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Ninja now sells five versions of the Luxe Café in the UK, and the names do not make the differences obvious. Mini, Mini Plus, Premier, Premier Plus and Pro all have a built-in grinder and all promise café drinks at home. Prices currently run from about £450 for the Mini to about £600 for the Premier Plus.
The short answer: the Ninja Luxe Café Premier (ES601UK) is the right pick for most people. It is the cheapest model that does espresso, filter coffee and cold brew, and it froths milk for you. Buy the Mini if you only want espresso and filter coffee and your counter space is tight. Buy the Pro if you want more espresso styles and a tamper built into the grinder, and only if you can get it close to the Premier’s price.
Check Ninja Luxe Café Premier prices on Amazon UK
How this guide was put together. Based on manufacturer specifications and owner reviews. I have not used any Luxe Café model myself (my own espresso machine is a Sage Bambino Plus), so this is not a first-hand review. I compared Ninja’s UK product pages and specifications, current listings at Amazon UK, Currys and Ninja UK, and owner reviews on Amazon UK, Currys and SharkNinja UK. Prices checked November 2026. They move often, especially in the run-up to Black Friday, so check the live price before you buy.
Ninja Luxe Café models compared
| Model | What it makes | Milk frothing | Tamping | Typical UK price | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini (ES301UK) | Espresso and filter (2-in-1) | Manual steam wand | Assisted tamper | About £450 | Check on Amazon UK |
| Mini Plus (ES352UK) | Espresso and filter (2-in-1) | Automatic, 3 froth presets | Assisted tamper | About £495 (Ninja UK) | Ninja UK |
| Premier (ES601UK) | Espresso, filter and cold brew (3-in-1) | Automatic, 4 froth presets | Assisted tamper | About £525 | Check on Amazon UK |
| Premier Plus (ES655UK) | Espresso, filter and cold brew (3-in-1) | Automatic, 5 froth presets, XL jug | Assisted tamper | About £600 (Ninja UK) | Ninja UK |
| Pro (ES701UK) | Espresso, filter and cold brew (3-in-1) | Automatic, 5 froth presets, XL jug | Tamper built into the grinder | About £580 (Premium Edition costs more) | Check on Amazon UK |
Every model has a built-in burr grinder and Ninja’s Barista Assist system, which recommends a grind size and adjusts brewing for the drink you choose. In practice, the differences come down to three questions: do you want cold brew, do you want the machine to froth milk for you, and how much of the tamping do you want to do yourself.
The three decisions that separate the range
1. Two-in-one or three-in-one
The Mini and Mini Plus make espresso and filter coffee. The Premier, Premier Plus and Pro add a cold brew setting. If you drink iced coffee through the summer, the three-in-one models save you buying a separate cold brew maker. If you never drink it cold, you are paying for a feature you will not use.
2. Manual or automatic milk
The Mini has a manual steam wand. You hold the jug and texture the milk yourself, which takes a little practice but gives you full control. Every other model froths automatically: you pick a preset and the wand steams and whisks the milk while you get on with something else. If lattes and flat whites are your daily drink and you are not interested in learning to steam milk, skip the Mini.
3. Assisted or integrated tamping
Tamping is pressing the ground coffee into the basket before brewing (see how espresso machines work). The Mini, Mini Plus, Premier and Premier Plus use an assisted tamper, a lever-style tool that keeps the press level. The Pro, however, builds the tamper into the grinder, so the coffee is dosed and tamped in one step with less mess on the counter. It is a real convenience, but on its own it is not a reason to spend about £50 to £100 more.
Ninja Luxe Café Premier (ES601UK): best for most people
The Premier is the model the rest of the range is measured against. It covers espresso, filter coffee and cold brew, has 25 grind settings, a built-in scale and four froth presets (steamed milk, thin froth, thick froth and cold froth). Ninja lists 4 espresso styles, 4 coffee styles and 7 drink sizes. The box includes single, double and “Luxe” baskets, a cleaning kit and a water hardness test kit, which is useful in most of the UK where hard water shortens a machine’s life.
Who it suits: anyone who wants a proper espresso machine with a grinder but does not want to become a hobbyist barista to get a good latte.
What you give up: the extra espresso styles and fifth froth preset on the Pro, and the integrated tamper.
Check Ninja Luxe Café Premier prices on Amazon UK
What owners say
4.4 out of 5 from 534 Amazon UK ratings (checked November 2026), 4.8 from 400 reviews at Currys and 4.5 from 1,817 reviews on Ninja UK (checked October 2026).
- Owners most often praise the coffee itself and how many drinks one machine covers, from a straight espresso to an iced latte.
- The grind recommendation and built-in scale get credit for a quick start, including from people moving up from pod machines.
- The recurring complaint is reliability. A minority report steam wand faults, leaks or grinder problems within months, although most of them say Ninja replaced the machine quickly.
- Some find the beeps and the “add water” or “install jug” messages irritating, and a few say the suggested grind size keeps changing.
Who it seems to suit: people who want café-style milk drinks with little practice and are happy to lean on the warranty if something goes wrong.
Ninja Luxe Café Mini (ES301UK): best for small kitchens
The Mini is the compact option. Ninja lists it at 26 x 31 x 34 cm and 8.6 kg, which makes it the easiest to fit under wall cupboards. It also has a burr grinder, a precision scale, 3 strength and 3 temperature settings, and a manual steam wand. There is no cold brew setting.
Who it suits: espresso and Americano drinkers, people with limited counter space, and anyone who wants to learn milk texturing properly.
What you give up: automatic frothing, cold brew and the wider drink menu.
Check Ninja Luxe Café Mini prices on Amazon UK
What owners say
4.8 out of 5 from 18 Amazon UK ratings (checked November 2026) and 4.7 from 125 reviews on Ninja UK (checked October 2026). Read these with some caution: about half of the Amazon UK reviews shown come from Amazon’s Vine programme, where reviewers get the product free, and many Ninja UK reviews are marked as incentivised.
- Reviewers like the small footprint, and several say it fits where a full-size bean-to-cup machine would not.
- Setup is described as quick, and owners new to espresso say the grind guidance got them to a drinkable shot within a few tries.
- Critical reviews mention a portafilter with plastic inside where hot water passes (raised in US reviews shown on Ninja UK’s page), one UK buyer whose built-in scale weighed wrongly, and grind suggestions that still needed adjusting by hand.
Who it seems to suit: espresso and Americano drinkers with limited counter space who are happy to learn to steam milk. It is a new model, so there is no long-term reliability picture yet.
Ninja Luxe Café Pro (ES701UK): best if the price is right
The Pro adds 9 espresso styles (against 4 on the Premier), 5 froth presets including an extra-thick setting, an XL froth jug and the integrated tamper. At its £729.99 full price on Ninja UK it is a hard sell over the Premier. In November 2026, though, it was about £580 at Amazon UK, against about £525 for the Premier. When the gap is under £100, the Pro is the better machine to own.
Who it suits: people who drink a mix of espresso styles and want the least mess on the counter.
What you give up: nothing compared with the rest of the range, apart from the extra money.
Check Ninja Luxe Café Pro prices on Amazon UK
What owners say
4.0 out of 5 from 135 Amazon UK ratings (checked November 2026), 4.4 from 268 reviews at Currys and 4.5 from 883 reviews on Ninja UK, where 85% of 555 reviewers recommend it (checked October 2026).
- Owners who are happy with it praise the espresso and the milk from the steam and whisk system, and several moved up from bean-to-cup or pod machines without regret.
- The built-in tamping lever gets credit for a tidier workflow. One Ninja UK reviewer says it avoids the funnel problems some Premier owners describe.
- The main complaints are leaks or faults within weeks for a minority, a drip tray that fills quickly because the steam wand purges into it, a grind recommendation that changes from day to day, and a few reports of the finish chipping within months.
Who it seems to suit: people who drink a mix of espresso styles, want the least mess on the counter and can buy it on offer.
Mini Plus and Premier Plus: not sold on Amazon UK
The Mini Plus (ES352UK) is a Mini with automatic milk frothing. It makes sense if you want the small footprint but not the manual steam wand. The Premier Plus (ES655UK) is a Premier with a fifth froth preset and an XL froth jug. Neither is sold on Amazon UK: the Mini Plus costs about £495 at Ninja UK, and the Premier Plus about £600 at Ninja UK. At those prices the Premier Plus costs more than the Pro, so the Pro is the better buy unless you want the silver finish.
Owner feedback on these two is thinner. The Mini Plus has 4.9 out of 5 from 69 reviews on Ninja UK, most marked as incentivised; reviewers mainly praise its size and hands-free frothing and mention a small water tank and bean hopper. Ninja UK shows the Premier Plus at 4.5 from 1,603 reviews, but that total is pooled with the standard Premier, so the Premier notes above apply (checked October 2026).
Worth knowing before you buy
- These are not fully automatic bean-to-cup machines. You still lock in a portafilter and tamp. If you want one-button coffee with no handling at all, see our guide to the best bean-to-cup coffee machines.
- Also, descale regularly. In hard water areas, scale builds up fast. Use the included test kit to set how often the machine reminds you.
- Prices swing a lot. The Premier has sold for anywhere from about £480 to its £579.99 full price at Ninja UK, depending on colour and retailer. If you are not in a hurry, Ninja machines are usually discounted in the Black Friday sales.
- Beans matter more than the machine. Any of these will make disappointing coffee from stale supermarket beans. Buy freshly roasted beans and check our grind size chart if you are dialling in by hand.
Ninja Luxe Café or Sage Barista Express?
The Sage Barista Express is the machine most people cross-shop against the Ninja. It costs around £500 at the moment, has a built-in grinder and a manual steam wand, and has a long track record in UK kitchens. In short, the Sage suits people who want to learn espresso by hand. The Ninja Premier suits people who want the machine to do more of the thinking, especially with milk. Our best espresso machines guide covers more options.
Check Sage Barista Express prices on Amazon UK
What owners say
4.6 out of 5 from 2,575 Amazon UK ratings (checked November 2026), 4.5 from 809 reviews at Sage UK and 4.8 from 1,167 at Currys (checked October 2026).
- Long-term owners often report 5 to 10 years of daily use, which the newer Ninja range cannot show yet.
- Once dialled in, reviewers say it makes café-standard espresso, and a couple of Currys reviewers preferred it to a Ninja Luxe they had tried.
- The usual complaints are the learning curve (expect to use a few bags of beans getting the grind right), leaks after a year or more for some owners, and milk steaming that is slower than on newer machines.
Who it seems to suit: people who want to learn espresso by hand and value a long track record over automation.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Ninja Luxe Café a bean-to-cup machine?
Not in the usual sense. It grinds whole beans, but you still move the portafilter from the grinder to the group head and tamp. Fully automatic bean-to-cup machines do all of that internally.
Does the Ninja Luxe Café Mini make cold brew?
No. The Mini is a 2-in-1 machine for espresso and filter coffee. Cold brew is only on the Premier, Premier Plus and Pro.
What is the difference between the Ninja Luxe Café Premier and Pro?
The Pro adds more espresso styles (9 against 4), a fifth froth preset, an XL froth jug and a tamper built into the grinder. The core grinder, scale and brewing system are otherwise very similar.
Which Ninja Luxe Café is best for lattes?
Any model except the Mini, because they all froth milk automatically. The Premier is the best value choice for a daily latte.
The bottom line
For most UK kitchens, the Ninja Luxe Café Premier is the one to buy. Step down to the Mini if space and budget are tight and you are happy to steam milk yourself. Step up to the Pro only when it is on offer at close to the Premier’s price.
