Click Here to View Newer Crofton Knives
Crofton Sashimi, Nakiri or Serrated Santoku
Aldi isn’t known for chef knives but they are known for good deals. This Aldi Find will be your choice of a Crofton brand Sashimi, Nakiri, or Serrated Santoku knife for just $7.99. The Crofton Asian Knife assortment will be available the week of 4/27/22 and are made of “high-carbon stainless steel” and a rubberwood handle.
The blades are textured which helps keep food from sticking and it looks like they probably have a black coating on the textured area. Check out Crofton Flatware sets while you are at it!
Aldi Asian Knife Details
- Price $7.99 each (2022- prices may vary)
- Crofton Sashimi, Nakiri or Serrated Santoku Knife
- Solid, sustainably sourced rubberwood handle
- Textured high-carbon stainless steel blade
- 6.5″ Nakiri Knife is perfect for your everyday food prep needs such as chopping, slicing, dicing and mincing
- 7.3″ Sashimi Knife is ideal for filleting, slicing and cutting delicate foods
- 7″ Serrated Santoku Knife combines the versatility of a Santoku knife with the utility of a serrated blade for foods such as raw fish or sushi rolls
- Aldi Product Code: 706018
Crofton Sashimi Knife
Aldi’s Sashimi knife is 7.3 inches long and made from high-carbon stainless steel with a solid rubberwood handle. A Sashimi knife is sometimes called a sushi knife or yanagi. It is a long thin pointed blade meant for slicing delicate foods like raw fish.
Is the Aldi Sashimi Knife a good deal?
There are a couple of possible issue with this knife. The first is the length, most often a sashimi knife will be a bit longer so a slice is just one pull of the blade instead of back and forth. Typically I see sashimi knives that are over 8 inches long and it is common for them to be 10-12 inches long. The second issue I see is the black coloring on the textured area. The color could be the natural color of the unpolished metal which is a fairly common style choice on carbon steel knives but I would guess this is a coating that could fall off over time.
Looking at the competition on Amazon it looks like this is priced pretty well. I found this JapanBargain 1552 Gyutuo Chef Knife that is a similar size and profile for about $15. The KIWI no. 288 is also a pretty close competitor at about $13. Kiwi knives are known for being pretty good bang for your buck and I own a few although no this specific model. They come sharp and hold an edge pretty well. They don’t feel like a premium knife but they work well. There are of course a bunch of much more expensive knives ($30-100+) on Amazon but I am just sticking to ones in the lower price range.
Crofton Nakiri Chef Knife
Aldi’s Nakiri Chef Knife is also made with textured high carbon stainless steel and has a 6.5 blade. The handle is solid rubberwood. Nakiri knives are nice for cutting veggies and work well for slicing, dicing, mincing and chopping. It does not have a “point” but this doesn’t affect most vegetable prep. It is a great everyday type of knife.
Is the Aldi Nakiri a good deal?
Again this looks like a good price for this style of knife. Getting a similar Nakiri with the textured steel and dark coloring could easily set you back $40+. If you aren’t as worried about style there are a couple knives that would be pretty close competitors. First is the JapanBargain Nakiri for about $17 you will get a similar style and sized knife but it will be a non-textured steel blade and a light handle. This brand seems to be very well reviewed for the price but I don’t have any personal experience with it.
Second is the Kiwi Brand #172 Nakiri which can be even cheaper than the Crofton Nakiri. You can buy a single knife for about $10 but you can buy two for just under $14. That puts the Kiwi at about $7 per knife if you are willing to buy two.
I own one of the Kiwi Nakiri and it is a great knife for the price but don’t expect it to feel premium. It comes very sharp out of the package and holds an edge well. The blade is pretty light and has some flex. The hand is also feels fairly cheap as it doesn’t really have a finish or sealer on the wood. I will give mine a light sand and then coat it in mineral oil soon but it is very usable out of the box. I bought mine in this set of 2 Kiwi #171 and #172 which gives you two different style knives for the same price.
Overall Aldi’s Nakiri looks like a great deal if it is a decent knife. But we won’t know for sure until we can try it out.
Crofton Serrated Santoku Knife
Aldi is also offering a Serrated Santoku Knife. I am not really sure why it is serrated as that is not typical for santoku knives. A santoku is a Japanese style chef knife that is similar to typical european chefs knives. I really only use a serrated knife to cut bread or as a steak knife. They list the serrated knife as being good for raw fish and sushi rolls but typically raw fish or sushi rolls would be cut with a standard blade or a specialized blade like a sashimi knife or fillet knife. I think this would work well as a utility type knife for hard veggies or tomatoes but only because it shouldn’t need to be sharpened as often. A good sharp chef knife is probably going to be better in most cases.
Is the Aldi Santoku Knife a good deal?
It is hard to find many serrated santoku knives so I’ll compare it to serrated chef’s knives. If you really want a serrated chef knife this looks like a decent price. I was able to find one serrated santoku by Wusthof but it is $120. Looking at serrated chef knives you can get the Victorinox Firbox Pro Chef’s Knife for a little over $25. And if you want a non-serrated Santoku I would give the JapanBargain Santoku a try for about $16.
My Impression of Aldi’s Asian Knives
I plan to buy at least one of these to test out so you know if they are decent knives. If they look good in the store I may buy both the Crofton Sashimi knife and the Nakiri. I don’t plan on buying the serrated knife. I’ll update with a review here once I get my hands on one.
Update 4/27/2022
I bought the Sashimi knife from Aldi and it is OK. The knife came decently sharp out of the package but the edge was not a consistent grind. It is not impressively sharp on the paper test but it did ok. The texture doesn’t look great in my opinion and I do like the textured look on nice knives. Usually it is hammered or pitted in a random/natural way but with these it looks very manufactured which is to be expected at this price.
The black on the textured area looks like a thin coating or paint that will probably wear down. For $8 I think it is worth the money if you like the look and are ok sharpening it yourself to smooth out the edge. If you really want bang for your buck I would probably get a KIWI. Or if you want something with a bit higher end feel while still low priced I would try the JapanBargain. This is not a must buy or a don’t buy, take a look instore and if you like the look I think it is a functional knife at a low price.
Update: 5/13/22
Here it is cutting Aldi Sushi Grade Tuna for some Aldi Sushi. It did a better job than I expected- it had clean smooth cuts and didn’t have any problem cutting thin pieces of tuna. Not expectational but better than I expected with from my initial impressions. Check out more Crofton Knife reviews.
@aldithings Cutting Aldi Sushi Grade tuna with a $8 Aldi Sashimi Knife #aldifinds #aldi #alditiktok #aldis #aldishopping #aldiseafood #sushi ♬ Sunny Day – Ted Fresco
Reviews of Aldi’s Sashimi, Nakiri, and Santoku Asian Knives
Please include which knives you are reviewing in your title
Crofton Sashimi Knife (Crofton Asian Knife)
It seems like an OK knife and looks better in the pictures than in person. It comes sharp enough to use although I don’t know that I would trust it for sashimi without some sharpening. UPDATE: 5/13/22 I am upping this to 4/5 stars after testing it by slicing some tuna for sushi. It performed better than I expected (although not exceptional). For 8 bucks it is a decent knife.
