Breville® Smart Grill

I had written a less than glowing review of a competitors grill (review by 01Dyna). Bedbathandbeyond.com's customer service emailed me and thanked me for the review and said they'd be happy to take back the grill for refund or store credit, which we did. As always, props to them for not only reading the reviews but proactively contacting the reviewers to resolve any issues. This is the third Breville item we've purchased (having previously purchased an electric wok and toaster), and like the previous two items, they were much more expensive than similar products from other manufacturers but the quality and the attention to detail is well worth the extra cost. Pros: * Heats quickly and has a LCD temp display that keeps you informed on the current temp. Takes less than 4 minutes to reach searing temperature. * Automatically senses when an item is placed on the grill and quickly heats up the grill to get it back to the preset temp. * Searing setting actually sears the meat. Leaves great grill lines on steaks etc. Will grill a 1" thick steak (med) in as little as 5 minutes. * Timer is useful but not required to cook items unlike the GF grill which won't work unless you use their annoying timer. * Grill plates have embedded heating elements. This may not seem that significant but it's *critical* to even cooking across the surface. Other grills just sit on top of a heating element that's built into the grill. This causes uneven heating and placing several items on other grills will result in some items being overcooked while other items being undercooked. This grill solves that problem by having the heating elements built into the grill plates themselves which results in grill plates that provide even temps from corner to corner (I checked the surface with a laser temp gun and it didn't vary by more than 1 degree across the entire surface area). * Removable grill plates. The plates remove with the push of a button. VERY easy to remove and reinsert. The competitors upper plate was tricky to reinsert and frustrated my wife immensely. These plates slide in and "click" into place. Easy to remove and clean (dishwasher safe) and reinsert. Plates are interchangeable. Either can be used for upper or lower placement. * Opens flat for open grilling. Great for pancakes, fried rice, stir fry, Philly steaks etc. * Large drip pan that inserts *into* the grill. Other grills typically have a tray that just sits in front of their grills. Easy to knock off or bump resulting in draining grease to drip onto the counter. Breville solved this problem by having the tray slide into the front of the grill. Tray is removable and dishwasher safe. Cons * The obvious one is price. This thing costs as much as a good quality outdoor bbq grill and double or triple the cost of competitors indoor grills. * The heating plates provided are an odd combination. One plate is the grill (ribbed) type and the other is flat griddle. To have both griddle or ribbed plates, you have to order them separately and at nearly $50 each, it adds an additional $100 to your initial investment. Having both upper and lower plates ribbed is pretty essential when grilling meat for example. * I'm not sure how it could be done (and this is a minor tick), but the power cord wraps into a recess under the grill and like many appliances that use this method of wrapping/stowing the cord, it's challenging to get it all wrapped correctly so that the grill will sit flat. Not a big issue but just a little annoying.. * It's heavy. This is really a pro and a con. Pro because it shows that this grill was made with high quality materials but a con because it's not something you'd want to lug around. It's size pretty much eliminates the idea of storing it in your standard sized kitchen cabinet so either you store it (in our case, the basement pantry) elsewhere or find a big spot on your kitchen counter. It's 9lbs. Oddly enough the grill we had returned weighed in at 12lbs but it seems lighter. Maybe because the cooking surface was smaller and it was easier to carry. Summary: For those who can spend the extra money and buy something that will cost two or three times more than most other indoor grills,you'll buy a product that will provide years of top quality service. The Breville grill is top of the line,easy to use, easy to clean, heats quickly and provides even cooking. This grill is well worth spending the money to get a top quality product that outperforms lesser quality grills by a wide margin. My recommendation is, if you can afford it, buy this once and be done with dealing with the hassles of indoor grilling. A final word about competitor grills - this review by no means is intended to demean their grills. I've owned their older models that worked fine and provided many years of reliable service. The ONLY one that I had issues with was the specific model that I returned. I cannot recommend that *particular* model. Please read my review for the GRP100 for details.