Breville Bambino Plus (BES500) Review

The Bambino Plus is for the buyer who has already decided they want realespresso — 9 bar at the puck, pre-infusion, a proper portafilter — but whose actual daily drink is milk-based, and who would rather not spend weeks learning to steam. That describes a lot of people. Steaming milk to smooth, glossy microfoam is the single skill most new espresso owners struggle with, and it is where home lattes most often go wrong. The Plus removes that hurdle: you set a temperature and a texture, tuck the wand into the pitcher, and it does the rest. For a household that wants a consistent cappuccino every morning with no fuss, that is exactly the right trade.

It is the wrong machine for two kinds of buyer. First, anyone who mostly drinks straight espresso and is happy to learn the wand: you would be paying for automation you rarely use, and the base Breville Bambinopulls the identical shot for less. Second, anyone shopping purely on price who is willing to steam by hand — again, the base model is the value play. We lay the two side by side in our Bambino vs Bambino Plus comparison, and the decision really does come down to one question: do you want to steam milk yourself, or have the machine do it?

The headline is the milk system, but it is worth being clear about how much of this machine is shared with the base Bambino, because it is most of it. Both use Breville's ThermoJet heater, which reaches extraction temperature in about three seconds— the single feature that keeps people brewing daily rather than giving up on a slow warm-up. Both run a real 54mm portafilter, both use a 15-bar Italian pump that delivers 9 bar at the puck, and both apply low-pressure pre-infusion that gently wets the coffee before full pressure for a more even extraction.

Where the Plus separates itself is the three-line list at the bottom of that table. The automatic steam wand offers three milk temperatures and three texture levels, and it keeps a manual mode alongside them. The water tanksteps up from the base model's 47 oz / 1.4 L to a larger 64 oz / 1.9 L, which matters more than it sounds when steaming milk draws on the same reservoir. And a 3-way solenoid valvereleases brew pressure the instant the shot ends, so the used puck comes out drier and the portafilter doesn't spray when you unlock it. None of these change the espresso; all of them change how hands-off and tidy the machine feels day to day.

This is the feature you are buying, so it deserves the detail. On the base Bambino you steam milk with a manual wand: you judge temperature by touch, build microfoam by ear, and stop at the right moment yourself. It is a genuine skill and a rewarding one, but it takes practice. The Plus's automatic wand sidesteps all of that. You pick one of three temperatures and three textures, drop the wand into the pitcher, and the machine heats and stretches the milk to that target and shuts off — no thermometer, no listening for the hiss to change, no guesswork. The result is repeatable microfoam you can pour into a latte or cappuccino on your first try, and again identically the next morning.

The honest trade-off is control. An automatic wand hits a target; a practiced hand adjusts continuously — nudging the pitcher, stretching a touch more, chasing the exact glossy texture for pour after pour. If latte art and fine command matter to you long term, the auto wand will feel like it is doing 80% of the job perfectly and leaving the last 20% out of your hands. The good news is that Breville left manual steaming on the Plus too, so you can flip to hand control and learn the skill on the exact same machine whenever you want. New to it? Our how to steam milk guide walks through doing it by hand, and it is the reason the Plus is our top pick in the best latte machine roundup.

Two things define daily life with the Bambino Plus beyond the wand. The first is speed. The ThermoJet heater means espresso is a two-minute affair, not a ten-minute one — you are not waiting for a boiler before you can practice or brew, which is the quiet reason people keep using a Bambino instead of letting it gather dust. The main trade-off is the single thermocoil: you brew first, then steam, rather than doing both at once. For one or two milk drinks that is a beat of waiting; for a household making several back to back, a dual-boiler machine would be quicker, and the larger 64 oz tank on the Plus is partly there to keep those back-to-back mornings from running dry.

The second is cleanup. The 3-way solenoid valve drops a firm, dry puck you can knock straight into the bin, and the portafilter doesn't "sneeze" a spray of grounds and water when you twist it off — a small thing that owners of the base model notice by its absence. The footprint is tiny, stainless-fronted and fits almost any counter. The honest gripe here is the same as on the base Bambino: the drip tray is small and fills quickly if you are also emptying steaming water into it, so you will empty it more often than on a bigger machine.

The Bambino Plus has no built-in grinder, and it will only ever be as good as what feeds it. Espresso is made by forcing water through a tightly packed puck at 9 bar, and that only works well with a grind that is fine, even and adjustable in small steps. With the included pressurized (dual-wall) basket and pre-ground coffee, the Plus makes fine cafe-style drinks; with the non-pressurized basket and a proper burr grinder, it makes genuinely excellent espresso. If you buy the machine and skimp on the grinder, you will blame the Bambino for what is really a grind problem.

The most obvious alternative is the machine this one is based on. If you are happy to learn to steam by hand, the base Breville Bambino pulls the identical shot for less, and that saving is far better spent on the grinder. The full head-to-head is in our Bambino vs Bambino Plus comparison — if you find you don't need the automatic wand, buy the base model and pocket the difference.

If you'd rather not buy a separate grinder at all, the step up is the Breville Barista Express, which builds a conical burr grinder into a very similar espresso engine so the whole setup is one box; we compare it directly to the little machine in Barista Express vs Bambino. And if milk drinks specifically are the whole point, see where the Plus sits against one-touch and bean-to-cup rivals in our best latte machine guide. The rule stays the same across all of them: match the machine to how much of the work you actually want to do yourself, then spend real money on the grinder.

The Breville Bambino Plus is the machine we recommend to anyone whose home-espresso dream is really a milk-drink dream. It takes the base Bambino's excellent, fast, consistent espresso engine and adds the one thing that trips up most beginners — steaming milk — solving it with an automatic wand that delivers repeatable microfoam at the press of a button, plus a bigger tank and a drier puck for good measure. The catch is honest and small: it costs more than the base model despite pulling the identical shot, the single thermocoil means brew-then-steam, and the auto wand trades fine control for ease. Go in knowing you still need a real grinder, and that you are paying for convenience rather than better espresso, and the Plus is one of the easiest home lattes you can buy.