Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a fairly inexpensive piece of equipment, and the value to price ratio is quite high. I'm happy with the purchase, but there are definitely some issues you may want to be aware of, which is why I've deducted one star. I've been using this for over six months now, so I have a pretty good feel for what it does and does not do well, at this point. Overall: This is a simple and mostly well designed griddle. It does what it's supposed to do, which is get hot and cook stuff. It has a nice big surface, heats up quickly enough, and can clean up easily (more on that below). I don't think it's a good choice for especially greasy or splatter-prone foods, so make sure you know what kind of stuff you want to make before committing to this. Mostly I use this for cooking pancakes, and it does a pretty good job there. I use a small amount of cooking spray, and nothing ever sticks, even slightly. Cooking pancakes is all about temperature control, and this griddle definitely delivers there. It's easy to adjust and hold at exactly the right temperature, and the surface "recovers" (i.e. comes back to temp) quickly, batch after batch. You never have to pause and wait. That's a big pro in my book. On the con side, evenness. This is an inexpensive griddle, and sometimes you get what you pay for. The edges get MUCH hotter than the middle, so if you're cooking pancakes around the sides it's common to see a coloration gradient, where the pancake is lighter on one side than the other. The solution, if this bothers you, is to turn the pancakes before flipping -- but I don't usually bother. The bigger issue is the cool spot in the center, which is fairly large and significantly different than the edges, to where it starts impacting timing. That's certainly an annoyance and the main cause of my taking a star off for this review. Now for the "tilt 'n drain" feature. This is a feature that is presumably supposed to help with cooking greasy stuff that kicks off a lot of oil. But here's the thing: Just don't do that. I cooked bacon on this griddle exactly once, and I won't do it again because I like the surfaces in my kitchen to not be coated with a layer of grease. This griddle has no raised edges, so the grease flies right off of the surface and onto every surrounding area. I tried tilting and draining, but not much of the grease actually stayed on the griddle to be drained. Another minus of the tilt 'n drain feature is cleanup. When you tilt, the grease (or whatever) goes down a channel and into a little drawer, and you're supposed to pull that drawer out and dispose of its contents. That's a good idea, except that the channel in question is narrow, goes slightly under the cooking surface, and can't be removed. This means that cleanup is a total pain if any of your unwanted material gets congealed or otherwise stuck in there -- you'll have to figure out some way to wedge a brush or some paper towels into the various nooks and crannies, and that's no fun. Another cleanup issue with the tilt 'n drain is the handles. Same problem as the channel. Splattering grease (or even cooking spray) gets into those cracks, and there's no good way to get it out. Assuming that you don't have a grease issue -- for example, if you're just cooking pancakes and maybe some eggs -- cleanup is really quick and easy. I like to leave the griddle on for a few moments when I'm done cooking and start the cleanup process with a small handful of wet paper towel. When it hits the hot griddle it steams off any food or oil residue. Then I shut down the griddle, give it a few swipes with some dry towel, and it's good to go. Usually I don't need to bother with putting it into the sink, as the steam effect takes care of things for me. All in all I'm happy with this tool, despite its flaws, and if you need to cook a lot of pancakes or similar items for a group I would certainly recommend it.