Elite Gourmet EWM-6171# Triple 3 x 2.5 Qt. Trays, Buffet Server, Food Warmer Temperature Control, Clear Slotted Lids, Perfect for Parties, Entertaining & Holidays, 7.5 Qt Total, Stainless Steel

This buffet server is fantastic. This is the one you want to buy. If you are going to do any type of get-together/party and want to serve real, hot food. I was lucky to get it on sale. But as good as this is I would have paid full price for it. I actually bought two of them.I wanted for the first time in my life to host a Thanksgiving dinner. When I talked to anyone about it, they all said getting all the different foods to be hot at the same time was a real difficult feat to pull off. Especially if you were making some of the foods in advance.So I started reading lots of reviews and researched everything I could about serving Buffets. Each serving buffet I read about, said it was crucial to have the food hot first. THEN put it in the serving tray so it would stay hot. The Buffett is not designed to heat up the food. It is designed to maintain the food at the level of heat you start with.Well this model has steel serving trays that are sturdy just like a cooking pot it does not bend. I put the pre-prepared food in the serving tray covered it with Tin foil and then put it directly in the oven to heat it up. Once it was hot THEN I placed the serving tray in the Buffett warming tray. I served turkey, baked potatoes, candied yams, stuffing, roasted green beans with melted cheese, and gravy. Each and every dish was nice and hot even when people came back for seconds and thirds. This warming tray maintained the perfect temperature for 6 hours. Nothing was dried out, or over cooked or soggy. It was perfect. I could not have asked for more.1. Serving trays are made of steel very sturdy they do not bend and they are dishwasher safe easy to clean2. There are 3 steel serving trays, each tray has a see thru dome lid with a handle and a slot to put a serving spoon thru3. This unit has a light that tells you it is on or off so you are sure when it is working.4. It has 3 levels of settings for temperature control, low medium and high5. This buffet has a very short electric cord this is in fact a safety feature.6. This particular model can be used in 3 different waysA use serving trays with dome tops for Buffett as I didB you can cook a pasta dish in the large tray with handles and then serve directly from that trayC if you have hors d’oeuvres use the bottom tray that is the warming tray to keep them warm and serve them warmD. Read the manual it will take all of 3 minutes it is short and to the point explains everything clearly.At first glance it Is not obvious you have 3 different ways to use this Buffet. Once you understand how versatile it is you may decide like me, that one is not enough.

We are so happy that we bought these warming trays. We initially bought one, but liked it so much, we got another. We hadd 15 people over for Thanksgiving and these two trays held all the sides and kept them warm all afternoon. They made it much easier for guests to get their food, and a their desire. The trays look very nice and worked superbly. We received nothing but compliments about them. In fact, some of our guests intend to buy them. Rest assured that we'll be using them for the approaching holidays as well. Oh; great price too!

I did run this through temperature tests, using temp probes connected to a computer logging data over time. I did this because of some of the reviews where people were complaining it would not keep food at the advertised temperature. I wanted to find out if this was the case right away while still within my window of time to return it if needed. I cleaned all the parts with soapy water as directed, and dried. I filled the main tray with HOT water, about 1/3 full. I put all three stainless trays in, and filled them each 2/3 full with COLD water. I put a temperature probe in the main water tray bath, and one in the middle food stainless tray, with covers on, careful that the probes were suspended in water and not touching the bottom or sides.My initial water bath, hot water from my sink tap, read at 103F. I set the temp on the unit to "low", which according to the instructions, will maintain 130F. After about 2 hours, the 103F water had risen up to 131F; right on target. since the food trays are sitting in that bath of water, its' water temp followed very closely, +/- 1 degree. I set it to "high", which the manual says should be 150F, and after about 2 hours, the bath water and food tray water were both at 152F. I left the unit running 3 more hours, and the water maintained a steady temperature.I went through all of this to make sure it would work as advertised; I didn't want to get a surprise the first time we use it at a party, and find out it didn't work! It works just fine.I suspect, just a hunch, that the people reporting that 'it never got over 90 degrees...' probably filled the water bath tray with COLD water. This is not a stove-top, it's a warmer. If you give it a large volume of cold water, its going to take several hours to get that up to temp. Just fill it with HOT tap water, about an hour or two before you fill the food trays, and I bet that solves 99% of the 'cold food' problems people are complaining about. Hope this helps!

4 stars because it came with the broken lid and the hassle for returning, called for replacement and the response was fast, used it just in time for holiday parties. Food always warm and guests happy. Love it!

Excellent quality, lightweight, safe, keeps edible items warm .

this one heats up unlike giantex i returned did not work at all!

I bought this before my Thanksgiving dinner and it was so embarrassing because it didn’t keep the pasta and ravioli warm even after I put the pans in the oven to heat then and placed the trays back on the hot case but it was useless. I couldn’t enjoy the dinner because I was concerned about the food not staying warm. Very disappointed with this purchase!

We've had this for a couple of years and used a handful of times. It keeps the food warm and has worked well with what we need it for. Love that it has lids to protect the food from flies outside. It's lightweight so we can take the item in and out of the house without any issues.