We’ve Tried Every Product from Our Place: Here’s What the Bad Reviews Get Wrong

Tyler Schoeber and Taylor Galla
·6 min read

If there’s anything we’ve fallen in love with over the course of the past few years, it’s Our Place, the cookware brand that’s modernized the way we chef it up in 2022. From their iconic, best-selling Always Pan to their deep, gorgeous Perfect Pot and even their brand-new Ovenware Set, we’ve been using Our Place’s growing line of kitchen essentials with little to no issue. We’ve published a few positive Our Place reviews over the years, and they make frequent appearances in our holiday gift guides.

Our Place is one of the many new direct-to-consumer brands catering to urban professionals and young people with a design-first attitude and slick aesthetic. In 2020 and 2021, Our Place was one of the internet’s favorite DTC brands. And if you’re familiar with how the internet works, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that there’s now an Our Place backlash brewing in 2022. There are a few notable Our Place Always Pan reviews in particular that have cast doubt on the brand’s reputation.

Today's Top Deals

Wirecutter released an article last year claiming that the Always Pan was “not worth the hype,” Bustle claims they’ve never been able to get a nice browning on meat and CNN (in addition to many other Always Pan reviews) can’t help but mention how the Always Pan can’t go into the oven.

Here’s the thing: Our Place’s line of cookware products isn’t perfect, but nothing is perfect. You win some, you lose some — and it’s safe to say Our Place is winning more than it is losing.

Our Place’s two biggest fans exist right on the SPY team. While our E-Commerce & Special Projects Editor Tyler Schoeber has been using his Always Pan for about a year, our Senior E-Commerce Editor Taylor Galla has been cooking with hers multiple times a day since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Results from cooking with this pan almost daily are the same on both ends: the pan is essentially as good as new.

Keep reading for our editors’ updated Our Place reviews.

Our Place Always Pan

Price: $108.00 (orig. $145.00) 26% OFF
Buy Now

  

Our Place Always Pan: Our Review(s)

In our original review of the Always Pan, published in September 2020, we said “This pan lives up to all the expectations and is definitely worth the purchase. That goes double if you’ve got limited kitchen space and need a pan that does nearly everything.” After spending another 18 months with this product, our opinion hasn’t changed. The Always Pan is just as magic as it claims to be, even if the home chefs at The New York Times and some pretensious Our Place Always Pan reviews may disagree.

The Always Pan was designed to replace your fry pan, sauté pan, steamer, skillet, saucier, saucepan, nonstick pan, spatula and spoon rest. Both Tyler and Taylor can attest to these claims completely.

There may be drawbacks, yes. The steamer isn’t the best due to the small amount of water you can use, but it works. Taylor isn’t the biggest fan of the spoon rest because you can’t use it while cooking with high heat, but Tyler loves it when simmering sauces.

always pan review
always pan review

In addition, we’ve noticed a lot of criticism against the Always Pan because it cannot go in the oven. Our Place never claimed that it could go in the oven. So, what’s the problem? They sell plenty of other pans, bakeware and accessories that can.

Taylor’s favorite thing about her Always Pan? It still looks new even after years of use. Because most Always Pan reviews were published after just a few weeks of testing, this is one aspect you may not read about in other reviews, but it’s a great benefit of Our Place’s design-forward approach to cookware.

“During the pandemic, we used our Always Pan every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I’ve sauteéd, steamed, seared meats and scrambled eggs in this thing hundreds of times, and while the nonstick isn’t what it used to be, it still scrubs clean every time. It’s easier to clean than all my other pans, it still looks fantastic sitting on my stove, especially next to the Perfect Pot, and as soon as this one breaks on me, I’m definitely buying a new one,” said Taylor.

So should you buy the Our Place Always Pan?

Unless you’re an extremely experienced home chef who wants the perfect tool for every task in the kitchen, then we say yes, absolutely. If you’re searching for a kitchen gift for someone who’s still stocking their kitchen, we say yes.

  

Our Place Perfect Pot

Price: $123.00 (orig. $165.00) 25% OFF
Buy Now

  

The Perfect Pot — Is It Actually Perfect?

In addition to the Always Pan, both team members have been cooking with Our Place’s Perfect Pot for almost the same time. While they don’t use it as frequently as their Always Pans, the Perfect Pot is a modern kitchen staple made to rest gorgeously on your counter with the ability to replace your stockpot, dutch oven, saucepot, roasting rack, steamer, strainer, braiser and spoon rest.

Unlike the Always Pan, this one can go in the oven and has become one of the best dutch ovens we’ve ever owned. It’s got a massive interior and has kept its bright, bashfully-colored exterior no matter how many times we’ve used it. Like the Always Pan, it will never be the last piece of cookware you’ll ever use, but it comes close.

The Perfect Pot’s most impressive ability is the nonstick interior. Soups, pasta sauces and stews slide out of this thing, and it’s one of the easiest pots to clean in the world. You can find Taylor’s full review of the Perfect Pot here, but as a summary: It’s as worth the money as the Always Pan.

  

Our Place Perfect Pot & Always Pan
Our Place Perfect Pot & Always Pan

The Verdict: Should You Buy Our Place Cookware? Yes

Here’s the thing: Because Our Place has so many claims on each of these products being “replacements” for everything else in your kitchen, people take that word too literally. Our Place understands that, sometimes, you’ve got multiple burners going, something’s baking in the oven, and you’re prepping a salad all at the same time. You cannot use one pan to braise and boil simultaneously — but you can use their cookware for different purposes at different times, and they will perform highly within each one. You can fry your eggs in the morning, sauté your veggies for lunch and sear a steak for dinner, and it’ll do all those things well. And the scrubbing between each job won’t give you a kink in your elbow.

You cannot use any pan for all that. Our Place is not a brand that simplifies all of your cooking needs; it’s a brand creating modernized, visually-appealing cookware products that work. 

Let’s leave the Our Place slander in the past. Our Place is evolving the way we cook on a day-to-day basis, and we cannot wait to see what they continue to do with their line of cookware in the future. Plus, just about anything from Our Place will make one of the most thoughtful Christmas gifts you can purchase this year. Just imagine the smile on your giftee’s face when they open up a bright blue pan. They’ll want to get cooking right away.

  

More Top Deals from SPY

Best of SPY

Click here to read the full article.