The 7 Best Graters of 2024, According to Our Tests
A grater is an essential kitchen tool that allows you to cut down on meal prep time and gives you the treat of freshly shredded and sliced foods. You’re going to want one that’s stable so it doesn’t jump around when you’re grating, and it should be sharp enough that ingredients glide easily, says Ali Slagle, recipe developer and author of I Dream of Dinner (so You Don’t Have To). “There’s nothing like fluffy grated cheese or fresh citrus zest, but a grater also makes quick work of ingredients that are kind of tedious to chop, like garlic and ginger,” she adds.
To find the best graters on the market, we tested 22 different graters in our Birmingham lab and assessed them on ease of use, performance, cleaning, and value. In addition to talking to Slagle, we chatted with Cristina Flores, VP of Product at Eataly North America, on what makes a great grater.
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The four-sided grater features coarse, fine, ribbon, and slicing blades.
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It's recommended that you buy cut-resistant gloves to protect your fingers from the exposed blades.
All four sides of this box grater performed phenomenally during our testing. We were able to produce uniform shreds of hard and soft cheese on both the coarse and fine grater blades with little to no effort. There were similarly great zesting results while using the fine blade, so much so that we'd be fine using the grater as an alternative to a separate zesting tool. This grater is made with high-quality surgical stainless steel, and we liked that the size of the grating holes were larger compared to ones we've seen in other box graters.
This Microplane grater also features a dedicated area for slicing, should you want to slice up some cucumber for a salad or potatoes for potato gratin, and a bi-directional blade that produces ribbon-style shreds. We also tried this out on smoked mozzarella and found it to work quite well. Plus, we never felt fatigued or uncomfortable, which is due in part to its steady base and ergonomic, soft-grip handle. It helps that it’s very easy to clean, too (yes, it’s dishwasher-safe!). Just note that the exposed blades are very sharp, and this doesn’t come with a guard of any kind, so cut-resistant gloves are recommended.
Material: Stainless steel | Blade Types: Coarse, fine, ribbon, and slicing | Care: Dishwasher-safe
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Wade Review / Fran Sales
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It makes quick work of harder items, like aged cheeses and citrus zest.
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It's not good for soft cheeses, and it's difficult to clean by hand (but it is dishwasher-safe).
Both of our experts, like many home chefs, love the Microplane. It's essentially become a household name for its ability to create fine grates, and after testing, we can confirm that it lives up the hype. The long narrow blade made it very easy to move it around an orange and zest smaller corners, and the canal on the back captured most of the zest, which made it easy to remove it with the swoop of a finger.
It also did an amazing job on hard cheese. It took practically no effort at all to grate Parmesan. The final result? Fluffy flakes of cheese that almost curved on themselves. The soft cheese, however, was a different story. We had to apply a lot more pressure and didn’t get great results, with most of the cheese gumming up in the back of the grater or prematurely breaking off. Plus, when we went to clean this grater by hand, it wasn't as easy as other options. The smaller holes made it difficult to get food out, to the point where we gave up and put it in the dishwasher.
Material: Stainless steel | Blade Types: Fine | Care: Dishwasher-safe
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