Breville Cafe Roma ESP8XL Espresso Machine

We bought the Breville Cafe Roma in hopes that it would be more beautiful(which it was), than our old machine, faster(maybe a little), better tasting espresso (not)and we were disappointed. It did look good, all metal housing, the one we had was red and chrome - very stylish...however that is where the love affair ended! There is only one extrememly tiny hole in the filter, so it constantly gets clogged up with all the pressure pushing the water through the grinds and that one hole. They even supply a cleaning tool (a little pin thing) to clean out the one hole, but unfortunately by the time you find that it has clogged YET AGAIN you are in the middle of trying to make an espresso, and have to take it all apart, throw out the half used coffee grounds, and start all over again. No matter how the coffee is ground, unless of course you had it too coarse to begin with, it would ultimately clog at some point.
Also the so called "vibra pump" is just plain embarrassing! Switch it on to froth, and it starts to ka-thump ka-thump ka-thump loudly through the entire frothing process. The whole thing is a pain - espresso was fairly good tasting and froth was good, but not worth the money or the noise and the clogging.

The Breville Cafe Roma ESP8XL makes a great cup of espresso. I am enjoying one as I write. It is a good looking machine, user friendly, designed for making up to several cups at a time, good value, and tech support is great. Two tricks that I learned. One, let the machine warm up well before using. Two, avoid very finely ground beans. They plug it up.

My husband researched espresso machines fairly extensively before choosing this model to replace his 1st espresso maker, which was well used & worn out. After using theBreville Espresso Maker for the past few weeks, he is extremely pleased with it. The speed with which the espresso is brewed is so much faster than his previous home model, and the warmer on top of the unit is a nice bonus feature. Everything about the machine works just as it was advertised! For a mid-priced espresso maker, it is a great value for the dollar.

The machine is easy to use and makes great espresso. The Breville company is excellent to deal with and has super customer service. I bought this model based on my research on it and the company.