Soto Navigator Cook Set Review: A Compact Two-Pot System for $70

Introduction

Soto is a Japanese outdoor company with a well-established reputation for compact cooking gear, and the Navigator Cook Set sits near the centre of that range. It is a round, nesting two-pot system built mainly from aluminum and priced at $70, designed to cover everything from a solo boil to a small group meal inside a package small enough to disappear into a pack.

The appeal is not any single component but the way the pieces combine. Two pots, two lids, a storage bag that doubles as a cozy, a thermal disc, a microfiber cloth, and a pot grabber all work as one modular kit that can be scaled up or down depending on the trip.

It is a thoughtfully assembled system, and it is also one with a genuinely irritating detail that is worth understanding before you buy. Both sides of that story matter here.

What Comes in the Kit

The set is built around two aluminum pots. The larger holds 1800 milliliters and the smaller holds 1300 milliliters, which gives you a useful spread between solo and shared cooking. Each pot gets its own flat resin lid, and both lids are identical: drainage holes for straining, a pull tab for lifting, and a notch shaped to accept the pot grabber.

Storage is handled by two drawstring bags with mesh tops and fabric bottoms. The larger one holds the big pot. The smaller one does double duty as a pot cozy, and it is the piece that makes the kit interesting for cold-weather cooking, since it is designed to hold heat in the pot far longer than an uninsulated pot would. A thin thermal disc sits on top of the lid once the pot is inside the cozy, and a microfiber cloth and the pot grabber round out the contents.

The weight breakdown is worth knowing if you plan to split the kit between two people. The complete set comes in at 16.7 ounces. The large pot with its lid is 6.8 ounces, the smaller pot with its lid is 5.2 ounces, the cozy with the thermal disc is 1.7 ounces, and the bag with the pot grabber is 1.2 ounces. Packed away, the whole thing measures roughly 7.5 by 3.6 inches.

One thing to note is that there is no cup in the set. You are getting two pots and their accessories, so a mug or cup has to come from elsewhere in your kit.

Who This Cook Set Is For

This is a kit for people who want options rather than a fixed setup. Because the components separate cleanly, you can carry one pot and leave the other at home, bring the cozy for cold mornings, or pack the full set when you are cooking for two or three.

Solo travelers will find the 1300 milliliter pot generous for one person, while the 1800 milliliter pot handles group meals and larger boils. Anyone who already owns a Soto stove will find the pairing natural, since the smaller pot has enough internal room to swallow a folding stove and the smallest size of gas canister, though the fit is tight and takes some arranging to get right.

Riders of long trails and weekend campers alike will recognise the value of that flexibility. The kit does not force a single way of working.

Main Strengths

Build quality is the first thing that stands out. For $70 the construction feels considered, with clean edges, well-fitted lids, and components that nest without rattling. The design logic is consistent throughout, and the kit behaves like a system rather than a bundle of parts.

Versatility is the second strength. Mixing and matching components lets you build the cook set that suits a given trip, and you can add a stove, a canister, or a cup to extend it. The pot sizes support both solo and group use without compromise.

Smaller details deserve credit too. The pot grabber includes an internal spring that opens the jaws, so it can be operated without fiddling, which is not true of every grabber on the market. The cozy has a hand hold at the bottom and works well with the grabber. The bases of the pots are slightly coarse, which gives them a non-slip feel on a camp table or a flat rock. The lids work as strainers thanks to their drainage holes, and the notches make lifting straightforward when you use the grabber properly.

Cooking Performance and Versatility

Both pots are wide and shallow enough to work as frying pans, and they handle that job well. That expands the kit well beyond boiling water: you can sear, sauté, and simmer with the same two vessels, which reduces what you need to carry.

The company states that each lid can also be used as a cutting board. That is technically accurate, and it does work in a pinch, but it is a stretch in practice rather than a headline feature.

The kit is light for what it offers, and it stays compact when stowed. Between the two pot sizes, the strainer lids, and the option to leave parts behind, it covers a wider range of meals than its dimensions suggest.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The lid pull tabs are the real problem. They sit off to one side rather than in the centre of the lid, so lifting the lid means pulling up and then away in a single quick motion. Do it slowly and the bottom edge of the lid drops into the pot and sends steam straight up over your fingers. The workaround is to move fast, but moving fast on a hot, full pot also risks knocking the whole setup over. A centre-mounted tab would have solved this entirely, and it is the one design decision that consistently gets in the way.

Price is the second consideration, and it cuts both ways. Against established outdoor brands, $70 for two pots, a cozy, a thermal disc, and a grabber is a genuinely good deal. Against the large, low-cost cook sets sold by other manufacturers, some of which include many more components for less money, this set looks expensive by comparison. You are paying for design and build quality rather than volume of parts.

Also worth planning around: the lack of a cup, and the fact that fitting a gas canister inside the smaller pot takes patience. The canister has to be the smallest size available, and even then the arrangement has to be just right.

Buying Advice

If you want a compact, modular two-pot system that you can scale to solo trips or small groups, the Navigator Cook Set makes a strong case at $70. The aluminum construction, the strainer lids, the cozy, and the sprung pot grabber all do their jobs, and the whole kit stows smaller than most single-pot alternatives with comparable capacity.

The honest framing is that you are buying a well-designed system and accepting one awkward detail. If you cook over a stove regularly and value being able to leave half the kit at home, that trade is easy to justify. If your priority is maximum component count for the lowest possible spend, a larger budget set will cover more ground for less.

Buyers who already run Soto gear will find the fit and finish familiar, and the kit works particularly well alongside the company’s compact stoves.

Conclusion

The Soto Navigator Cook Set is a well-built, genuinely versatile cook system that earns its place for anyone who wants flexibility from a small package. The pot sizes suit solo and group cooking, the cozy and thermal disc extend its usefulness into colder conditions, and the overall weight and packed size stay reasonable.

The off-centre lid pull tabs remain the flaw worth knowing about, since they make lid removal a small but repeated exercise in caution. Everything else about the kit holds up.

For $70, that is a fair bargain for the right buyer: someone who wants a modular aluminum cook set, understands the one quirk, and plans to build the rest of their camp kitchen around it.