Lowest Used Price: USD $85.99
Lowest New Price: USD $90.95
Features :
- 5-in-1countertop unit works as a contact grill, panini press, full grill, full griddle, and half grill/half griddle
- Brushed stainless-steel housing; sturdy panini-style handle; floating cover to adjust to thickness of food
- Removable and reversible nonstick cooking plates drain grease for healthy cooking; integrated drip tray
- Adjustable temperature controls with indicator lights; gourmet recipes and scraping tool included
- Plates, drip tray, and scraper are dishwasher-safe; 3-year limited warranty
The Cuisinart Griddler makes multifunctional an understatement! With five separate cooking options, it can handle everything from pancakes to sausages to grilled cheese to steaks, hamburgers and Panini. A floating cover, and one set of reversible plates that snap in and out, turn the Griddler into a Contact Grill, a Panini Press, a Full Grill, a Full Griddle, or Half Grill/Grill Griddle. Dual temperature controls ensure everything is perfectly cooked!
Customer Reviews
Pleased with this one (2010-04-29)
I'm very pleased with this product. It cooks well and cleans up easily. Does a great job on chicken breasts - leaves them juicy without drying out as much as cooking on a gas grill. Tried salmon fillets and over cooked them a bit - user error on that one. Will take awhile to figure out how long to cook certain items. One bonus is that you can usually insert an instant read thermometer into the meat without opening the grill.
Great panini grill (2010-04-26)
I absolutely LOVE this griddler. I really did a lot of research before buying it and am happy to say this little machine lives up to all its hype!! It is really well made,easy to use, easy to clean-and my husband is extremely happy with everything we have made. I'm thinking I will get 2 more for wedding gifts for this summer.
Wonderful Product (2010-04-25)
This griddler is well made. It has a good solid feel to it and it looks great on my counter. I use it to make grilled cheese sandwiches and for burgers and fish. They all come out great and clean up is easy. This is a much nicer product than one of the plastic ones that are available everywhere. The stainless steel is very nice, Highly recommended. Cuisinart always comes through.
I use this all the time! (2010-04-19)
I waited to review this product because I wanted to try it with several different foods. So far I have tried it with steaks, pork chops, boneless chicken breasts, and Panini's. All of which came out great. I did notice that with the meats, you need to season lightly because if the heat is too high, the seasoning will get dark or burn. The steaks came out with beautifully seared grill marks, and they stay very juicy. The pork chops I brined first, and they came out very juicy as well.
The good thing about using this grill with the pork chops, is that they don't curl up when you are grilling, because of the fact that you have the top grill to press it down. So now I always use this to make pork chops. The boneless chicken breasts came out great too. I usually pound them to make them even, then season them lightly and grill them. I think they come out perfect in just five minutes. I usually grill about 5 at a time and put them in the refrigerator, and use them to make chicken salad or just slice them up and put them in a regular salad to add some protein. They always come out great. The Panini's however, are out of this world. I find that if you brush melted butter on top of the Panini bread, they come out fantastic. Better then any Panini I've gotten in any restaurant.
The grill itself does heat up very quickly, which is a good thing, and I didn't have any problems with fat running off the grill like some other people have, and I use it all the time.
A great addition, even to small kitchens (2010-04-15)
I have to say that I have been very impressed with the Cuisinart GR-4V Griddler. Since acquiring it, my family has really become spoiled on the wonderful array of fun panini type sandwiches we can make with the grill. What a great way to use up leftovers!
I have cooked entire meals on the grill - including steaks, veggies, and grilled bread. It does a reasonably good job at this, but is not as good as it is with making different kinds of panini. The grill does not really get hot enough to sear and cook steaks particularly well.
I have also used it to grill fish fillets and it did a better job of this, since that does not require the intense heat that getting a good char on a steak requires.
The overall design of the unit is very good - the grilling elements are easily removable for cleaning, and the entire unit folds up into a pretty compact "cube" that can be stored in a cupboard. The drip tray is easy to remove, though it has become a bit loose in its track and will slip out when I pick the unit up by the handle to put it away. Another niggle is that the drip tray has some right angles inside of it that can be tough to clean congealed grease out of with a paper towel. It easily goes into a dishwasher for cleaning (if you have one that is!)
On the counter, the unit doesn't take up much space (I have a tiny kitchen and it fits in just fine!). It is big enough to do two generously sized sandwiches at a time, which frankly for our family of four is plenty. I'm happy to have a smaller grill that takes up less space, but is still good enough to feed the whole family.
Other reviewers have mentioned the strange controls, so I won't dwell on them here, other than to say I also can see what the difference is between using the "grill" dial or the "griddle" dial - they both seem to do the exact same thing.
The only other panini grill I have used is a much larger Breville unit which was quite expensive (I bought it for a friend as a gift) and much larger. It had some additional features such as the ability to set the angle of the grill surfaces in a supported manner (the Cuisinart relies on the contour of the food being grilled to set its angle, which "presses" the food a bit. Soft foods like a grilled cheese sandwich can get pretty smooshed).
Overall, highly recommended for both the Quality/Price Ratio and the compact size and functionality
SEE Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddler at Amazon.com Now