This is a gorgeous-looking, very realistic, very detailed and well-made kitchen! It's so cool that I want to play with it myself! Ours didn't have any broken or defective parts on arrival and was very easy to put together, with clear instructions, though it did take a while. I'm very handy and had a helper (my mom) and it still took me about 4 hours. So, be prepared to spend a good hunk of time putting it together. It arrives completely disassembled into a million pieces, but it comes together easily. For some parts it does require two people. I guess you could do it alone, but it would be very awkward and difficult. For some things, one person needs to hold the part level while the other puts the screws in, for example, and you just need more than two hands. So keep that in mind.I'm very impressed by the level of detail on this kitchen. Other similar kitchens have just a big sticker where the water/ice dispenser is on the fridge door, with the dispenser as a picture on the sticker, but this one has an actual nook with buttons above it (they don't press down, unfortunately, but it's still better than picture buttons!) The knobs on the stove make fun clicking sounds when you turn them. I see that they've updated the phone now - in older pictures it looks like an older kitchen phone, but now it has been updated to what looks like a white iPhone. I guess that's what the kids of today will associate with the word "phone", so it makes sense.I absolutely love that the kitchen has a realistic, elegant look. It matches our real kitchen perfectly, because we have stainless steel appliances and dark wood cabinets, so it looks great in it. It looks like a part of the kitchen, not like the total eyesores that a lot of other play kitchens are - ugly and plastic and in horrible bright pink colors. This is something I wouldn't mind actually having in my home and looking at every day. It's beautiful!This is just a kitchen though, it doesn't come with any cookware or play food. I prefer that, so I don't have to pay additional money for gear I may not like. Everybody can buy their own accessories as they see fit. But if you don't have any yet, definitely do get accessories before presenting it to the child, so they can actually play with it. Not much you can do with just the kitchen. I got a set of pots and pans, a serving set (dishes, utensils and a tea pot), and a couple of sets of play food, including the kind that you can cut (that was a big hit, highly recommend!) and topped it off with a toy high chair for the dolls, and the whole thing was a huge success with my 2-year-old. We've had it for almost a month now and she plays with it every day, for most of the day! If you don't have anywhere nearby to sit a doll down, I do recommend a doll high chair, as well as some sort of little table to serve food on. I didn't want anything big or expensive, so I got a cheap little folding beach table that works perfectly for dolls. The kitchen, the accessories and the chair and table together make for endless hours of play!There are only a couple of things I wish were a little different, but they're all very minor. I wish the ice/water dispenser nook was a little deeper. Most toy cups don't fit and keep falling out (my daughter keeps putting them down inside the nook instead of holding them while the "water" pours in). There's plenty of room inside the refrigerator, so they could've made the space a little deeper... Same goes for the microwave - it's too shallow and plates don't fit in it, only small bowls and the saucers of the tea cups. There's plenty of room, they could've made it just an inch or two deeper. And lastly, the bar that holds the towel isn't attached to its holders, but just loosely slides inside the holes and rests in them. It's really easy to bump it and then it slides out and falls down. That's easily fixable though - I glued it in place with hot glue and now it stays put. That's all - nothing major, it's a great kitchen!UPDATE: We've had this kitchen for a year and a half now. We got it right around the time when our second child was born. He's 18 months old now and his sister is 3 and a half, and they both absolutely adore this kitchen!!! Don't look at the recommended age - any age child can play with it! Our baby loved opening and closing the doors as soon as he could crawl over to them, before he could even walk. Then he loved pulling up to stand on the kitchen, and standing and playing on it. Now he's old enough to actually pretend cook, and this is his favorite play area in the whole house! He loves putting cups in the microwave and saying "milk beep beep!". It's absolutely adorable. So don't discount younger kids! I now feel bad for my daughter because I didn't think to get this for her sooner. She was a ripe old 2 when we bought it... She could've enjoyed it so much longer. Oh well. The two of them will be playing with this awesome kitchen for many years to come!
