RIVO-mediocre and weak espresso flavor, not hot enough, too many inconveniences, expensive K-cups
927907
I saw an infomercial one night and thought that the RIVO would be just the answer to the problem I could see occurring in the near future...my Starbuck espresso machine is on a short track to death.
So I ordered it, set it up and have used 36 cups and I know for certain that I will be returning it.
1.  The cups are very small and I end up using two in order to get enough espresso flavor in my plain cappuccino.  That makes this machine very expensive.
2.  The Lavazza coffee that is the partner to the RIVO does not have a distinctive flavor, no matter what blend you use. The espresso blend looks great just after brewing into a cup, but is definitely a weak and wimpy excuse for espresso.
3.  The foaming capability needs improvement.  At the end of the foam cycle the milk is just not hot enough or foamed enough for a cappuccino.  I fixed that by re-foaming until the milk reaches the very top of the foam beaker, then unplugging the machine to stop the process just short of overflowing the beaker.
4.  The coffee is not delivered hot enough to sustain its own heat while the milk is foaming.  I end up microwaving the milk or the shots a few seconds just prior to pouring the milk over the coffee.
All in all, the additional hoops I am jumping through to achieve a mediocre espresso product makes this a purchase that needs to be returned.
I hope Keurig reads reviews and makes improvements on the machine because the idea is great.  Overall cost of the finished drink and the inconvenience are just not worth it to me.
1759636
We owned a Krups for 20 years and it made good capuccinos, but not as good as the ones in Italy. Then when the gasket needed replacement: no more parts available.

So we tried this Breville.
It makes acceptable espresso - with flavor.
It's frothing of the milk is not so good. It adds about 1 or 2 tablespoons of water to the milk no matter what we try. We used all the tricks, waiting, turning the knob halfway to just heat up the steam but not go into the steam wand. Then I obsessivly measured tha amount of water going into an empty cup: 2 tbsp.!!! No wonder the capuccinos tasted watery.

We also tried the Delonghi EC220.
It could not make a drinkable espresso no matter what. It tasted sour and bitter, no matter what the tamping or what the grinding on our burr grinder. Seems the thermostat is not very accurate and turns the machine on after a few second of drawing an espresso.

But it was able to make good crema, without watering the milk down.

Perhaps the solution is to buy the Breville Roma and a separate milk frother. This would still be cheaper than buying one of those super expensive machines.
1165631
I used my Sirena for almost 2 years and was mildly satisfied with it, but now need to repair it and believe it is not worth fixing. This would not be the case with a better name brand.
I do not recommend this machine.

I used my Sirena for almost 2 years and was barely satisfied with it.  However, now that I need to repair it, I do not believe it is worth fixing. This would not be the case with a better name brand.  From reports and personal experience the older Starbucks Barista worked better and was more reliable.  Starbucks had the Sirena designed to look better and thus be able to charge more for it.

Likes:

The machine does look nice

I like the gauge.  You have to perform a few tricks to make, say, a cappuccino, where you clean out the steamer of weak, sputtery steam and then preheat the espresso side by making a coffee-less espresso before attempting to steam & brew.  Once you've played with the machine enough, you know how to monitor the gauge to help determine when you have performed the tricks properly.

Dislikes

I am not a fan of the rubber piece that produces "fake crema".  I say fake, because espresso connoisseurs depend on the crema to show whether the espresso was properly made.  It is not supposed to be the end in itself, but rather shows whether you had the right temperature, pressure, and tamping.  And, even those espresso experts can make a bad cup once in a while.  Starbucks/Saeco should not try to dumb down the machine.  It only disguises mistakes.

The plastic piece on the steamer wand breaks easily.  Most companies would replace such a simple part for free.  Saeco charges $5 each time.  Bad.

The riser for making a cup of espresso is a pain.  The machine is really only designed for putting large cups underneath.

The metal tray does not drain well.  Most drips form a pretty big puddle before they drain into the pan.

The portafilter can leak if you do not use force to tighten it.  My wife has a problem with this.

Reliability is not good.  In researching my problem with poor steam output, it seems people have had a wide variety of problems.
4493230
UPDATE. After having successful results with Lavazza, I bought some cheap El Dorado decaf espresso coffee (some cheap brand from NYC).
With Lavazza I got great results, crema and flavor (different than Nespresso capsules but still good). With the cheap NYC Eldorado brand I got a bitter cup (in the US most espresso grinds are roasted way too dark) with no crema at all. From my experience, this pod works great with decent coffee. Buy some Italian brand medium roast for moka or espresso and you will be fine. Home grinders or drip coffee grinds will produce weak coffee.
The capsule is slightly smaller than an original Nespresso (4g vs 4.8) so you may want to make the coffee a little shorter. but it is 8 cents per cup vs 75 cents, if you use Lavazza at about $5 for a 250g pack.
---
 It works! I like that it does not require disposable stickers. Espresso has crema and it is similar to what you get with a Nespresso pod.
I use Lavazza qualit Rossa (4 250g packs = 1kg  or about 2.2 lbs for about $18 dollars).
The pod houses about 3 to 5 grams of coffee. To put 5 g inside the pod you have to tamper a little with your finger. That makes the Nespresso machine to seem to "suffer" a little. I think 4 g is the sweet spot. The capsule is by design a sliver smaller than the original disposable Nespresso capsules which i believe contain about 4.8g of coffee.
So the espresso you get may be marginally not as strong as a Nespresso, but it costs me in coffee about 8 cents per cup instead of 75 cents.
It mean that after about 30 coffees the cost of the steel pod is absorbed.

I used it also with toasted orzo from Italy (malted barley) and it worked.
I bought 2.

The cons:
- the packaging is crappy. I opened it and the plastic scooping tool broke. I taped it back together and it works.
- you have to make sure the lid has snapped in. It is not too east to tell. You have to apply pressure with your thumbs around the rim. I never had a spillage. But make sure the lid is secured before putting it in the machine by feeling if it pops off with minimum pressure.

Anyway makes the Nespresso a great deal.
You have to fill and clean the pod, so it is not as seamless as a Nespresso pod. But you save a lot of $$$ and no need to recycle or throw in the garbage more waste.

People who had issues maybe used the wrong grind. I bet most pre ground coffee from Italy for moka or espresso will work:  Lavazza and Illy are easy to find.
Most home grinders can not achieve the right grind and may produce weak coffee if used with this capsule.
486786
A disappointing purchase.  The flavors brew weak.  I can't use the full cup feature on my keurig to get a decent cup from these selection.  A little too weak for my personal taste.
1952921
I thought I would try this coffee as it looked quite impressive and was expensive so it should be really nice. When I opened the container I noticed the grind was coarser than expected with some larger flecks in it. I then tried it in my machine at a normal tamp pressure. This resulted in a ten second shot with light and sparse crema. I then tried again with an approx 40lb tamp and a good twist to polish the top. This would usually result in nearly clogging the machine. I then got a 15 second shot with barely passable crema.
I am disappointed with my purchase and am tempted to throw the rest away apart from initial high cost, and being too tight to do it.
Back to waitrose for their own brand ground espresso.
4910666
This machine is loud and does not make great espresso.
2593858
Weak and fairly tasteless. I use the #2 setting on my Keurig and it's barely passable. This changes it from inexpensive to costly since it takes 3 pods to get 1 cup of coffee.
I won't buy it again.
3183650
I purchased this product based on the reviews. To be honest this product was oversold. I give 3-4 stars just for the price, but for functionality I give it 1-2 stars. 1. TOO SMALL 2. Waters down the coffee a lot in my opinion, I like my coffee dark, so if your like me don't buy this 2. the milk frother doesn't work very well, I can froth milk better manually 3. I had to pay for shipping cost to return this item which im not happy at all about on the account that im a prime customer. I assumed this is something that would be covered. Over all I truly wish I didn't have to return the item. Again don't believe everything you read this espresso maker isn't the greatest, your better off saving up money and buying one that's $100 or more.
NOT WORTH THE MONEY - SHOULD BE PRICED WAY LESS - NOT QUALITY - DOESNT FROTH MILK WELL - COFFEE GETS WATERED DOWN TOO MUCH
2653638
Poorly made mocha which has a small coffee chamber making for weak coffee - not stovetop espresso.
3788931
i didn't think I was an espresso snob, but there it is. Yes it is a little cheaper, but it is definitely not as good. I love my soy latte in the morning and with the espresso the fun is gone. I'll pay the extra 30 cents a pod and enjoy my coffee. My wife feels the same way.
4689776
How do you say "Fail" in Italian?

Fail#1: what designer puts the on/off switch on the BACK of a device!?!?
Fail#2: what designer makes the water level window 1/8" wide, and puts it on the side where you cannot see it if your unit is on a counter?
Fail#3 The coffee-grounds filter basket is 50% larger than a normal 2-cup espresso basket, so it uses 3 scoops (or more) coffee, and yet:
Fail#4 The coffee is s***ty. Runny. No Crema.
Fail#5 It comes with that pressurized filter basket that uses a pin-hole to make fake crema on your coffee. I guess they include that to try to hide #4 above.
Fail#6 After you move your cup away, and the filter basket / group head drips, the holes on the tray don't line up with where it drips, so it's messy.
Fail#6 cheap plastic, I feel like it's going to break, when I tighten the group head in.

Ok, I only owned this for 3 days before returning it. I pulled perhaps 10 cups of espresso; none of them were better than what I was getting from my $100 De'Longhi - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002A3S66/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - in fact, they were worse. I returned this machine. One of the great reasons to be a Prime member. Free returns on all the useless and fail-y stuff you bought at Amazon, because it *seemed* to have decent reviews.

Oh, by the way, Google says the word I am looking for is "fallire."
3952760
When I purchased this I already owned the Capresso 560.01 Infinity, and liked it, but there didn't seem to be any of those in stock that day, and I thought this might do as a gift for my parents.  They're not as into coffee as I am and I was hoping to get them grinding their own.  Unfortunately it turned out this particular model is rather difficult to use, and doesn't do a very good job, and the only time it's now used is when I visit and make coffee for myself - and not very good coffee because this model makes a lot of dust along with the particular grind chosen.  The initial assembly and disassembly/re-assembly for cleaning this device are very confusing, as are the controls for fineness and timing.  There's really nothing I like about this, and since it doesn't actually create a uniform grind, but one includes large amounts of very fine powder (which becomes dust and then sludge in your coffee) you'd be better off using a 20 dollar blade grinder than this. Unfortunately you have to spend twice as much now (the price has gone up by 50% in 2 years) to get into the 650 Infinity model, but if you want true burr grinding results, I can guarantee that one works.
4627795
Nice looking machine that does espresso well.  But the coffee is lukewarm.  One of the defining characteristics when you think of coffee in the US - it's hot.  Keurig set to 192.  Hot.  This won't brew coffee over 140.  pretty disappointing when this was the key gift for the missus for the holiday season.
4836409
After only 1 order: good flavor, somewhat limited selection, quite tedious process to peel off pod foil cover, pry out coffee grinds, rinse out in order to recycle plastic pod; We absolutely will not throw used pods in trash. Overall, In comparison to Nespresso, we prob will not reorder. Comparably priced to Nespresso by the way
4221386
I was hoping for a good alternative to nespresso with hiline coffee. I received my order in the mail yesterday. I was really excited to try one and have a delicious expresso. First off, I don't care for the plastic cartridge. I feel that if i have to create waste at least aluminum is easily recycled (i know this is where savings were made). So i made my first shot, it looked like nespresso,It poured fine, no problems in my machine.  It had good looking crema and everything. The taste was nowhere near a shot of nespresso. The flavor was bland and flat. Nespresso has a lot of complexity that these pods did not have. I'm really unhappy with the purchase and will be sending the rest back. My review is for the wall street roast and the soho roast but I'm assuming that the rest of their products are the same. Overall it's not terrible, its better than bad gas station coffee but not by a whole lot. :(
3489805
I'll keep this simple. We really disliked this coffee maker and are planning to return it. Here are the pros and cons:

PROS:
- Easy to program and the programming works. It will brew your coffee on time in the morning, however you set it.

CONS:
- Carafe drips and spills every time.
- Coffee grounds get into the carafe every time, whether you're making a big pot or a small pot.
- It does not keep coffee hot. It has a hot plate that stays on for 2 hours but the coffee is luke warm at best after just an hour.
- I purchased the optional thermal pot and that does better but you have to practically turn the pot upside down to get all the coffee out of it. The lid also doesn't have enough threading. In other words, if you don't unscrew it enough the coffee doesn't come out, if you unscrew it too much it falls off when you pour. The space between those two points is small, so its hard to get it right.
- It has a fairly large foot print and its awkward to get water into the back of it. There is only one spot to pour that is wide enough to avoid water either spilling off the back of the unit or over the edge into the grounds basket and its not a very large space at that. It's kind of precarious and you have to pour at an awkward angle.
- The strong brew isn't much stronger than the standard brew.
- Seems to brew coffee at different levels of strength even if you put in the same amount of grounds and water every time. For example, I put in 4 tablespoons of grounds for 4 cups of water. Sometimes that comes out like a regular coffee and sometimes it comes out really weak and watered down. I never know which I am going to get.

There are probably a few other things I just don't like about this machine but I think you get my point. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is that it simply doesn't brew a good cup of coffee. If you simply tolerate coffee in the morning to wake you up, then this machine might be ok for you if you can get over all the little quirks. But if you are the kind of person who savors coffee and wants to wake up and really enjoy a cup, you should definitely pass on this. I found myself just not wanting to use it.

We've moved on to a french press and espresso machine we got at a thrift store for the same price as this machine and we are so much happier.