Ninja Luxe Café vs. Bambino Plus vs. Casabrews

This is the real choice here. The grinder matters at least as much as the machine for espresso, and the three handle it in three different ways.

• Ninja: built in. Per Ninja’s ES601 FAQ, the grinder has stainless steel conical burrs and 25 settings, and it is not detachable. A built-in scale grinds to a weight (about 18 g for a double), and “Barista Assist” suggests a grind setting after each shot. Convenient, but you cannot upgrade or replace the grinder on its own. Ninja’s FAQ also says the machine works with whole beans only.
• Bambino Plus: separate. It has no grinder. To brew fresh beans in the single-wall baskets you need a grinder that can grind fine enough for espresso, which usually means one with fine steps or stepless adjustment. Our grinder guide for the Bambino covers the options.
• Casabrews CM5418: none needed to start. It ships with dual-wall (pressurized) baskets, per Casabrews, so pre-ground coffee works. A good grinder helps less here, because the pressurized basket does much of the work.

r/espresso commenters usually advise a separate machine and grinder over an all-in-one, mainly because you can upgrade each part (example thread). One Ninja owner who roasts at home wrote that the built-in grinder is “just fine” past medium roast but “crazy inconsistent” on lighter roasts, and asked which grinder to add (r/espresso). That is one owner’s experience, not a measurement. Our quiz never pairs a built-in-grinder machine with a second grinder. Ninja doesn’t say its brew settings support coffee from another grinder.

A pressurized (dual-wall) basket builds pressure in the basket itself, so a shot works with pre-ground or uneven coffee. A single-wall basket relies on the grind, so it can do more with fresh, well-ground beans, but it needs a capable grinder. Breville’s Bambino manual says to use its dual-wall baskets for pre-ground coffee and the single-wall ones for freshly ground beans.

• Bambino Plus: both kinds, 1- and 2-cup, per Breville. Start on pre-ground and move to single-wall baskets when you buy a grinder.
• Casabrews CM5418: two dual-wall baskets only, with a 51 mm portafilter, per Casabrews. Casabrews sells a 51 mm bottomless portafilter separately ($45 on its store, Oct 29, 2026). One owner who upgraded to one, with a separate grinder, says they pull good shots but finds the machine’s pressure inconsistent (r/espresso).
• Ninja: Ninja’s pages list Single, Double and Luxe (quad and coffee) baskets but don’t say whether they are pressurized. An independent review (Tom’s Coffee Corner) says they are standard non-pressurized baskets. The US box has the Double and Luxe baskets. The Single basket is sold separately ($19.95 at Ninja, Oct 29, 2026).

• Ninja: a hands-free frother (“Dual Froth System”) that steams and whisks in its own jug, with four presets: steamed, thin, thick and cold foam. It handles dairy and plant milks, per Ninja. Ninja’s FAQ puts froth temperature at 65–75 °C and says you can’t brew and froth at the same time, but you can queue the froth to start after the shot. The manual also has a manual frothing mode.
• Bambino Plus: an automatic steam wand with three temperatures and three textures, which you can also use by hand, per Breville. Automatic mode relies on a jug temperature sensor on the drip tray, per Breville’s manual. We collected owner reports of that sensor failing on our Bambino vs. Bambino Plus page.
• Casabrews CM5418: a manual stainless steam wand. You learn to texture milk yourself. Casabrews’ own troubleshooting says that if you brew right after steaming, you should run the hot-water function first to cool the heater (Casabrews). So a latte means one extra step between milk and the next shot.

• We have not used these machines. Everything here comes from the makers’ pages, manuals and FAQs, retailer listings, one independent review and owner posts.
• No reliability data. None of the makers publish failure rates, and we haven’t found any. Owner posts are anecdotes. One Ninja owner says a small hopper part broke within a month, and Ninja wanted the whole machine back instead of sending the part (r/espresso). Another returned theirs because every shot tasted bitter. Ninja called it a grinder and volume fault and is sending a replacement (r/espresso).
• Warranty. Ninja’s US page lists one year, Breville’s US page lists two years for the Bambino Plus, and Casabrews lists one year.
• Unpublished specs. Ninja doesn’t publish pump type, warm-up time or a usable weight. Its FAQ gives the portafilter as 54 mm, while a reviewer and an accessory maker say 53 mm, so check before you buy 54 mm accessories. Casabrews doesn’t publish the CM5418’s weight or pump type.
• Other Casabrews models. Casabrews also sells the Ultra Pro ($299.99) and the Marenza ($349.99). The Marenza has a built-in 30-setting conical grinder and a 58 mm portafilter, per Casabrews. We have not added either to our list yet.