Best Small Rice Cooker Reviews

Best Small Rice Cookers


I thought that I would write a review about the best small rice cookers that are available in the market. There are some considerations when you decide to buy a small rice cooker.

The smallest rice cooker that I would suggest for home use is 3 cups because when you buy a 1 cup or 1.5 cups rice cooker it is very likely that you will very frequently run into situations where you would be need to cook for one more person, like you boyfriend or girlfriend where those rice cookers will not be of much use.

​But if you want to buy a rice cooker for traveling or camping then in that case a 1 cup or 1.5 cups rice cooker would be beneficial.

Let’s take a look at 5 rice cookers that falls under the small and travel category.

Panasonic SR-3NA


This is the best small rice cooker and the best travel rice cooker. I love this rice cooker for its compactness and durability. It doesn’t have a warm function or any other functions that we see in other rice cookers.

It is a very simple rice cooker with a single option to turn it on after we put the rice and water in the cooker.​

The automatic shut-off will turn the cooker off after the rice is cooked. It features a non-stick aluminium cooking pan and we can cook up to 1.5 cups of uncooked rice in one go.

Aroma Housewares Mi 1.5-Cup UNCOOKED Digital Cool Touch Mini Rice Cooker


The Mi in ‘Aroma Housewares Mi’ stands for Minimalist. It comes with two different types of control, analog and digital. The cooker is about 7.5″ high and 6″ in diameter and occupies less space over the kitchen counter.

The normal cooking time of rice in this cooker is about 20-25 minutes. You might not be that much happy with the efficiency of the non-stick pan but it is easier to clean.

Livart Rice Cooker / Warmer 1 Cup L-001


This is another rice cooker than falls into the best travel rice cooker category and interestingly, this is also the best 1 cup rice cooker. It has a simple interface with a single switch to turn on or off the cooker. It includes a Teflon coated non-stick pan but care should be taken as to not wash the rice inside the rice cooker since the Teflon coating is prone to scratches.

It also includes a side dish container which can be effectively used as a lunch box. Another cool things I like about this rice cooker is the multi-language instruction manual. It operates on 110V which makes it usable mainly in America.

Zojirushi NS-LAC05XT 3-Cup Rice Cooker


This is not the smallest rice cooker in market but it is worth buying as an alternative to an 1.5 cup rice cooker because this cooker can cook up to 3 cups of uncooked rice thereby helping you out during emergencies where you need to cook for more than 2 person. This is one of the best models available in the market today.

Since it uses induction heating technology it can cook many different kinds of rice from barley to brown rice and whole grains. It is pricier compared to the previous mentioned products but it is worth it.

Oster CKSTRCMS65 3-Cup Rice Cooker


Let us take a look at another 3-cup rice cooker. This rice cooker is from a brand called Oster. It has a steamer basket to cook veggies and also it is designed very efficiently to be tiny.

It cooks up to 3 cups of uncooked rice and the only con of this cooker is that it does not have pre-programmed functions so soaking the rice has to done manually before turning on the rice cooker to cook the rice.

These are the 5 best small rice cooker that are available in the market today. These rice cookers mostly fall into the conventional rice cooker categories which are basic rice cookers with limited features.


With these small rice cooker reviews you should be able to finalize your decision on picking up the rice cooker of your choice. There are bigger and more expensive rice cookers that are available in the market but if you cook for 1 or 2 persons most of the time then the small cookers are the one that you should be buying.

I recently tried to cooking in a hotel room and it was really easier than it sounds if you have the perfect rice cooker for the occasion. Choose one of your rice cooker from the top 5 we have mentioned in this article and then take a look at the below video to try cooking in a hotel room.