Great deal for the money.

Author's Rating:

Pros: Simple to use. It feels like a heavy-duty machine and looks beautiful.

Cons: I cannot see the water level and that is frustrating.

The Bottom Line: 
I would buy it again. The price is great and the quality if excellent.

Author's Review
The Breville ESP8XL is my third espresso machine. My first was a Krups and did me just fine for a few years. I did some research and decided to try a bottom-of-the-line Saeco Via Viento. Oh my, what a mistake. That was and I am sure will always be the worst choice I have ever made. It did make a good cup of espresso and then the buck stopped there. There wasn't room to get the cup in the proper place in order to froth the milk so I had to take out the grid in order to make room. That alone is totally unacceptable to me. Then.....no matter what I did, the milk came out lukewarm at best. I had to zap it in the microwave. I could go on and on but I already did.

I bought the Breville ESP8XL about a week ago and what a pleasant surprise. First of all, due to the holidays I got a great price on it at our local Macy's....about $200.00. I couldn't even find it on line for that.

I brought it home, plugged it in and life has been great ever since. It is simple! It works! I had to make about three tries with the grind of the coffee and the proper tamping. In spite of what the instruction booklet says (tamp lightly), I found I got the best flavor by tamping as hard as I could. It's great.