I have a confession: for most of my adult life, breakfast was something that happened to me rather than something I actually enjoyed.
My name is Priya Nambiar. I'm a freelance illustrator based in Bristol, and my mornings used to follow a very predictable script: alarm, snooze, alarm again, coffee, toast, laptop. Repeat. It wasn't miserable exactly — but it wasn't anything either. Breakfast was just the gap between waking up and actually starting the day.
That changed about four months ago, and the reason is sitting on my kitchen counter right now, plugged in and ready to go.
The Sunday That Started It All
It was a slow February Sunday. My niece Asha, who is seven and has very strong opinions about everything, was staying for the weekend. She'd seen something on a cooking show about heart-shaped waffles and had been talking about them with the kind of intensity that only a seven-year-old can sustain for a full 48 hours.
I didn't have a waffle maker. I'd never really thought about owning one. But standing in my kitchen at 8am with Asha looking at me with absolute faith that I could produce heart-shaped waffles from thin air, I made a decision.
I grabbed my phone and started looking.
Why I Chose the Bestron Heart Waffle Maker
I'll be upfront: I wasn't looking to spend a fortune. I live in a one-bedroom flat with a kitchen that is, diplomatically speaking, cosy. Counter space is precious. Storage is a puzzle I solve daily. Whatever I bought needed to earn its place.
After about twenty minutes of reading, I landed on the Bestron ASW217BBS Heart Waffle Maker. A few things stood out immediately:
The non-stick alloy steel coating meant I wasn't going to spend my Sunday morning chiselling batter off a plate. The heat-insulated housing meant Asha could be nearby without me hovering anxiously. The automatic temperature control with indicator lights meant I didn't need to guess — it would simply tell me when it was ready. And at just 25.5 x 25 x 9.5 cm with built-in cable storage, it was genuinely compact. It would fit. It would work. It was £34.93.
I ordered it. It arrived the next morning.
The First Batch
Asha had gone home by the time it arrived, which was genuinely disappointing — but I tested it that same evening with a simple batter I found online. The indicator light told me when it was preheated. I poured in the batter, closed the lid, and waited.
Five heart-shaped waffles. Golden, perfectly formed, and they lifted off the plate without a single tear. I stood in my kitchen eating one straight off the iron and felt, absurdly, quite pleased with myself.
The cleanup took about two minutes. A damp cloth, done.
Four Months Later
Here's what I didn't expect: I use it almost every weekend now. Not just for Asha's visits — for myself. There's something about the ritual of it that I've come to genuinely look forward to. Mixing the batter the night before, the smell of it cooking in the morning, sitting down with a proper plate of food before I open my laptop.
It sounds small. It is small. But it shifted something in how I think about mornings. Breakfast stopped being a gap and started being a moment.
The non-stick surface has held up beautifully through dozens of uses. The temperature control is consistent — I've never had a burnt batch. And it still tucks away neatly in the cupboard when I'm not using it, which in a flat this size matters more than I can say.
Asha, for the record, has now had her heart-shaped waffles. She declared them "the best thing ever made." I'm inclined to agree.
Is It Worth It?
For under £35, absolutely. If you've been eating uninspiring breakfasts out of habit, or you want something that makes weekend mornings feel a little more intentional — or you simply need to deliver heart-shaped waffles to a very determined seven-year-old — this is the appliance to do it.
You can find the Bestron ASW217BBS Heart Waffle Maker at ALTOE. It's listed in the Latest Products collection, and also sits in Home & Garden, Toasters & Grills, and Waffle Irons.
Go on. Your mornings deserve better.
— Priya Nambiar, Bristol
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