Waffle fries? No but sort of. Still 5 stars.
Ever read some reviews and wonder if people are reviewing the item you're looking at and if they read the manual? Forget about the reviews that say it leaves black plastic bits in their food. There's an arrow showing how to face the food spear/holder. That plastic is from them using it exactly 180 degrees off the way it is designed to work.Doesn't save time? I guess if you have almost Gordon Ramsay knife skills, sure. I don't. This thing is sharp. It cuts clean and fast. Need consistent cuts? Near perfect. For dehydrating foods, this assures every piece is dried to the same degree. A knife pro may be able to cut single slices faster, but twist the lower blade to julienne or to french fries and this mandoline will absolutely smoke them. If there's large quantities of cutting to be done, I'll use this hands down (but fingers UP! It's seriously sharp. Missing finger sharp).Clean up may take longer than washing a knife but the stainless steel cleans easily and with the included brush, getting between the lower blades is easy.While this is fun to try "fancy" foods, the food holder spikes do not allow for full cutting of your food. Once you get down to what could be the last slice, the holder slips off the food and won't cut it. The tolerances are just too tight. I dislike wasting food. I won't even suggest how I work around it, because it's dangerous and stupid. Just know there will be some waste unless you get a knife out to not have any waste.After 3 years this is still better than razor sharp on the original blades and going strong. I've had zero problems with its functionality.I'd like to add 2 things:1) Be careful how you store and pick this up. Even with the blade guard on the flat blade, the wavy blade is still exposed underneath and out of sight. Grabbing it from the business end could lead to injury. I cut myself not once, but twice immediately after the first cut reaching inside the drawer to get it out. Why? Because the initial cut was so sharp, the pain didn't register until I had already used the other hand (thinking the first was a pinch and a fluke) to try to grab it again. Always store this where the handle is what you reach for.2) The description says it will cut waffle fries. No and sort of. If you imagine the perfect waffle fry or search for images, this will not do that. If it can, I have yet to figure out how. What I get is a very thin version of a waffle fry so technically it's possible. The key is pressure. After the first cut, you turn the food 180 degrees and press SLIGHTLY to achieve the waffle holes you're looking for. It took practice. If you just want waffles without the holes it's easily done at any thickness. But is that really a waffle fry? The depth of the "crinkle cut" blade just isn't deep enough to make them efficiently.