Ninja Luxe Café Premier Review: Coffee Shop Coffee at Home, With One Honest Catch
- Martin
- Jul 9
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 19
A 3-in-1 espresso machine, filter brewer and rapid cold brew maker with its own grinder built in. Here is our honest review of the Ninja Luxe Café Premier ES601UK, what it does brilliantly, and the one reason it might not be for you.
Is the Ninja Luxe Café Premier worth it? The short answer after testing it in a real family kitchen: yes, if you want genuine coffee shop drinks at home and you have the worktop to house it, this is a remarkable machine for the money. It grinds, doses, brews espresso, filter coffee and rapid cold brew, and froths milk four different ways, and it does all of it well. The catch is not the coffee, it is the commitment. This machine is big, it comes with a small army of accessories, and it rewards a household that will use everything it can do. Below is exactly what we found, the good and the honest, and who we think should and should not buy it.
By Martin · Nest Nomad & Beyond · Last Updated July 2026
Quick Verdict
Best for | Households of coffee lovers who want espresso, filter and cold brew from one machine, with the grinder built in |
Not for | Single coffee drinkers in small kitchens. Brilliant as it is, it is a lot of machine for one americano a day |
Set-up time | About 30 minutes from box to first espresso and frothed milk, with a genuinely clear manual |
The learning curve | Real but short. A few days in, it is push a few buttons and job done |
The standout feature | Barista Assist. The machine watches how your shot pours and tells you how to adjust the grind |
Biggest drawback | The size. This is a beast, and it needs a permanent home on your worktop |
Would we buy it? | If we had the space and more than one coffee drinker in the house, without hesitation. Read on for why ours went a different way |
The Unboxing: Deep Breaths Required
I will be honest, unboxing this machine did nothing for the anxiety levels. It is big, it is heavy at around 17kg, and it arrives with a shed load of accessories. The first thought on opening the box was, where is the flyer for the two-day training course.
Then I took a breath, had a word with myself, and dived in. And the truth is Ninja has done the hard work here. The instruction manual is clear and easy to follow, every one of those accessories has a proper part to play, and there is a great little storage drawer built into the machine itself, so the tamper, baskets and bits all have a home instead of rattling around a kitchen drawer. About 30 minutes after opening the box we had produced a couple of espressos and a jug of frothy milk. For a machine this capable, that is quick.
Premier vs Pro: Which Ninja Luxe Café Should You Buy?
Worth clearing up before anything else, because the model names cause real confusion. In the UK there are two Luxe Café machines to choose between.
Luxe Café Premier (ES601UK) | The one we tested and the one this review is about. 3-in-1 brewing, built-in grinder with 25 settings, built-in scale, Barista Assist, and automatic milk frothing with four presets including cold foam. A spring-loaded assisted tamper guides your tamp by hand |
Luxe Café Pro (ES701UK) | Everything the Premier does, plus a built-in tamping lever so the machine presses the perfect puck for you, a fifth extra-thick froth preset and a larger milk jug. It is also bigger and noticeably more expensive |
Our take: the Premier is the sweet spot. The Pro's tamping lever is a lovely convenience, but the Premier's assisted tamper already takes the guesswork out, and the price difference buys months of very good coffee beans. Go Pro only if hands-free tamping genuinely matters to you.
The Grinder: 25 Settings and a Machine That Coaches You
Having the grinder built in is one of those things you do not appreciate until you live with it. Beans go in the 250g hopper on top, the machine grinds and weighs the dose for you on its built-in scale, and with over 25 grind settings you could honestly spend days honing your perfect cup. We settled on the finer end, and there really is a setting for everyone.
The clever bit is what Ninja calls Barista Assist. The machine monitors how your espresso pours and then tells you, on screen, whether to grind finer or coarser next time. It is the feature that turns the learning curve from weeks into days, because the machine does the diagnosing that normally takes a home barista a lot of wasted shots to learn.
What Is the Coffee Like?
This is coffee shop quality coffee at home, and I do not say that lightly. The espresso is the silkiest I have made in our own kitchen, pulled through proper non-pressurised baskets with real crema and real depth. The filter setting brews a genuinely good longer cup. And the rapid cold brew is a quiet star, proper smooth cold brew in minutes rather than steeping overnight in the fridge. Once you have this on the worktop, the local coffee shop starts to feel like a treat rather than a necessity.
Milk Frothing: Four Presets, Plant Milk Included
The frothing system is the best I have used at this level. A steam wand and a whisk jug work together automatically, with four presets covering steamed milk, thin froth, thick froth and cold foam, and it handles plant milks properly, which matters in this house where the standing order is an americano with frothed barista oat milk. The jug even has fill lines marked for different drinks. Compared with the frother on our long-serving De'Longhi Dedica [LINK: Dedica review], it is a clear step up, silkier, more consistent and completely hands-free.
How Easy Is It to Live With?
Truthfully, once you have got your head around it, it is a case of pushing a few buttons and job done. There is a learning curve, no point pretending otherwise, but give it a few days and you will be well away. The steam wand purges itself into the drip tray after frothing, the accessories all pack back into the storage drawer, and the machine tells you when it needs descaling. Set the water hardness during set-up so those alerts match your area, and if you are in a hard water postcode like us, filtered water in the tank stretches the gap between descales.
The Honest Drawbacks
• It is a beast. Around 17kg and a serious chunk of worktop, and it needs to live out permanently. Measure your space before you order, not after
• The learning curve is real. Short, and softened enormously by Barista Assist, but this is not a one-button pod machine and it does not pretend to be
• The accessory count takes managing. The built-in storage drawer saves it, but there is a lot of kit here
• It is overkill for one coffee drinker. Not a flaw in the machine, but the honest truth about who it suits, and it is the reason ours is not staying on the worktop, more on that below
What It Costs to Run
The way I think about coffee kit is in coffee shop equivalents. At around £450/£500 (depending on the deals) the Luxe Café Premier costs roughly the same as 90 to 100 grande lattes from the high street. For a two or three coffee a day household, that is the machine paid for inside a couple of months, and every silky flat white after that is money staying in your pocket. For lighter coffee habits the maths still works, it just takes longer, and that is an honest part of the decision.
Who It Is For, and Why It Is Not For Us
Here is the part of this review you will not find on a spec sheet. This machine makes a brilliant cup of coffee and a whole host of drinks beyond it, and you would be hard pushed to find anything that delivers everything it does for the price. If you love everything about coffee, it is a great buy, and if we had the time, the space and a house full of coffee drinkers, we would probably have grabbed one for keeps.
But we are busy parents, there is exactly one coffee drinker in this house of four, and worktop space in our kitchen is at a premium. For one americano a day, a machine this size and this capable is simply more than we need, and what we need is easy, straightforward, near enough one-button coffee. That job, in our kitchen, belongs to the far smaller De'Longhi Dedica, and for coffee away from the kitchen entirely there is a machine that fits in a rucksack: Outin Nano.
That is not a mark against the Ninja. It is the whole point of honest reviewing: the best machine is the one that fits your household, and for the right household this is comfortably the most complete coffee machine we have tested.
Ninja Luxe Café Premier Review: Our Final Verdict
The Luxe Café Premier does something genuinely difficult, it makes proper barista coffee accessible without dumbing it down. The grinder, the scale, the Barista Assist coaching and the four-way frother add up to coffee shop drinks at home with a learning curve measured in days. It needs space, commitment and ideally more than one coffee drinker to justify itself, and if your household ticks those boxes we can recommend it without reservation.
WORKTOP FOOTPRINT | ■■□□□ | Around 17kg and built to live out. The one spec that decides whether this machine is even an option |
EASE OF USE | ■■■■□ | A real learning curve, then genuinely easy. Barista Assist does the hard thinking for you |
THE COFFEE | ■■■■■ | Coffee shop quality espresso, proper filter coffee and rapid cold brew from one machine |
THE GRINDER | 25 settings, built-in scale, weighed doses. Having it built in changes the whole routine | |
MILK FROTHING | ■■■■■ | Four automatic presets including cold foam, and it handles oat milk beautifully |
VALUE | ■■■■□ | A lot of money, and a lot of machine for it. Pays for itself fastest in multi-coffee households |
Frequently Asked Questions
Real questions, answered from hands-on testing in a family kitchen.
What is the difference between the Ninja Luxe Café Premier and Pro?
The Pro (ES701UK) adds a built-in tamping lever that presses the coffee puck for you, a fifth extra-thick froth preset and a larger milk jug, and it costs noticeably more. The Premier (ES601UK) uses a spring-loaded assisted tamper you press by hand and has four froth presets. For most people the Premier is the better value buy.
Is the Ninja Luxe Café Premier worth it?
If your household drinks more than one coffee a day and you have the worktop space, yes. It replaces a grinder, an espresso machine, a filter brewer and a cold brew habit in one unit, and the coffee is genuinely coffee shop standard. For a single light coffee drinker in a small kitchen, a compact machine is the smarter buy.
Can you use pre-ground coffee with the Ninja Luxe Café?
Yes. You can dose pre-ground coffee straight into the portafilter and brew as normal, bypassing the grinder. The machine is at its best with fresh beans through the built-in grinder though, because the grind suggestions and weighed dosing are a big part of what makes it so consistent.
How many grind settings does the Ninja Luxe Café Premier have?
Over 25. The machine recommends settings for each brew style, and its Barista Assist feature watches how your espresso pours and suggests grind adjustments on screen, which takes most of the trial and error out of dialling in.
Does the Ninja Luxe Café make cold brew?
Yes, and quickly. The rapid cold brew setting produces smooth cold brew in minutes rather than the overnight steep a fridge method needs. It is one of the machine's most underrated features.
How do you descale the Ninja Luxe Café Premier?
The machine tells you when a descale is due and guides you through the process. Setting your water hardness during set-up keeps those alerts accurate for your area, and using filtered water in the tank stretches the time between descales, especially in hard water postcodes.
How big is the Ninja Luxe Café Premier?
Big. It weighs around 17kg and needs a permanent spot on the worktop with clearance above for the bean hopper. If space is tight, measure first, this is the single most common regret in owner reviews and the easiest one to avoid.
Product Specifications at a Glance
Model | Ninja Luxe Café Premier Series ES601UK |
Brew styles | Espresso, filter-style classic coffee, and rapid cold brew |
Grinder | Built-in conical burr grinder, 25 settings, 250g bean hopper |
Dosing | Built-in scale with weight-based dosing and on-screen grind guidance (Barista Assist) |
Baskets | Non-pressurised single and double shot baskets, assisted spring-loaded tamper included |
Milk | Dual froth system, steam wand plus whisk jug, four presets: steamed, thin froth, thick froth, cold foam. Dairy and plant milk |
Extras | Hot water dispense, built-in accessory storage drawer, descale alerts |
Weight | Approx. 17kg |
Price | RRP £549.99, regularly discounted |
Shop the Kit
Ninja Luxe Café Premier ES601UK | |
Fresh espresso beans | |
Espresso machine cleaning tablets |
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