Cuisinart Griddle AND Grill > Reviews (1)

I bought a George Foreman when they were all the rage and used it twice if that, afterwards it just sat on the work surface neglected until it was relegated to the back of the kitchen cupboard.

I am a big fan of Cuisinart kitchen products and spotted this grill when in the states in 2007, so when I saw it on offer in John Lewis for £90 when I got back I bought it. I thought it would be a similar story to the George Foreman where I would mainly just have it to make my kitchen look nice, but I was very wrong.

Due to all the features and settings on it, it makes for a very versatile and multi functional kitchen gadget. I use it to cook so many things, toasted sandwiches, eggy bread, fried bread, burgers, griddled chicken, toast, griddled aubergine, Naan bread, steak, bacon, eggs, sausages and even pancakes when it is folded out. The list could go on....

It comes with two sets of removable, non stick and dishwasher safe plates which are very easy to remove and replace, even using oven gloves if you want to get them straight into water to soak whilst they are hot.

There is also an adjustable hinge that allows you to open it right out so you can grill or griddle on double the surface. As mentioned above I found this perfect for making scotch pancakes and also for grilling kebabs. But, the hinge also floats to allow for big thick toasted sandwiches or large steaks.

The whole of the griddle has a robust feeling and the top is the perfect weight to evenly cook your food. I have known some griddles where you have had to press them down to get the griddle marks on your food.

My only issues are;
The writing is coming off the dials. It isn’t really a problem as I know from using it so often where best to put them to get the results I want. It is also a pain to clean, however, I have found Windowlene the best thing to get the grease and finger marks off the stainless steel finish.

The plates are meant to be designed to drain the fat away from the cooking area, but they do not make that good a job of it and so a lot of the fat gets burnt on at times. The plates just are not angled enough to allow for easy drainage. This is the only point that dropped my mark from a 5 to a 4.