Customer Ratings & Reviews

I'm still sort of new to using an espresso machine and over just making a pot of drip coffee but I've been working my way up. Starting with a nespresso pod, then moving to a low end "real" espresso machine and now I'm feeling like I'm pretty fancy with this one. This machine is nice. It feels like most everything was thought out and it makes good coffee. And best of all, it's not super hard to use. Setup is the part that feels the most daunting if you aren't experienced with these machines. There's a lot of parts and it looks overwhelming pulling each piece out of the box. But a quick read through the quick start guide was enough for me to realize it wasn't really that much. It just looks like a lot. There's a really simple "your first time" step that just walks you through what I assume clears the pipes and gets the maker ready for the real stuff. That's about all you need for setup. Plug in and follow the fairly simple quick start guide. My favorite part of this is the included grinder. It still tells you to only put as many beans in as you intend to use which is going to take me some time to figure out (my first time, I just filled up the bean grinder before reading that part) but after you select single or double and adjust the coarseness you just put the wand with the guide attached in and it fills up a perfect amount of coffee for you. Move everything over to the tamper (with an included mat to help) and tamp it down. Every shot I've made has looked exactly the same after tamping the coffee down. One of the big things I didn't love about my mid range espresso maker was grinding up the coffee myself and then having to guess how much I'd need to put in the strainer. I felt like every cup was just a little different. This feels not only easier because it's mostly automatic but much more consistent which I love. Pulling the shot is just as simple. There's a guide which tells you what settings to use for each different kind of roast so it's mostly ready to go from there but you can adjust a little bit depending on taste or if things aren't coming out exactly right for you. There's even documentation about what a good and bad pour should look like and what steps you can take to improve your next one. It's a process that you'll just get better at over time if you aren't experienced but it didn't feel like it took very long to feel happy with my pulls on this maker. The steamer seems to work well but I don't feel like I'm good enough at it yet. It doesn't come out bad but I haven't nailed down consistency yet. Each cup is better or worse. The guide does have more documentation about how to steam the milk so it's very helpful in guiding you down the right path at least. I'll get better over time. Cleanup is pretty easy. Just make sure to wipe down the steamer as soon as you're down with it and then everything else just rinses off for the most part. Another thing I didn't love about my old espresso maker was that I always had to dig the coffee out of the portafilter. I'm sure it was something to do with how I was pulling my shots but I could never get a perfect puck to just pop out after brewing. This bad boy has been 100%. Every cup I've made, I've been able to knock the portafilter once and out pops a perfect puck with a mostly clean portafilter. Very satisfying. The only issue I had was that the portafilter had the double shot cup pre-installed and it's... in there. I wasn't sure how to get it out so I could make sure I completely clean it out. A little Googling and I discovered that you just use the other filter cup to pry the installed out one. It wasn't too hard to remove and reinstall after figuring that out but for as nice as I thought the documentation for the whole maker was, that one piece of information would have been nice to have. Overall, I have nothing bad to say about this espresso maker. It's not cheap but it does feel like a really huge leap in quality over my more mid-range espresso maker (which I also didn't think was super cheap). Everything is pretty streamlined and works very well. Everything is easy to clean up. The coffee it makes is really good. If I had to reach for something to say, it would be about some of the terminology I don't fully understand yet but that's not a shortcoming of this machine, it's just something I'll learn over time. I definitely recommend this espresso maker if you have the budget for it and you're looking to get out of the low to mid tier of coffee/espresso makers. This machine has been a delight to use.

I bought this machine for my gf as a Christmas gift. We used the machine for about two weeks before it literally un alived itself. Something electrical went haywire. To top it all off De sucky has terrible customer service and has yet to even attempt to reslove the situation. Just stick to breville please.

I love it! I am still learning how to make Starbucks and Dutch bros lattee receipe but they are getting there. Love that it comes with a grinder setting and booklet!

Love it Have the different one does everything for u Like it but when i decide to get this one fell for it n return the other one. The taste is better

Only had this machine since July and it has stopped making coffee! Bought it brand new and it stopped working approx 3 months after I received it! I’ve cleaned it the correct way several time and it does not work!

As a coffee aficionado, a good espresso always makes my day. However with the busy morning schedule, it was only during some weekends when I could gather some time and make proper espresso. Even though I had a good grinder and a decent espresso machine, I still had to go through some hoops before I could get everything perfect. Enter La Specialista Arte from Delonghi which easily replaced a number of my existing machines. It is an espresso maker designed to make 1 thing very efficiently - espresso! Combining a grinder and the espresso maker in a very tight footprint not only saved up a lot of my counter space, but also made this a one-stop-job. The grind size and dosing ensures that I am getting a consistent amount of coffee every time, and the inclusion of a dosing funnel helps to keep things clean. A tamper and a tamping “mat” or holder is also there to further streamline the process. Thus the whole process simplifies to 1. Grind coffee using the grind size, dosing, and shot size control, tamp it down, and then get the portafilter attached and start brewing. Of course I needed to fill-up the detachable water tank first. The design of La Specialista is clean without looking mundane. I wish the use of “chrome-accented” plastic was less, but overall it didn’t look too out of place in my kitchen. The knobs are gnarled and look premium and the buttons, though not very tactile, were good enough. An analog “manometer” shows the pressure of the espresso pump. Overall it’s a well designed appliance, and I only wish more metal parts were used instead of shiny plastic. The La Specialista comes with a handy assortment of accessories. The metal portafilter comes with 2 basket sizes, each “bottomless” type. However the portafilter itself is spouted like a traditional one. For dosing tamping, the aforementioned tamper is quite heavy-duty, and the dosing funnel is easy to put on-or-off. The tamping mat is actually small and is more for hoding things together. Furthermore, a filter cleaning tip is also included. The nice thing is there’s a small cubby on the top to store some of these accessories and help keep the items tidy. The detachable water filter holds around 2.5 liter of water, but does not include a filter. A water hardness strip is there to help reconfigure the machine’s cleaning cycle with the water in the particular area. No home espresso machine is complete without a frother and La Specialista does that part graciously. The special frother wand supposedly makes latte art easy, but I’m yet to master that skill. A frothing jug is included to make steamed milk when I’m in need of some latte or cappuccino. The controls are mostly straight-forward and intuitive, except the “OK” button - I would rather have it labeled something like “Brew” or “Start”. A power button in the side keeps it awake when needed - I rarely turned it off since I started using it daily. Apart from the grinder controls, there’s a button to select from 3 levels of water temperature, and a dial to select between Espresso, Americano, and Hot Water. The dial can also be used to start the descaling cycle. A separate button operates the steam wand. As for indicators, 2 lights are there to indicate empty water tank, or descaling reminder respectively. And apart from the portafilter for coffee, a separate small spout, which is unfortunately unmoveable, is there for hot water. This helps with making Americano very convenient, and doubles as a hot water dispenser when I need some for tea. As for operation and performance, except the typical pump house, the machine works quite fast. Once I was able to dial in the correct grind size, dosing and temperature, I was getting my espresso or americano really consistently. I needed a few trial and errors at the beginning, but that’s the experience you need to go through to get great tasting coffee. I made some cappuccino for my friends as well and that turned out pretty well. All in all, I am really pleased and satisfied with the La Specialista. It is definitely not the cheapest machine out there, but it provides a convenient package to upgrade the home barista skill. If espresso is the drink you’re after, this makes a lot of sense.

We had the 2000 dollar breville oracle and hated it. We downgraded to this and loved it. Really nice crema and consistent unlike the breville

Expresso Machine is great we purchase this machine for christmas , it was excellent finally fresh strong coffee

It’s good but the buttons to switch to different kind of coffee goes out

Purchased as a gift, they were thrilled. Makes coffee shop quality americano!

This is the second one and it showing the same problem. There is plant of water and coffee in the espresso machine and the light that is empty is on.

It's started giving problems trying to clean the machine the second time. Luckly it has two year warranty.

So far so gooooooood! I am hoping to learn all of the amazing features.

So far everything works and makes a great coffee. I don’t like the water tank location and size but it is what it is.

This espresso machine is super good. Super good in home and office

this was a good investment throughout my entire life savings

It came well-boxed, with very little setup, and no assembly needed. A quick pre-wash and drying of the various components later and we were off to the espresso races with some clear and easy-to-follow quickstart instructions (this is a tank-based system, no need to hook it up to plumbing like with some of the more exotic systems). My former-barista wife, who has a very high standard for espresso, was really surprised and pleased by the quality of the end result (including the frothed milk)! Cleanup was a piece of cake as well, though some common sense does help in being a bit more competent than what's spelled out by the documentation. I really liked the built-in grinder in particular for convenience and the package comes with a funnel to assist with the grinding and tamping process (tamper and tamping mat also included, as well as single and double espresso baskets). There are only a handful of settings for using the machine, whether to grind a single shot's worth or a double, a brew strength dial, and whether you want an espresso, an americano, or hot water, so they really make it easy. It's hard to go wrong with this thing and I can tell we're going to get a lot of good use out of this in the coming days.

Seems perfect for husband's Christmas gift this year.

Declining light popup every 4-5 days i,m not using this machine that much up two tree coffee a day

My espresso machine is stuck in water mode . I have less then six months with it is there any warranty by the manufacturer?