Air fryers remain hugely popular, and it’s no wonder. They’re a great way to cook smaller amounts of food fast, or to cook for one or two without needing the whole oven. And with air fry cooking, you get crispy food without all the oil. But some folks find another appliance tough to justify and rightly so. I’m a huge proponent of making sure your appliances can do double or triple duty, and that’s the idea behind the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven with Grill (TOA-70C).
Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven with Grill
Summary
Overall, while I like this oven and think it’s useful and versatile, whether it will be a winner for your home depends largely on what you intend to use it for and how much space you have to place it.
Pros
- Well-designed product
- Oven is super versatile
- Cook times and temp are quick and easy to adjust
Cons
- Relatively large footprint
- Oven heat can be too intense
- May be too small for larger families
I recently received one of these ovens from Cuisinart to test and review in my home. While the company did provide it to me at no charge, it didn’t ask for or receive permission to approve or view my content so these thoughts are all my own.
Air fryers: we know them well, we covered a bunch of them here on the site and by now, most people in your neighborhood should likely have one. But if you’re either one of the odd ones out or hoping to replace or upgrade your existing oven, get ready for a headache as many manufacturers flooded the market with all sorts of models old and new. In fact, old models continue to sell well in 2024 like the Cuisinart TOA-70C. The oven-styled air fryer has been around for more than three years, which is more than enough time to think twice and consider something newer or more innovative. Is the Cuisinart Air Fryer still a contender in the modern kitchen? Read on for my thoughts!
Watch my FULL hands on review of Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven with Grill
What is the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven with Grill
The Cuisinart Air Fryer Convection Oven resembles the traditional countertop oven, but the fry basket included in the package serves as a reminder of its function as an oil-free replacement for a deep fryer. It also offers a grill function as well on top of 7 other modes and some extra accessories that aid in its versatility. To see how that works, let’s unbox it.
What’s in the Box?
The Cuisinart TOA-70C Air Fryer Toaster Oven with Grill is the biggest thing in the box, and it is big; it’s just over half a cubic foot, weighs 23 pounds and measures about 16-inches wide, 14 inches high and 12 inches deep, so you are definitely going to want a dedicated space for this.
If you are going to opt to keep it out on the counter, it’s a good thing the oven is fairly streamlined and nice looking with its retro dials.
Also in the box, you get the air frying basket, a standard baking pan which doubles as a crumb or drip tray, and a grill plate. The grill plate features a two-sided design with one being a flat griddle and the other being a lined grill. The grill plate also has drip holes which help channel unwanted fats and oils into the drip tray below.
All of the trays and accessories will store inside the oven, or you can simply leave them on top.
Features
As an 8-in-1 oven, the Cuisinart TOA-70C lets you prepare all sorts of snacks and meals from main and side dishes to sweets and desserts. Learning its functions is key to making the most out of the air fryer.
The Air Fryer Toaster Oven with Grill will bake, grill, roast, toast, air fry and broil. It’s also got convection cooking options for both broil and bake too.
Four-dial Control Array
The Cuisinart Air Fryer Convection Oven lacks a screen which might be a dealbreaker if you want to track time or the cooking mode at a glance. Fortunately, the four-dial control system is simple to use and since you don’t have to worry about a screen breaking or touch sensors potentially wearing out, the oven could last longer.
First, you set the third dial to the cooking method you want. Then you choose the temperature by rotating the second dial. Finally, you set the cooking time by turning the fourth knob if you picked the toast cooking method, or the first knob if you picked a different cooking method. Turning either the first or fourth knobs power on the oven and activates the cooking indicator light.
You can also press the button below the light to switch on the interior oven light.
Multifunction Powerhouse
The Cuisinart Air Fryer features 1,800 watts of power putting it in line with the Cosori Air Fryer Oven I reviewed last year. The 18-quart capacity makes the oven a bit smaller though which is nice if you didn’t like the Cosori’s larger footprint. The oven interior still measures about 12 inches wide and 12 inches deep which is enough for 6 slices of bread or burger patties or a 12-inch pizza. The 3-inch interior height is okay for cooking flatter items, like pizza, fish or chicken pieces, but it’s completely unsuitable for any kind of larger meats or baking dishes. It’s also not large enough to hold multiple racks to cook different meals or dishes at once.
The oven supports a maximum temperature of 450°F (230°C) and can cook up to an hour straight before it will shut off automatically.
Cooking in Cuisinart Air Fryer Oven & Grill
I tried a variety of foods in this oven.
I decided to start by baking a tray of chocolate chip cookies…because I was both excited and hungry for something sweet. I laid out the cookies on a baking sheet and slid it inside. When my timer went off, the cookies were scorched and crispy. Hopefully this can be a lesson for you… the first time you try to use a new oven like this it’s probably best not to cook something you’re really looking forward to eating, because you will want to get accustomed to the temperature adjustments and changes your recipes may need due to the smaller size of this oven. While I was pretty choked that my snack was practically incinerated, I’ll chalk this up to my own learning experience.
Next I was a little more practical with my second meal choice. I decided to make a tray of french fries just on a regular baking pan. I opted to lower both the temperature and the cook time just a little bit and these turned out much better. They were cooked in less than 10 minutes.
Next step was a piece of chicken. As I noted earlier, this oven would be ideal for cooking smaller pieces of meat for one to four people, but there’s no possible way of getting a full bird in here if you might be inclined.
Again, owing to the smaller size of this oven I assumed it would cook both hotter and faster, and it did. My chicken was thoroughly cooked in about 30 minutes and nicely browned to boot.
Feeling a little more confident with the oven I decided to move onto baking some fresh salmon. Here, the Cuisinart Air Fryer Oven shines. My salmon was cooked quickly and evenly. And it was a fast and quick-heating way to cook dinner – no waiting for the big oven to heat up.
That brings me to another benefit of this oven and that’s that there’s no real pre-heating. Because this oven is so small and quick, I found there’s no need to preheat it. Just add your food and set the timer.
To test the air frying I inserted the basket and added some homemade spring rolls, cooked from frozen.
They cooked in about 20 minutes, and browned quite nicely and evenly. The air frying grill basket does allow air to circulate and cooks thoroughly.
Also worth pointing out is that the racks have a stop inside that prevents you from pulling them out too far. Depending on which rack you use it might be a bit of a struggle to get it pulled out as far as you need it, but I did find this was quite handy as a protective measure against accidentally dropping your food.
Because the Cuisinart Air Fryer has more of a classic oven form-factor, you can’t pull out the entire basket to serve food. However, checking the food while it is cooking is easy and safe as you can pull down the door to automatically power off the oven. Closing the door immediately resumes cooking.
One of the last few tests I tried was making toast. This oven is ideal for toasting for a crowd since you can do multiple slices at once. I found it did a very good job at toast and because you can dial in the level of darkness you prefer each time, it’s easy to get your bread just the way you want it.
Of note, this air fryer oven doesn’t give off a lot of heat, and even the top surface, which on plenty of models can become scorching hot, here it is just warm.
In terms of noise, there is a fan that runs during most of the cooking processes but it runs very quietly and is not at all disturbing.
Cleaning
Cleaning an air fryer is usually the most demanding chore that no one wants to take on. The inside of this oven features what Cuisinart refers to as an easy clean surface. I can agree that it was relatively easy to wipe off. Racks are always a challenge to clean, but I was able to get these clean again with minimal effort.
Overall Thoughts: Cuisinart Air Fryer (TOA-70C)
Overall, while I like this oven and think it’s useful and versatile, whether it will be a winner for your home depends largely on what you intend to use it for and how much space you have to place it. Let’s go over both the pros and the cons so you can see if it’s right for you.
On the pro side, I like the looks and design as it’s both stylish and streamlined. With multiple settings and a handful of accessories and racks, this oven is certainly versatile in terms of how it cooks.
After an initial break-in period for me, I found I was better able to judge if temperature and cook time needed to be altered due to the smaller size of this oven compared to my full size.
I also appreciate the fact it comes with a handful of different racks and grills so that you can cook your food to your own preferences.
So what are the potential downsides? The overall footprint of this oven is quite large. In my home it takes up easily half of one of our counters, and I think it would be unsuitable for smaller kitchens. Also, because of its large size and heavy weight, moving it in and out of storage would also not be a pleasant chore.
And for some users this oven is just going to be too small to feed larger families or if you’re prone to using your air fryer for something like a whole chicken. In this case you could probably get a whole chicken inside but you would have to cut it into pieces first.
The Cuisinart Air Fryer Over with Grill sells for about $229 USD or $310 CAD and you can get it from a number of small appliance retailers including Amazon and I am becoming quite a Cuisinart fan.
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