ncsuprof's Full Review: Cuisinart GR4 Indoor Grill
I'm not the kind of person who usually gets truly EXCITED about kitchen appliances, and the closest I suppose I've gotten in the past to that is a really cool KitchenAid burr grinder I bought a few years ago that's built like a tank and grinds coffee beans perfectly-- but that's another review for another time. RECENTLY, I went by a major home goods retailer that was going out of business in our area and found the Cuisinart Griddler for 30 percent off its normal (and, it struck me, sort of high) "discount" price, which of course was at least a little better than the LIST price. I bought it, figuring that it was about time to replace our old, gacky sandwich grill that's nothing special. I was initially impressed-- or at least pleased-- that the construction felt solid, controls were easy to understand and use, and as a "panini grill," the top handle was very solid AND it properly pressed the top down on the sandwiches (i used my hand to simulate a sandwich in the store with the unplugged display model!).
Funny thing is... once we got it home, set it up and started USING the Griddler, it grew on me even more from there. It's as easy to use at home as it "demo-ed" in the store, which strikes me as strange about ANY kitchen appliance these days. I've only used it a couple of times fully flat-open as a griddle, but it cooked stuff quickly and evenly in that mode. On the other hand, given the need with my old allegedly "stick-less" grill nevertheless to slobber margarine/butter on grilled cheese sandwiches to keep the darned things from sticking to the grill, with the Griddler, I have yet to use ANYTHING on the panini-style sandwiches we've been creating to this end-- just the nice ingredients we want in the sandwich, nothing more, and then pop 'em in to the press, lower the handle, give it a few minutes, and out comes grilled perfection with SERIOUSLY no mess every time. In fact, it used to be a chore to pull out the old grill, mess up the kitchen, etc., so much so that we'd usually defer simple grilled or panini-style sandwiches even when we wanted them, or drive over to Panera Bread across highway to get 'em so as not to have to clean up the kitchen.
Those days are over. The Griddler works so predictably well time after time that we have given it a permanent spot on our countertop, next to the range, and now OFTEN grill sandwiches as a quick, efficient and clean enterprise for the "two-person-working-couple-too-tired-to-cook-massive-dinners" meals at our house. It heats quickly, cleans easily if and when you DO have the odd accident, and feels ALMOST like a quasi-professional kind of device in my opinion. Heat is even, good cord length, easy to monitor sandwiches and other stuff in the grill when it's in there with the lid down. Cool little cleaning tool comes with it; so do a few "drip cups" for burgers, etc.-- I haven't had any problems with them yet, though I can reasonably foresee some heavier-duty burger-etc.-grillers rightfully complaining that the cups might be too small at times.
The only other "con" I can think of, which has also been mentioned in other reviews, is the price-- many places that stock this appliance are asking what I think borders on obscene prices for it, even for as much as I love it. Shopping around is a very good idea, and as best I can tell, larger outlets that have a fair amount of sales, coupons, etc. usually stock these things, so I'd say wait for something like that to come along to get one. Or, as in our case, stumble into a "going out of business sale" and pay 20-30 percent off their ticketed price for it-- that would make it a solid value in my opinion, particularly given the fast-food bills, cleaning time and effort and grief of a broken less-sturdy machine than you'd otherwise have without the Griddler!
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