Cuisinart GR-4NAM Griddler

Comment: I do a lot of cooking...not the type you see on the cooking channel. It's more like the short order, fast paced-type cooking. As a mom of four small children, NO ONE wants to wait for their food. I got this grill/griddle/panini maker with no real expectations. I assumed it would take too long to set up, clean up or would not perform very well and would join the ranks of other kitchen gadgets I have stashed away. BOY WAS I WRONG! This thing has earned a permanent spot on my limited for space counter tops (mom's out there know counter space is like prime real estate in the kitchen. You got to be up there in usefulness like paper towels to earn a spot!) Well this product did. I can make beautiful pancakes in the morning (wipe the surface clean), turn around and do grilled cheese or flip the plates and do a panini for lunch, then use the grill for dinner of chicken or burgers or whatever. The clean up is easy. The plates remove super fast. I like this much better than my George Forman and I have that big George grill. This actually makes your chicken and burgers looked grilled like outside=grill marks! George really does not give you good grill marks and your food definitely does not look like it came off an outdoor grill. My only suggestion for the next model is that they make the plates a bit sturdier on the coating so that when you do clean them, they hold up a bit better. I let my husband clean them the first few times and I think he was a little too heavy-handed with the scrubbing, (must have thought he was scrubbing George) so I see some premature wear only on the grilling/panini side of the grill plates. The smooth side is perfect. Would not change a thing! bottom line, I love this griddler and I will be looking for a new home for George.

Comment: Seriosly, my only complaint about this machine is that it could be a little bigger so we could grill 4 large sandwiches simultaneously. My DeLonghi grill can do that, but I'm still giving it away and keeping this one.

I LOVE the reversible plates. You can flat grill or grill with the "grill" markers by easily flipping over the plate. Your option.

The grill heats quickly, but not too quickly.

The floating hinge is wonderful. No more sandwiches that are thick in the front and smashed in the back.

The removeable plates are a dream to clean. You can only truly appreciate this is you've had a machine where you had to try and remove grease and or melted cheese from the griddle without immersing in water. Not fun and not easy. In fact, I'd given up using my former model for several recipes because it took longer to clean the plates than it did to prepare the recipe.

The integrated drip tray is wonderful. My forer model had a small corner drain which frequently snapped of or even fell off while in use. Not helpful.

After using this grill for the first time, we gave our other one away, and havn't regretted it.

Highly recommended.

Comment: After getting this Griddler, I went a little Panini crazy. I bought high quality bread at the grocery store and started making all kinds. Ham and Swiss with mustard, Beef and cheddar, and Ham and egg just to name a few. They were awesome! Even reheated at work. This Griddler does a great job and it's fast. A sandwich takes around 5 minutes. The bread toasts up very nicely if you coat it with olive oil. We have a Mr. Misto that you put olive oil in, pump it up, then it sprays the olive oil. This works great for coating your bread. You have to be careful when closing the lid on a thick Panini. The top gets hot and sometimes needs to be clicked free from it's locked in position. This allows you to get the top to sit flat on top of the Panini. Use a pot holder when touching the unit once it's hot.

The Griddler is very solid and well made. It's very versatile. We used it to make hamburgers as well and it was very fast. The grill plates flip over so you can make eggs and pancakes and whatever else you may want to cook on a griddle. So far we really like it. As long as it keeps on working it will be a very good value.

Notes:

- Hamburgers cook really fast. Less than 5 minutes.
- The top gets hot. Be careful when using it.
- I found that you need to adjust the top (pop it free from it's clicked in position) so it can sit flat on your sandwich
- I wasn't a big Panini fan until I started making my own. Now I love them.
- The preheat time was decent
- We didn't have any problems with it dripping grease on the counter.
- Griddle plates snap out easily and clean just as easily.

Comment: This is my first experience with any kind of electric "floating top" griddle. I find myself pleasantly surprised. You should note that the advertised "200 square inches" of combined cooking space means two grills of 11" X 9" each. It really isn't as large as it sounds. I could fit 3 large burgers on there, and 2 pancakes at a time on each grill plate.

Pro:
It is a nifty design, and very tasteful in stainless steel and black trim. You won't be ashamed to show this unit off in the kitchen.

The grill plates are detachable and reversible. A handy scraping tool is provided to help clean the "ridged" griddle side.

The center knob sets either the grill or the "grill panini". I'm not sure I see any difference in operation - the "grill" options allows one to set the temperature by degrees while the other sets it by high, low, etc I really liked the fact that the temperature knob in use is red when warming, and then goes green to indicate that the unit is at the correct temperature.

I liked the grease catcher design - it slides out easily and cleans up well.

The grill plates are very easy to clean. I did not try the dishwasher, since I believe that non-stick will do better when washed by hand. I liked the simple buttons to release the plates - it was easy to use (if a bit hard to push) while holding the plates securely.

I found the grill to be very versatile, functioning either as a top-and-bottom or, when folded out, as a larger grill.

Con:
The grill takes a while to warm up, plan on about 10 minutes or so to get to 300 degrees.

I found two places on the non-stick grill plates that had small nicks where the non-stick had gotten rubbed off (out of the box). The places were not on the cooking surface area, but it makes me wonder about long term durability. One should plan on being careful when cleaning, and of course ALWAYS use plastic utensils.

I wouldn't trust the "grill" degree settings to any large degree. From what I can tell it is within maybe 30 degrees one way or the other of the set temperature.

I'm not sure anything could be done about this, but when you raise the grill top after "top and bottom" cooking, if you don't lock it into place (it swings down so as to be at any desired height above the food), it will drip grease onto the counter. I think the drip pan is designed such that if it is locked it will catch most of the grease - provided you lock the top. But if there is LOTS of grease on the top, it will drip. Considering gravity, most of the grease should come from the bottom. But I still had to clean a couple of drops of grease from the counter, and once I had to remove some from the heaters under the bottom grill plates (after the hamburgers).

To get the top to swing freely, you have to jar it a bit. Doing this when it is hot is a challenge, and I found myself using an oven mitt or plastic utensil. I realize that one could unlock it while cold, but I warmed it while closed (I think it is faster), and the top tends to lock in place if there is no food between the top and bottom.

Use:
I tested panini, hamburgers, and pancakes.

Panini. The griller makes a very good panini. I still need to experiment some to see what temperatures works best, but it does a good job: the marks come out well and the sandwich is heated nicely. The top is not unduly heavy, and you may find that you need to exert some pressure on the handle when closed to get the desired depth of grill marks.

Hamburgers. This was simply outstanding. I took 3 frozen hamburgers (1/3 lb sirloin) out of the freezer, put on some spices, warmed the device up to 350, put the burgers on, and closed the lid. Eight minutes later the hamburgers were done, jucy, and very tasty. The grease went into the catcher like it should. Also, there was not very much steam - it was much less messy than cooking in cast iron, for example, and I think a lot of that steam stayed in the hamburgers.

Pancakes. I found that the griddle loses it's heat very quickly when I put on the pancake batter. This resulted in one side of the pancakes being sort of brown speckled, while the other side (after the grill had reheated and I flipped the pancakes) was solid brown. I don't think this is an error or problem, because the nature of these kind of grill plates is that they transfer heat rapidly. At the same time, I noticed that the temperature knobs stayed green (indicating at temperature) instead of going to red (indicating heating). But overall it did a good job on the pancakes.

Summary: For two people, this can be quite a time saver and very useful for quick cooking. It appears to be a quality device with nice features and great design. Recommended.

Comment: My boyfriend and I both love this product. My boyfriend is usually the cook in the household and he just cannot say enough good things about this griddler. In fact, we will be getting rid of our old one because of this. We use this to cook turkey burgers and it does a great job of getting the heat to every part of the meat and making sure that it's fully cooked. It is also healthier because all of the grease would drip off of the burger and into a little grease pan at the bottom. This is great for easy cleaning. We used to have to use a pan for frying burgers and always have a lot of scrubbing to do on the pan.

This is not the case with the griddler. We were able to easily wash this off. Just even a paper towel can wipe off most of the mess. Also, this product came with a recipe book with a ton of great ideas. We cannot wait to try them all.

The griddler is definitely a great tool and makes for a great gift for someone who loves to cook.