took around five minutes to cook two sealed toasties, and we liked that you didn’t have to cover each side of the sandwich with butter or oil – the non-stick plates performed well and this meant it was easy to wipe the plates clean after use.

This is another good option if you only need to make one toastie at a time. This one-slice sandwich maker required a little more setup than other products we tried out – brush oil on the plates, insert an old piece of bread and heat it up for five minutes to remove any residue, and then you’re ready to start making toasties. This produced an evenly cooked, sealed-edge toastie and we liked that we could fit more filling and larger slices of bread in this maker compared to other machines that we tested.

This was the cheapest sandwich toaster that we tried out. With space to cook four toasties at a time, you get a lot for your money, making it a good budget choice for larger households. It heated up very quickly and took just four minutes to cook a cheese and ham toastie. We really liked the two latch settings – the wider latch means that you can use much thicker bread – something that was tricky with other products we tested.

If you’re looking for a multi-use appliance, the George Foreman grill is a good value choice. This worked best with more adventurous fillings such as roasted vegetables and mozzarella or avocado, pesto and cheese – providing open-edge, lightly toasted results. What’s more, it has a very fast cooking time – on average three minutes – and the non-stick plates meant that only a very light drizzle of oil was needed to give the bread a golden crisp.

It’s not a traditional toasted sandwich maker but these clever toastabags are ideal if you don’t have the space for an appliance. Made from non-stick material, you prepare your sandwich as normal, place it in the bag and then put it in your toaster for around four to five minutes.

We found it was especially good for messier toasties such as cheese and baked beans, as once you’ve finished cooking, you can simply pop the bag in the dishwasher so it’s ready to be used again. We recommend using smaller slices of bread or cutting your slices to size to ensure that will fit inside the bag and cook properly.

This was the smallest product that we tested and definitely one of our favourites. It makes one toastie at a time, and what really sets it apart is that you use it in the microwave. This makes it perfect for one-person households or if you’re low on storage space. Following their recommendation, the ‘medium’ cook made a perfect cheese toastie with white bread. This required a two-minute thirty cook time before flipping, and then a further minute and a half. The silicone gets very hot, so you need an oven glove to remove the finished toastie. You can then pop the plates into the dishwasher for easy cleaning. Owing to its popularity, this is currently out of stock, so we’d recommend signing up to be notified when it’s back.