Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This product is a disgrace to the All-Clad name. I should have believed the other negative reviews, but I was biased in favor of a trusted brand and mistakenly dismissed the experiences recounted by others. Do not make the same mistake I made. As an avid home cook I have heard many times that All-Clad is the best product money can buy. So I was willing to pay $50 for this square griddle frying pan, expecting it to be a superior product. There is really only one requirement for a pan like this. It should be flat. Sure, it should be durable, versatile, and possess an attractive design. But first and foremost it should be FLAT. This pan is not flat. The All-Clad logo is stamped into the exact middle of the backside of the pan. Right out of the box it was immediately apparent that the stamping process had warped the metal causing the cooking surface to bulge upward at the very center. But I thought it impossible for All-Clad to overlook such a deformity or to sell a product so clearly defective. So, to be certain, I filled the pan with water, at which point there was no mistaking it. The middle of the pan stuck out like a sore thumb. Water slid down the protruding middle and pooled on all sides. I find it impossible to believe that a company that manufactures top of the line cooking products didn’t think to check the flatness of a griddle that they were mass producing. This leads to only one possible conclusion. All-Clad was aware of the defect but chose to sell the pans anyway, hoping that most people would not notice. This is the kind of bait and switch that I expect from lots of companies. But All-Clad is supposed to be the best, a company worth trusting, who’s products last a lifetime when properly cared for. Perhaps something has changed at All-Clad. Maybe their management thinks it will be better for short term profits if they cash in on the company’s long standing good reputation and use it to sell overpriced garbage. I only know one thing for sure; my perception of the All-Clad brand has been irreparably warped, just like this crappy frying pan.