Smeg knife block set review: kitchen furniture that happens to cut

The Smeg knife block set is the most expensive thing in our kitchen coverage by a wide margin, and it is honest about what it is: kitchen furniture in glossy cream that happens to hold six good knives. Around ₱23,000.

What do you actually get?

More documentation than anything else here. Six knives with every blade length published: a 3-inch vegetable, a 5-inch utility, a 5.9-inch meat knife, a 7-inch santoku, and 7.48-inch bread and chef’s knives. German stainless steel blades with stainless handles, in a six-slot acacia wood insert set into a powder-coated carbon steel body, on an anti-slip base. Smeg states a 1-year warranty.

Compare that to the rest of this category, where most brands will not tell you the steel grade or even list the knives, and the difference in transparency is stark. You know exactly what you are buying.

The design is the real product. The cream body is the same finish as the Smeg retro kettle and toaster, so on a counter with those, this completes a set. Nothing else in the market does that.

What are the limits?

Hand wash only, stated by Smeg, for both the knives and the block. In a household that loads everything into a dishwasher, that is a permanent daily adjustment.

Steel handles with no moulded grip get slippery with wet or oily hands, the same complaint we have about the all-steel budget sets. At this price it is more surprising.

Six knives is a normal count. You are not getting more knives, better steel documentation than “German stainless,” or a sharpener. You are getting finish and warranty.

The rating base is 8 raters, so treat the 4.9 as thin.

Is the Smeg Knife Block Set sulit?

Around ₱23,000 as of August 9, 2026. Check the latest price on Shopee. Smeg backs it for a year, and spread across that stated warranty period it works out at roughly ₱63 a day, which is the number that tells you plainly this is not a value purchase. It is a furniture-grade buy.

For context, it is about twenty-four times the Famco acacia set, which also uses German stainless steel and a solid acacia block. The Smeg is better finished and better documented. It does not cut twenty-four times better, and no knife does.

Who the Smeg Knife Block Set suits

Buy this if you already own Smeg small appliances and want the counter to match, or you are furnishing a kitchen where how things look is part of the budget. It is the right choice when design is the specification.

Skip it if you are choosing on cutting performance per peso. Every honest reading of that comparison points somewhere else in this list.

See how it ranks in our best knife sets in the Philippines roundup, or read where the money actually goes in our knife set buying guide.

If the Smeg Knife Block Set is not right

Want German stainless and a real acacia block without the premium? The Famco 6-piece acacia set is around ₱935. Want a genuine mid-range step up with a brand store behind it? The Chef’s Classics Birch 7pcs is around ₱4,800.