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Mandolines: loved by salad eaters, feared by fingers. With what must be the highest body count of any kitchen tool after knives, mandoline slicers are tools that demand caution, reverence, and respect.
But, if you use a mandoline carefully, the rewards are immense. The best mandoline will help you speed through produce prep work, make paper-thin slices of cucumber, chop grillable coins of zucchini, and even cut potatoes into perfect steak fries. I particularly like shredding cabbage with mine, which reduces an entire head to the thinnest shreds in about a minute for slaws and pasta salads
“I use my mandoline constantly. It’s a great way to shave vegetables into elegant ribbons and whisper thin slices,” says Jess Damuck, many of whose recipes in her cookbooks Salad Freak and Health Nut make frequent use of the kitchen gadget. “My knife skills are okay—but the mandoline makes quick work of precise uniform cuts.”
If you’re intrigued by the possibilities a mandoline offers, but aren’t quite sure what to look for—or are afraid you might lose some digits in the process—we are here to help. Below you will find our top picks for the best mandolines to grace your countertop, as well as some safety tips and additional equipment you can buy that will ensure that your mounds of freshly shaved vegetables remain carnage-free.
What is a Mandoline Slicer
A mandoline slicer is a handheld vegetable slicer that can produce uniform and consistent cuts at an efficient speed compared to dicing on a cutting board. Think of it as the halfway point between a knife and food processor. They consist of a plank bisected by a straight or V-shaped blade, with a small gap for vegetable slices to fall through. Sometimes they are adjustable to allow for varied widths, but many are fixed to a standard slice thickness.
Most models come with stainless-steel blades, but you can also find others, like this Kyocera, with a ceramic blade instead. Higher end models typically come with a range of slicing attachments, like a blade for waffle cuts or a julienne blade.
Best Mandoline: Benriner Mandoline
The Good: Sharp, precise, and easy to use.
The Bad: Does tend to stain a little.
You’d have to search high and low to find a culinary professional who recommends anything besides the Benriner mandoline. Damuck loves it. Food editor Shilpa Uskokovic uses it in the test kitchen all the time, as do countless other professional kitchens and home cooks
Much of that love has to do with the Benriner’s design. “The plastic makes it lighter and more nimble than unwieldy, old-fashioned stainless-steel models, tucking away neatly into a tiny kitchen drawer,” Shilpa says. “It’s spare and efficient in its industrial design—no clunky knobs, flimsy handles, imprinted numbers bound to wear off, or weird V-shaped blades.” The plastic crank on the bottom of the Benriner also allows you to select a thickness setting to an exacting degree. “You can cut kohlrabi thin enough to read a paper through or thick planks of potato for a gratin,” she says.
In the product tests from our sister brand Epicurious, the Benriner’s incredibly sharp blade was unmatched by any other adjustable mandoline. It’s as agile and precise as a chef’s knife in expert hands, and comes with three interchangeable blade styles for matchstick and julienne cuts of different widths.
But the Benriner is not without shortcomings. The hand guard, a separate plastic piece you can use to hold down items like onions or cucumbers, is clunky and somewhat uncomfortable to hold. It’s not exactly what you want in a product’s main safety feature, which is why we suggest something better down below for those who are still nervous about accidents. It’s also not dishwasher-safe, though it's easy enough to hand-wash. As Uskokovic notes though, the plastic has a tendency to stain, especially when slicing carrots or beets.
Best Mandoline If You Are Afraid of Full-Size Mandolines
The Good: Takes up little space, convenient, and safe(r)
The Bad: Isn’t adjustable, too small for larger vegetables
If you are intimidated by a full-size mandoline, or only plan to use it for smaller items like garlic cloves, summer squash, or cucumbers, consider this tiny, handheld model from Oxo. The Good Grips Mini Complete Grate & Slice Set is ideal for mandoline experimentation and will have you feeling a bit safer while using it.
Instead of having a bunch of loose blades to swap out, this is actually three attachments that lock into a box: a straight blade, a grater, and a microplane. I mostly use the straight blade for shaving veggies for salad, particularly radishes, brussels sprouts, or fennel. While you can’t adjust the thickness, I find that it produces a cut finer than I’d be able to achieve with a knife, all the while maintaining enough structural integrity to still have crunch.
This isn’t the kind of mandoline that will produce crinkle cut sweet potato fries or pristine carrot sticks, but it will give you those thin slices, along with the grating and Microplaning extras. Safety-wise, it does come with a finger guard, but I generally find it easier to simply slice carefully, which is easier to do with this smaller blade.
What to know about mandoline safety
As I mentioned a few times already, mandolines have…a bit of a reputation for sending people to the emergency room. However, if you are capable of using a regular old chef’s knife, you have nothing to be afraid of. The key to using a mandoline is to pay attention and not get carried away. “I like to work confidently with my mandoline and never use it while I’m talking to someone or distracted,” says Damuck. She also points out that dull mandoline slicers are actually the most dangerous (same is true about knives), as they are more likely to get stuck and require you to leverage excessive weight and raise the risk you’ll cut yourself. Because of this, many mandoline producers offer replacement blades for the inevitable moment when yours gets dull.
Still, if you still feel some trepidation, you can always use the finger guards that come with them. Some people, pros and home cooks alike, think that these guards feel clumsy, so instead, we recommend buying a pair of cut-resistant gloves to use with your mandoline. These allow you to grip your produce and wield it as you’d like, all the while protecting your hands from the blade.
How we picked the best mandolines
We compiled intel from a variety of sources to determine the best mandoline on the market. We referenced our product test over on Epi of the best mandolines, in which we compared their performance side by side. Additionally, we relied on the opinions of slicing pros both in our test kitchen and out in the world. Shilpa Uskokovic is our senior test kitchen editor, and Jess Damuck is a recipe developer and cookbook author who has an affinity for vegetable-forward dishes that rely on mandolines as demonstrated in her two cookbooks.