Ninja Crispi Microwave, Air Fryer & Oven MW101UK Review

Design and features

• Pleasant two-tone colourway
• Tactile buttons and controls
• Glass dish is rather hefty

The Crispi Microwave, Air Fryer & Oven MW101UK is a large appliance if you’re used to smaller microwaves, although it isn’t as hefty as rivals from Smeg or Sage. It still looks the part, though, with a two-tone silver and black finish that’s sure to fit into a variety of kitchen styles.

The control panel, in typical Ninja fashion, is easy to use, being entirely comprised of physical controls. You’ve got individual buttons for Microwave and Air Fry modes, where clicking them will take you into the functions for each mode, as well as other buttons and dials for time/temperature, turning an internal light on, and adding an extra thirty seconds to the timer at will.

Inside, there isn’t a turntable, with Ninja opting for a flat bed. This reportedly gives the Crispi Microwave, Air Fryer & Oven MW101UK about 20% more usable space than typical microwaves, allowing you to fit larger bowls and plates inside.

This microwave is rated at 1000W, making it quite a powerful choice, while its 2000W of air frying power is about right. Doing a bit of maths, the internal cavity works out to 23.5 litres of space, meaning this may be a big microwave in size, but its internal space is more manageable than you may have initially expected.

The lack of a turntable also allows this microwave to be a lot more versatile than other microwaves – granted, we’ve seen ones that can work as an air fryer or a grill in the past, but it’s not been the case that it can combine functions. That’s the key sell with the Crispi Microwave, Air Fryer & Oven MW101UK – Ninja’s clever FusionCrisp mode – which combines microwaving and air frying in one fell swoop to bring together a moist middle and crispy outsides for anything you put inside, and can be executed with the hefty glass dish you’ll find inside.

That’s one of the only criticisms I have with this unit. The 5.2L glass dish inside is hefty and very well-built, but it’s almost too heavy to lift out, especially if you’ve filled it with dense meat or a pasta sauce with liquid inside.

On the point of functions, it isn’t just FusionCrisp where Ninja has combined modes for the Crispi Microwave, Air Fryer & Oven MW101UK. The Air Fry modes also include an Air Roast and Air Bake option, which give you the power of air frying, but with different fan speeds and settings to mimic the effect of roasting or baking.

Ninja says the glass dish is dishwasher safe, as long as you’ve got spare space in your dishwasher for it to fit, although I mostly chose to hand wash it just to be on the safe side.

Performance

• FusionCrisp is especially potent
• Strong across both Microwave and Air Fry functions
• More than just a standard microwave or air fryer

During my time with the Crispi Microwave, Air Fryer & Oven MW101UK, I cooked a range of food across its varying functions to see how well it performed, ranging from joints of meat to veg and much more besides. I was generally impressed with the way it cooked, providing fast and consistent results in typical Ninja fashion.

My first test involved some chicken breasts on the FusionCrisp mode, where you simply select times for both Microwave and Air Fry modes, and let the microwave work its magic. It went on Microwave for ten minutes, was turned halfway, and then went on Air Fry for 13 minutes.

I added some streaky bacon with nine minutes left, and after that time, the chicken was up to temperature and the bacon reasonably crispy. The chicken was then taken out, and the bacon put on the Air Fry mode for a further three minutes to crisp up. The end result was moist and succulent chicken and impressively crispy bacon.

For more conventional testing, I air-fried some fishcakes at 200°C for 15 minutes, and they came out especially crispy, while a standard sausage test on the handy Air Roast function did well at the same time and temperature.

Beyond those early tests, I moved on to some more ambitious FusionCrisp cooking, starting with a fusilli pasta sauce made with tomatoes, mushrooms and onions. It spent 30 minutes on Microwave followed by ten on Air Fry, and the result was a rich, well-reduced sauce. I reheated the leftovers the following day on the Timed Cook microwave setting, and three minutes was enough to get it piping hot.

Risotto is a more unusual thing to attempt in a microwave, and while Ninja suggests it as a FusionCrisp recipe in the book it provides, it doesn’t actually provide a concrete recipe. I improvised with red onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, passata, arborio rice and a splash of wine, giving it 25 minutes on Microwave and a further 15 on Air Fry. It thickened up surprisingly well, with a rich tomato flavour that I wouldn’t have expected from this method.

Scrambled eggs with spring onions took three to four minutes on Timed Cook and came out at the right consistency, which was a bit of a surprise, while a conventional chips test fared equally well with 20 minutes at 200°C on the basic Air Fry mode leaving them crispy on the outside and fluffy inside.

I made garlic knots from pizza dough on the Air Bake setting at 200°C. They were done after 12 minutes of a planned 15, and after being turned halfway through they were springy, with a strong garlic flavour once brushed.

For something more substantial, I cooked Tex-Mex pork shoulders on Air Roast at 185°C for 25 minutes, then turned the temperature up to 200°C for the final ten minutes to brown them. The outside was crispy and the meat succulent.

An interesting final test proved to be another risotto, but this time with salmon added in an unorthodox way. I opted for FusionCrisp, where the risotto sauce was put in Microwave for 20 minutes, then the salmon was added on top of the sauce on the crisper plate for a further 15 minutes on Air Fry. The salmon came out shiny and moist, while the risotto below had a good consistency, making it a great example of the FusionCrisp mode doing exactly what Ninja promises.

Should you buy it?