Grill Reviews

I looked forwarded to the tasty goodies this new toy and I would cook up. Now it occupies space in the land of disappointing gadgets. No sandwich or omelet I made could really be called edible; that is unless you prefer driving a bus over your meal just before eating. A frying pan is the better alternative.

The design of the hinges (fixed rather than slip-joint} severely limits the thickness of the sandwich you can make. With more than one ingredient in the sandwich, the heating plates are not parallel. The top slice of bread gets toasted unenenly, and the cheese oozes out.

The product does exactly what it is billed to do: it grills sandwiches quickly. The problem is that the grill is very small, so normal grocery store bread is way too big and it hangs out the side. In addition, if you want to make a bigger sandwich, i.e., stacked with several ingredients, the lid will not close and lock without Herculean strength and the risk of burning yourself. It does OK with two small pieces of bread and a small amount of cheese. But, for that, it's just as easy to heat up a nonstick frying pan. It would be, however, handy for students in dorms or others with no access to a stove.

First off, it's a GRIDDLE and waffle baker, not a grill. And second, it's so poorly made that it's frightening to use. Mine fell apart while it was burning hot the first time I used it. I wish I hadn't wasted my money.

It looks like the waffle maker that my mom used for all those wonderful breakfasts growing up. I've had the waffle maker for almost a year now, and after another disappointing round of waffles this weekend, I had to submit a review.
I'd agree with other reviewers that the unit does not get hot enough. I've tried several different waffle recipes, including good ole mom's and each time the waffles are flat as pancakes and soft. I've given up trying to cook pancakes, even with the heat turned up full blast, they never brown.
I've always been a fan of this type of waffle maker, but based on my experiences, I'll be looking for a Belgium waffle maker and stick with my stovetop griddle for pancakes.

This is an okay wafflemaker. You have to make sure it heats up for a fairly long time in order to get it hot enough to use, and even then it doesn't always heat evenly. The edges seem to take longer to cook. The indicator light is useless. It seems to go on and off randomly. The outside of the wafflebaker gets very hot. Watch out for plastic items touching the outside-meltdown! The grill is not effective for making things like grilled cheese. It squashes everything flat. You can remove the grates for cleaning, but I still find it difficult to get all the accumulated oil off (although I use very little, only a quick spray from the can of Pam.) I think the fairly high temperature of the waffle maker really bakes on that oil.

First let me say that I love this pan! I can use a spray oil (Pam "olive oil" or similar), turn up the heat, and sear away - pangrilling veggies, chops, fish, you name it. It comes out evenly cooked, it's not greasy and it's quick!

For the folks who complained about cleaning, I just use a fingernail brush on the ridges. It comes clean in a jiffy and is ready to go for the next meal.

First, let me address the comments about food sticking. Rule #1 when grilling on anything....you must let the item being grilled cook until ready to turn. If you try to turn ANYTHING before it is time, it will stick. That said..this pan is great. Good quality and the price is incredible. I have used mine for 2 years, and still no complants. Clean up is easy to. I don't understand why the other comment about food sticking?? If cleaned as instructed, there is no problem at all. Mine still looks brand new and I used it at least 3 times a week.

Cooking is not magic and some common sense is required...this is the best grilling pan I have ever used. I own many Calphalon products as well as other brands. For me, it grills superbly, fish, chicken and beef and cleans easily. If you have a problem with this pan, check your food prep or your technique. I rate it as one of the best cooking products I own....and I've been cooking for over 35 years.

I have used a set of these skewers for a few years. I am buying a couple more sets. I haven't had any problem with rust. Meats and vegetables stay put with double pronged skewers. An improvement would be to taper the ends. I would rate at five stars if the ends were more pointed.

Developed by the master Chef Heyonguen Chuw in Hong Kong, these skewers make excellent tools for the noted acupunturist. They are lightweight, easy to use, and available in numerous colors. A great gift for people who are color blind also.

I am so tired of slippery food sliding off skewers when you try to turn them over! These double-pronged skewers really work at keeping food on the skewers, and even better, from sliding around when you try to turn them over. I must have looked pretty funny in the past trying turn shrimp over to cook on the other side while they twirled around and around the skewer, always with the cooked side down! But no more! I always hand-wash skewers anyway, so have had no rust problems.

Do you see in the picture that the forks are PLASTIC with little metal tips sticking out of it? That's the style I wanted. Instead, they sent me a model where the entire forks were stainless steel. DAMN IT.

Even with a fresh battery, the display goes blank the moment I stick it into the cooking meat. I am not able to get the temperature reading that I need when I need it. In fact, the only temperature reading that I was able to successfully get with this thing is of ambient outside temperature. In my humble opinion, this product is a waste of money.

I am the barbecue king. I use this often. It works, it's easy, it simplifies the task.

For pancakes, this iron griddle heats slowly and evenly, and it holds the heat better than a teflon griddle but...you...must...season this and instruct well-meaning helpers NOT, repeat, NOT to use any soap of any kind, sponge, steel wool pad, on the griddle. Ever. If you are worried about cleaning it, you can scrub the surface with a hot, clean water, handful of cooking salt and a clean paper towel. After seasoning, pancakes cook evenly and this is wide enough to go over two burners and really get some production going at breakfast. Just remember about the seasoning and the No-Soap.

I have a cheap gas stove and I always wanted one of those expensive versions. (You know the one's on everyone's TV kitchen) ... This griddle cooks pancakes, french toast, cheese sandwiches and eggs on the smooth side wonderfully. Just kick the burners on high, let it warm up, knock them back to medium until its hot evenly and throw the food on. Don't worry about heating an empty pan, Cast iron can take it. When a water droplet bounces and its not smoking its ready. (Smoking is too hot, duh!)

The other great use is to put it in the oven, turn the broiler/oven on and let it heat up. Then toss on the steaks, ribs, or fish! Yum!

The Lodge seasoning is ok for that first time cooking. You do need to wash off the manufacturing dirt, and a good coat of oil is a good way to start that carbon buildup.

On the down side, the burner grates on my stove instersect with the indented handle slots. There is a slight lip on the pan so that it rests directly on the grate. If you slide the pan down just slightly and to the center of the stove, it sets in just right. But I could see that on not all stoves it would fit as well. The alternative would be to get two of the open cast iron rings that fit on the stove grates and put the griddle on top of them. (These rings are normally designed to aid in holding a small pot over a larger more open gas stove grate) (I got two cast iron grates from the hardware store. I think they were "storm" grates. In an outside fire I burnt the paint off them and now they work fine holding the griddle up off the stove. Also Lodge has a 8" castiron trivet which looks like it should work as well.)

It is heavy, yup. It doesn't fit in my sink very well, but then if you've ever watched the guy at the bar & grill clean his grill, he does it right on the stove. So while the giddle is hot, give it a good scrape with the spatula, and wipe it with a paper towel. You'll get 90% of the food/grease off the pan. Then a quick rinse when it cools down gets the rest. (In the sink put a large sponge under the edge and one behind it to avoid scratching things.)

Also if you cook bacon, or other high fat food, it splatters. Since the lip is low, it doesn't catch the grease spatters the way a good fry pan does. More stove cleanup...While it grills ok on the stove top, It's not a replacement for the charcoal cooker. You will need a good vent hood to catch the smoke. (Well yeah)

Also if you plan on using it inside your oven, measure first! Not all ovens are 20" wide inside.

(I have much older cast iron fry pans and everything that's been said about them becoming smooth and non stick is true. Took about 5 years of off and on cooking to do it, and 10 to become perfect. Grandma's pans went to my mother so I had to season my own pans myself. This pan because of the dual sided cooking only took about a month to equal that old fry pan.

This is a great griddle/grill. It's a huge chunk of cast iron so it's going to be heavy. You should just expect that. But that's one of the things that make cast iron so great. It's sturdy, indestructible, heats evenly, and holds heat well. It's the closest thing to grilling besides actually firing up the grill. Food cooked on the grill side has a smoky, grilled flavor. The griddle side is great for bacon, sausages, hash browns, fajitas, and cheese steaks. I haven't been brave enough to try pancakes yet. Clean up of the grill side is the only drawback, as even a well-seasoned piece will occasionally have bits that stick and burn, especially at high heat. Even so, this is a very minor inconvenience for such a great piece. A good exhaust hood or a couple of open doors or windows will make use easier also. I just consider it part of the experience. We love to take ours camping. Over the fire or on a camp stove it's a large, versatile piece of cookware. Breakfast for the whole family can cook on one side. Season and wash correctly and this will give you lifetimes of use. I'm sure your kids, grandkids, and great grandkids will love it too.

I got this as a gift. I love how it grills but but there is one very extremely annoying thing about it. You will never, ever be able to completely clean it if you use it to sear or char meats. I've soaked it for hours in near boiling water with Dawn dishwashing soap, armed with an assortment of scrubing pads and brushes and you simply can not get into all the crevices completely. The fact that the groves are circular make it so much more difficult. I use to spend 20 mins trying to clean as best I could but eventually I always give up and put it away with it dirty. They would do so much better if they left the larger grooves but left off the 1,000 tiny circular grooves. Or if they made them a tad bigger with a better non-stick surface.

Vegetables and meats not requiring searing (as well as low fat meats like chicken) work well to an extent but for red meat and pork, plan on spending much more time cleaning one pan than you actually did preparing the meal. I think not being able to use a "grill" for that makes it pointless, unless your a vegetarian.

I've been using this grill pan for 2 years now. It is still in excellent condition, the easiest pan to clean that I own. It's perfect for grilling meat and fish . Spray with a light cooking spray on the heated surface. I found that if you pre-heat the pan the grilling is faster and cleaner. Very even grilling. Yep, I like it.

I bought another 4 of various Circulon pans on sale the other week. I have had this set for 3 years, and I love it. It heats evenly, faster than my other pans (now all donated), and requires only medium heat to cook well. While others have spilled much ink on the issues of ridges or the non-stick attributes not working, we have had no such problems. (But we use only medium heat, no non-stick coatings, etc.) Go Circulon!

I wish I could rate the grill itself, but never got to try it. The handle was broken when it arrived, due to the poor packing, actually no packing at all. The box was simply removed from the warehouse shelf and thrown in the mail; so disapppointing. The box wasn't even taped shut! Judging from other comments, Amazon has done nothing to correct their no-packing policy. I doubt that I will re-order this product from Amazon.

We had never really spent much time on heated sandwiches. This machine changed all that. It's an efficient, easy-to-clean (just a wipe), high quality product. The flat, nonstick surface creates an even, broad crispness on the bread. Cheese or meat fillings get warmed easily. For even better heat/steam penetration and retention we often wrap a sandwich in a single layer of aluminum foil. The ability to set the lid height combined with the base's heat make this an ideal appliance when you reheat leftover pizza (if that's how you like to eat it). Had to puchase it elsewhere as it was on back-order at Amazon.

I think the product itself is great, and so I rated it 5 stars.I guess I was one of the fortunate ones, however. Despite shipping in original flimsy packaging, and shipping damage to the box, and UNTAPED box lids that were partially open...the unit itself arrived intact. I simply cannot believe that the package was shipped with the lids untaped. Both ends were literally half open!!! Most packages arriving from Amazon.com are well packaged, with proper packaging materials, but every once in a while something like this happens and it makes one wonder about quality control.

I tried to fry a couple of eggs in the pan after spaying it with PAM and preheating it. The results were stuck-on burning egg. Thought it just an accident with the eggs, until I used the larger pot to boil water for noodles and that pan was also ruined. Note: I was attempting to cook with them on a Colmen Stove. Since I have bought other real non-stick cookware (Non-Camping) at Target with heavier bases and have no problems and with true non-stick easy clean-up.

I bought this product two years ago for a horsepacking expedition along the Colorado Trail. The price attracted me at the time, but I soon found out that even travelling in the car that the non-stick finish was easily abraded. Rust soon ensued. I still own this set and it is servicable, but don't recommened it except for car camping, and even then, pack your dish towels between the pots.

I used this set on a camping trip and am real happy with the quality and performance for a set of pots and pans in this price range. The set has a nice weight and feel. The handle works well and doesn't feel flimsy. The largest pot was large enough for me to boil corn on the cobb with out snapping them in two. Don't turn the heat up past medium, use plastic tools, non-abrasive sponges, keep lined when storing and they will give you years of service. Well worth the $20 they cost me. I've spent more on a bad movie.

I'm not a big fan of spending time in the kitchen, so I love the way I can just plug my George Foreman grill in, throw some food on it, and be done in a few minutes. It's also a lot healthier than microwave cooking; just watch the fat drop into the plastic drip pan. Finally, since it cooks top and bottom, there's no need to turn over your food. Great for burgers, chicken, steaks, ham, quesadillas, etc.

I only wish it was dishwasher safe!

I love this grill so much, it makes my last relationship look like, well...charcoal briquets. The meat cooks in record time,
no flipping of the burgers (a word of warning to cheeseburger lovers...nuke the burger a few seconds to melt the cheese AFTER you cook it on the grill, or you will have something that looks like a victim from the movie 'Backdraft'...oh, dear...I suppose some of you aren't hungry now). Only two other suggestions: 1)When placing meat on the grill, hold it there for a split second, or it will go sliiiiiiiiiiiiding down the non-stick surface. Also, the bun warmer cover comes off VERY easily, but I suspect it was designed this way for bigger hamburg buns
and such. Still five stars, though. Cleanup is a breeze (Oh God of All Barbecue Meat.....I sound like one of those TV ads)

I love this grill. I cooked a 1 inch thick steak in 7 minutes and it tasted great I've also cooked Salmon with the same great results. I would recommend this grill to anyone.