Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I used to be a restaurant owner and chef, making superior toasted sandwiches on several commercial sandwich presses with flat plates and I really missed them after I left the business. After much consideration and reading reviews, I hesitatingly bought this unit due to mostly 5 star reviews. The Delonghi has a nice feature in the temperature control and overall build quality, however after making one sandwich I realized its serious shortcomings which I suspect is common to all grooved griddles. So this review is intended to point out the potential disappointments that others might have in expectations for grooved griddles versus flat presses. First of all, I do not understand griddle manufacturers assumptions that there is a predominant consumer need or desire (through their hype for grill marks on sandwiches) to achieve a supposed Italian "Panini" look. As pointed out from 2 consumers who left comments subsequent to this review, and who lived in Italy for some time, the word Panini, in Italy, simply means "sandwich", as a derivative of the Italian word for bread. So all sandwiches in Italy are called Panini, (without grill marks as part of the definition). They further assert that grill marks are an Americanized version of Panini and not native to Italy. In my opinion, grill marks may look cute but they are a functional waste for a toasted sandwich. The problem is that the deep impressions made in the bread causes an uneven heating of the bread surface and ingredients between the slices of bread. My desire from the start, was to recreate my earlier restaurant's craving for a classic Rueben with rye, big eye swiss, corned beef, kraut and thousand island dressing. The flat ridges on the griddle pushed deeply enough into the bread to cause the cheese to melt through the bread where the untoasted surface was between the grooves. So the flat ridges were toasting but not the depressions between them, where the cheese soaked through. Also consider that with rye being more dense than typical sandwich bread, it did not withstand gravity exerted by this process. The sandwich ended up a soggy mess within about 3-4 minutes and would not come out of the press without falling apart, due to the deep grooves where the bread got saturated from pressure, and "gave up", falling apart. So with hopes for good results and disappointment in its ability to toast sandwiches without using Ciabatta bread, I returned the unit, unsatisfied with the results. Considering that the reason I got the De'Longhi to begin with, was that I really wanted and looked for a flat griddle press to do toasted sandwiches, but in my rather extensive search on Amazon of multiple brands of this genre of toaster, yielded no results but the grooved "Panini" presses. Out of frustration, I went with the De'Longhi, in hopes that it would give a toasted sandwich, in spite of the fact that there might be "grill marks". I was OK with that, if it did what I was hoping for. After doing a Google search outside of Amazon, using different keywords, I discovered that Breville made what I was looking for, so I went back to Amazon and promptly found it among its offerings. I have no clue as to why Amazon did not return a "hit" before, using some of the same keywords. It kept giving me only grooved griddles. So I promptly bought the Breville unit because it is about the only one on the market that has flat griddle plates top and bottom for a truly even toasting over the entire surface of the sandwich. The heat level is constant and perfect and the surface area is larger than the Delonghi and it will actually accommodate 4 sandwiches at one time. The bottom plate features a raised lip around the perimeter to contain ingredients that may run out or for cooking meat. You can leave the sandwich in longer than the Delonghi to allow a more crusty surface if desired or more heat to the interior ingredients without burning anything. It toasts at a preset, unchangeable heat setting and is very forgiving on cook time so it would be hard to ruin anything cooked in it. I have also found it wonderful for cooking hamburger patties. And it does it very quickly. A third to half pound pattie will cook in 3-5 minutes, cooking both sides at one time. Not to mention that my Rueben now comes out perfect. I have also cooked Tyson marinated chicken breasts in it, with great results. And will next try sirloin steak cuts, which I am sure will yield excellent results, even though I believe there is only one way to truly cook a steak....on a gas or charcoal grill. The Breville also has a stair step slider lid support on the side handle to allow you to set variable thicknesses for ingredients to avoid smashing your toasted sandwiches to cardboard thin slices of bread. Also allows for great pizza reheating to crisp the crust on the bottom plate and setting the lid to the open "radiant heat" melt position, hovering to warm the topside ingredients while the crust does its thing. All in all, a much superior choice unless you like "tire rut" sandwiches. I am very impressed with this unit which performs as well as the $600 commercial units we used in my restaurant.