Joseph Joseph Nest 9 Plus Review (2026): The Best Nesting Bowl Set for a Small Kitchen?

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The Short Version

The Joseph Joseph Nest 9 Plus is a nine-piece prep set (two mixing bowls, a colander, a sieve, and five snap-together measuring cups) engineered around a single design idea: when you’re done, the whole kit collapses into one tidy tower roughly 11 inches wide and 6 inches tall. For renters and anyone with a tight cabinet, that’s the entire pitch, and Joseph Joseph delivers on it cleanly. At around $40 to $55 depending on colorway, it’s one of the most honest small-kitchen buys I’ve researched: it does one thing very well, and it doesn’t pretend to be a heritage cookware investment.

Heads up: I haven’t bought this one personally yet. What follows is a research-based overview built from owner reports, retailer reviews, and spec analysis, not a hands-on review. I’ll update it once I’ve used the set in my own kitchen.

If you’re a heavy bread baker, you want glass for acidic foods, or you cook for a family of six, this isn’t the set for you. Read on for what to buy instead. For everyone else cooking in an apartment kitchen, this is the cult favorite for a reason.

What’s in the Set

The 9 Plus name refers to nine pieces, all engineered to nest together. Inside the box you get a 4.5-liter mixing bowl (about 4.75 quarts, the biggest piece and the one everything else stacks inside), a 3-liter colander, a 1.65-liter fine-mesh sieve, a 0.5-liter mini mixing bowl with interior measurement marks and a pouring spout, and a set of five snap-together measuring cups that range from 1 teaspoon up to 1 cup.

Materials are BPA-free polypropylene plastic, with a stainless-steel mesh on the sieve. The mixing bowls have wide carry handles and non-slip silicone bases, small touches that matter more than they sound when you’re whisking. Everything is dishwasher safe; the set is not microwave safe, which is the main trade-off of going plastic over glass.

Colorways from Joseph Joseph include Multicolor (the original, with bowls and cups in different shades, easy to grab the right size at a glance), Sage Green, Sky Blue, Opal, and Red. MSRP is $55 on the brand site; Amazon runs it $40 to $50 depending on color.

Why It’s a Small-Kitchen Win

Here’s the argument in one sentence: the Nest 9 Plus replaces nine separate items in your cabinet with one shape that’s about the size of a cantaloupe.

If you live in an apartment kitchen, you already know the math. A standard mixing bowl set takes up most of a shelf. Add a colander (usually awkwardly large and impossible to stack), and a sieve, and a measuring cup set with five pieces that immediately scatter, and you’ve burned a full cabinet on items you use for ten minutes a week. The Nest 9 Plus consolidates all of that into a single nested tower with published dimensions of roughly 28.5 x 28.5 x 14.5 cm, call it 11.25 inches wide and 5.75 inches tall. That fits inside most standard kitchen cabinets with room to spare, and it slots neatly onto an open shelf without looking like clutter.

The measuring cups are the underrated win. They snap together as a fan, which means you don’t lose the half-cup behind the rice bin three weeks after you bought the set. They click apart easily when you need a single size, and they re-snap by feel without looking. Tiny detail, real quality-of-life gain.

For renters, studio dwellers, and anyone counter-space-constrained, this is the rare product where the storage story is the actual product. Check price on Amazon →

What Owners Consistently Mention

Across owner reviews on Amazon, Target, Crate & Barrel, Wayfair, and Joseph Joseph’s own site, a few patterns repeat across hundreds of write-ups.

What buyers love. The space-saving claim is the headline, and it actually delivers. Owners consistently mention being shocked by how little real estate the nested tower takes up. Long-term durability is the second pattern: people who’ve owned the set for five, seven, even ten years routinely report it still going strong, with the polypropylene bowls handling daily dishwasher cycles without warping or cracking. The non-slip bases get specific praise from anyone who’s tried whisking in a flimsier bowl. And the measuring-cup design (the snap-together fan) shows up over and over as the small detail people didn’t expect to love.

What buyers flag. Three complaints recur honestly enough to call out. First, lighter colorways stain over time. Tomato sauce, turmeric, and curry pastes leave faint marks on the white and pale pieces that don’t fully wash out, even on a hot dishwasher cycle. The Multicolor and darker SKUs hide this almost completely; if you cook with a lot of pigmented ingredients, skip the white. Second, the measuring cups can pop loose from their snap-together stack if you’re rough with them or drop the cluster, most owners adapt within a week, but it’s a real friction point on day one. Third, the bowls are not large by serious-baker standards. The biggest is 4.5 liters; if you regularly mix a double batch of bread dough or whip cream for a crowd, you’ll outgrow it.

One note: Joseph Joseph also sells an all-stainless Nest line at a higher price. The 9 Plus reviewed here is the polypropylene set with a stainless sieve mesh. Make sure you’re buying the version you want.

When You Should NOT Buy This

This set is built for a specific person. If you’re not that person, save your money.

Heavy bread bakers. A 4.5-liter mixing bowl is fine for everyday baking, pancake batter, and a single loaf, but it’s tight for a big batch of brioche, a double sourdough, or anything where you need real elbow room to fold and knead. Serious home bakers will want a 6- to 8-quart bowl. The Nest 9 Plus is not a baker’s prep set; it’s a generalist’s prep set.

Anyone who wants glass. Polypropylene is light, dishwasher safe, and won’t shatter if you knock it off the counter, but it’s not microwave safe, it can stain over time with pigmented foods, and some cooks just prefer the look and feel of glass for acidic preparations like tomato sauce or vinaigrette. If you want to mix and microwave in the same bowl, or you want a bowl set that will look the same in ten years as it does today, glass is the right material and this isn’t it.

Large families and high-volume cooks. Two mixing bowls plus measuring cups is a prep kit for one or two cooks making meals for a household of two to four. If you’re cooking for six on weeknights, hosting often, or running a side baking business, you’ll want a deeper bench, multiple sizes of mixing bowl, dedicated prep bowls, the works. The Nest 9 Plus is a complete kit for a small kitchen, not a starter kit for a busy one.

How It Compares

The nesting bowl category has a few credible players, and the right pick depends on your kitchen, your cooking style, and how much weight you put on the storage story.

vs. OXO Good Grips Nesting Bowl Set (~$40 to $60): OXO’s Good Grips set is the most direct competitor, and it’s a strong product on its own merits, three or four bowls in stainless or plastic with the signature soft-grip non-slip bases. Where OXO wins: the bowls run larger (up to 5 quarts) and feel more substantial in the hand. Where Joseph Joseph wins: it’s a complete prep kit, not just bowls, you also get the colander, sieve, and measuring cups in the same nested footprint, which OXO doesn’t bundle. If you already own a colander and measuring cups you like, OXO’s bowls-only set is reasonable. If you’re starting from zero in a new kitchen, the Joseph Joseph set replaces more items at once.

vs. Pyrex Glass Nesting Set (~$30 to $45): Pyrex’s classic glass set is the obvious pick if you want glass, microwave compatibility, and the kind of durability that genuinely lasts decades. The trade-offs are real, though: glass is heavy, glass breaks if you drop it, and the largest Pyrex nesting bowl typically tops out around 2.5 quarts, smaller than the Joseph Joseph 4.5-liter top bowl. Pyrex also doesn’t include a colander or measuring cups. Buy Pyrex if you specifically want glass and you cook a lot of acidic or microwave-bound food. Buy Joseph Joseph if cabinet space is your real constraint.

vs. KitchenAid Stainless Nesting Bowls (~$50 to $80): KitchenAid’s stainless nesting set is the premium-feeling option, with five bowl sizes, a pour spout, and a non-slip base. It’s a great set if you have the cabinet space and you want a heritage-feeling kitchen tool that will look the same in 15 years. It’s also bowls only, no colander or measuring cups, and the five-bowl footprint nests but still takes more cabinet room than the Joseph Joseph tower. The Joseph Joseph set wins on completeness and storage; the KitchenAid set wins on feel and aesthetic.

Where to Buy and Price Context

The Nest 9 Plus retails at $55 on the Joseph Joseph US site across most colorways. Amazon is typically the better price, ranging from about $40 to $55 depending on color and current promotions, with the Multicolor and Editions ranges (Sage, Sky) often the most discounted. I’ve also seen the set on real sale a few times a year, dropping briefly into the high $20s on Amazon. If you don’t need it today, it’s worth waiting for.

Other retailers stocking the line include Target, Walmart, Crate & Barrel, and Wayfair, generally at MSRP. For straight pricing and a clean return window, the Amazon listing is the simplest path.

Final Verdict

The Joseph Joseph Nest 9 Plus is the answer to a specific question: how do you have a real prep kit in a small kitchen without surrendering an entire cabinet to it? The nested tower works as advertised, the build genuinely lasts years of daily use, and the included colander, sieve, and snap-together measuring cups make it a complete kit rather than just another bowl set. The non-slip bases and the pouring spout on the small bowl are the kinds of details that signal the designers actually cooked.

It’s not a heritage piece. It’s not for heavy bread bakers, it’s not for anyone who wants glass, and the lighter colorways will stain. But for the renter, the studio dweller, the small-kitchen cook who needs the basics in a footprint that doesn’t dominate the cabinet. This is the cult favorite for honest reasons. At $40 to $55, it’s also priced where it should be: a real product, not a luxury, not a throwaway.

Overall rating: 8.5 / 10. Check price on Amazon →

Last researched: May 2026. Pricing and colorway availability shift; verify on the retailer’s listing before you order.