Bamboo UMAI IH Rice Cooker

Brilliant rice cooker and steamer! Haven’t tried out the other functions yet but it is just what we were looking for. It is a more expensive model but worth it, as we have previously been let down by cheaper brands breaking after only a few months. It’s easy to use and clean. The perfect size to cook for a family. Really pleased with this purchase.

Brilliant rice maker. Easy yo use easy to clean and makes the nicest rice you will ever taste. Expensive but in my opinion its a very useful kitchen appliance which you only buy once

So, I took the plunge into Yum Asia's Bamboo Rice Cooker, and crikey, it's a kitchen rockstar! Total 5-star material right here. First off, using this thing is a piece of cake. The Motouch LED Display is like having a rice-cooking wizard at your fingertips. I mean, 7 rice cooking functions? 4 multicooker functions? It's basically the DJ Khaled of kitchen appliances - all it does is win! Cleaning? A doddle. The ceramic bowl pops right out, and the non-stick magic inside? Easy peasy cleanup. No more wrestling with stubborn rice bits - hallelujah! Now, the taste game. This combo of Induction Heating (IH) and Ceramic Bowl is like a tag team of flavour champions. The rice? Fluffy. The texture? Spot on. Compared to my old-school rice cooker, it's like trading up from black and white to HD colour. In a nutshell, this Yum Asia wonder is a 5-star MVP. If you're after a kitchen sidekick that's easy, tasty, and just darn awesome, this is the rice cooker you're looking for. Do yourself a flavour favour and snag one - you won't regret it! 🌟

I was skeptical of the GABA rice function, as I know this to take 3-21 hours to normally make the rice sprout, however, I am extremely impressed at the GABA function as it cooks brown rice into GABA in just 2.5-3hours! I can see little sprouts on my rice, and I was absolutely over the moon when I saw it. I came from the Sakura, I feel like it’s worth the extra money if you haven’t got it already, but not worth an upgrade, as I didn’t realise you trade the soup and yoghurt functions for the GABA and Yumami. That being said, this is a fantastic piece of kit and makes very tasty rice! The one main feature that I miss from the Sakura is the “finishing” time estimation bar. It was nice to know how much my rice cooker has done, even if it was just a loading bar style. However, the 10 minute timer still is there for when it is done. If you’re dubious of getting a rice cooker as you’re afraid you won’t use it - you absolutely will. I rarely ate rice before this (as british rice is atrocious) but I use the rice cooker at least twice a week now! I cannot rate YumAsia highly enough. A side note, I would also order via their website, as the delivery with amazon was atrocious, and they missed the delivery the first time, and then the second I was sent Christmas lights instead of the rice cooker and it was an ordeal to sort out a refund.

Pros: - Looks great on the counter - Cooks rice perfectly - The steamer insert works really well - Zero effort required - Minimal clean-up required - Lots of different modes/uses - Thoughtful details like plastic steamer, and handles on the jobu bowl. - Physical instruction booklet (no PDF or QR code) - The booklet is actually useful and helpful in so many ways! Cons: - Large footprint - Too many modes for what is basically heating grains in water - The machine can't tell you how long the cook will take (but the instruction booklet explains why, and provides guidelines) - Doesn't quite live up to the marketing hype I've been using this at least once a week for the last three months now. It took me a few tries to get it right initially. Even after figuring out how to get it to make rice the way I want it to; it still hasn't blown my mind or anything. I guess I fell for the marketing hype a little. I thought it was going to make plain white rice taste amazing somehow 😆 Don't get me wrong, it reliably makes great rice. But if I'd known that was all it was going to do... I probably would have gone with the Yum Asia Panda instead. The Bamboo is bigger and more expensive. I live alone, and don't eat a tonne of rice, so the Panda may have been a better choice for me. But I was bamboozled by all the options out there (if you'll pardon the pun), so decided to just get the best one I could afford. The Bamboo, with it's fancy Induction Heating, AI Smart Brain technology and extra tasty cooking modes won me over. In its defence, I have so far only used cheap, easy-cook white rice, which has been sitting in my cupboard for months. I'll try it with brown rice and jasmine rice. I'll report back if anything magical happens! As it stands currently though, it's a large, expensive unit. Even the minimum one cup of rice is actually enough to feed two people. It was probably a bad choice for me and my needs. Having said that, I do like this rice cooker! It looks beautiful, it works perfectly, it's easy to clean, and the instruction booklet is actually really useful! It might be a good choice for you. I also think this will replace my slow-cooker. Again, I went too big with the one I bought. The Bamboo though, is a great size for stews and soups etc. So I won't be sending this back. I feel bad leaving a review having only tried two of the many rice cooking options. But it'll be a while before I get to try them all! There are so many! I love the steam basket, and the option to have porridge ready for me in the morning could be a game-changer too! Check out my video and pictures for more detail. If this review helped you make the right decision for you and your needs, then please give it a thumbs up, or something 😉

First of all, I have to say this machine is fantastic. I know how to cook rice... and so does this machine. The only slight niggles I have are with the user guide and intuitiveness of the functions. More on that in a bit. Looking at some other comments, I have to say that some people need to understand that cooking rice is not a finite art. Every batch of rice can be subtly different. And growing conditions, climate, processing, transportation/handling can all make a huge difference - for example, grains can be broken by poor handling/shipping... converting them into short grain in extreme circumstances. Cooking/soaking times sometimes need to be adjusted for a bad (or particularly good) batch of rice. And rinsing/soaking can make a big difference. The bottom line is... if it's too sticky, reduce the amount of water by 5-10%. If it's not soft enough for you, increase the water a bit. There's no point in complaining and saying the rice is too sticky, saying you're following the guidelines religiously because they are just that... guidelines! In my experience this machine produces perfect rice with some fine (common sense) adjustments. I really cannot fault it. And no... I'm not on their payroll!!! But now down to the niggles.... What they don't explain in the manual is that the preset timings are basically the minimum time it takes to produce good/acceptable rice. If you use the timer function, the default time is the time it takes to produce perfect rice. For example, if you choose Gaba rice, the preset will cook it in 145 mins. If you choose Gaba and try to program the end time, the minimum it will allow you is 3.5 hours. This is because Gaba takes 2-3 hours of soaking at 40 deg before cooking to be "perfect". 145 mins total time is just about acceptable... unfortunately they don't explain this in the manual. Similarly, all other rices do benefit from a period of soaking before being cooked. This is not explained in the manual, but if you use the timer rather than the preset, the minimum time it will allow you is for the "perfect" result. Anyway, that's my main gripe. They really would benefit from getting someone in the UK to properly proof read their user guide, but it is actually OK. The only other minor gripes I suppose are that the buttons aren't always intuitive... things like the start/power button not doing what you'd expect, and pressing cancel to start it; and the lack of a countdown timer - OK, timings can only be approximate, but even a vague idea would be better than a constantly spinning circle. But overall I'm very pleased and it does cook rice well and consistently.

I've had this rice cooker about two weeks so this review represents just my initial impressions - which are extremely positive. The unit arrived very well packaged and includes a substantial manual which includes a few recipes. Even before unboxing this thing give an unmistakable impression of quality. The look and feel of the rice maker once unpacked is top quality. This is my first rice cooker (previously I've always used the tried and tested stove top method - either boiling in a pan or using a basic steamer to get the job done). Using the Bamboo rice cooker has been a revelation. I spent the first couple of days experimenting with rice / water ratios to get the result I personally wanted. Once that was done everything is set and the result: the cooked rice is outstanding. I've only cooked Basmati rice so far - using the standard setting (which takes about 30 minutes including 10 minutes standing time) and I've used the Yumami setting which takes about 1 hour. I've also tried Yumasia premium Basmati as well as my usual Costco variety. All I can say is - perfect rice every time and (big bonus) absolutely no mess whatsoever. An easy 5 stars IMHO.

Bought this for our son and his partner for Christmas. They both love it as apparently not only is it a rice cooker but a steamer and slow cooker. it arrived very quickly and was packaged very well. Definitely 5 stars from them