Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As a big fan of contact grilling, I'd worn out my George Foreman grill after several years of use and went looking for a serious upgrade and found this grill. I was initially concerned about the hefty price, but reading the reviews and looking at the pictures, I'd decided that it was clearly a high quality piece of equipment that would last and be worth the investment. When the grill came, I was not disappointed - the build quality on this thing is approaching commercial grade; everything from the dials, to the finish, right on down to the heavy duty A/C wall plug. If I was another home cooking appliance in my kitchen and had to sit next to this thing, I would feel seriously intimidated. The Breville Smart Grill isn't just for looks either, it cooks every bit as even and quick as every review says: chicken breasts in 5 minutes, whole thick bone-in steaks in 10 minutes, veggies, grill lines and all, the list goes on and on. After one week, I fell in love with this machine - I practically wouldn't eat anything that hadn't first been electrically heat-snuggled by my snazzy smart grill. After our initial honeymoon, and a good 4 months into our home-grilling marriage, the Breville Smart Grill broke my heart. When we first started cooking together, nothing, and I mean nothing stuck to her surface. I'd grill something, wipe her down, and enjoy my chicken/beef/veggies, but after a while I had to start prying my food from her surface - in short, she got clingy. I thought to myself, alright nobody is perfect, I still love her - but then the chipping began. Her beautiful, diamond like non stick surface began to come off - she was a smooth customer when we first met, but in just 4 months of loving, albeit often use, her surface became rough. Prying food quickly turned into violent struggles to retrieve my meal from her death grip without burning my hands in the process; a couple times she almost hurt me, and all I wanted was my dinner. We became distant, I started eating out, I couldn't even look at her when I went into the kitchen...I even unplugged her for a while. The last straw was when she started to fall apart on me - literally. After I'd recovered from our last couple fights, I plugged her back in and tried to give things another go, and that's when things got real bad. Not only would she not let go of my food, but now when I lifted her lovely steel handle she clung so hard to my chicken tenders that she'd detach her bottom plate....that's when I knew it was over. She doesn't cook for me anymore, she just sits on my kitchen counter and scares the crap out of my toaster...sometimes I let her burn some boneless chicken thighs for my dog, but that's about it. Every now and then, when I go into the kitchen, I see her and think of the good times, like when she grilled all those steaks for my buddies and I during the football game, or when she helped me impress this girl (she didn't mind my seeing women, as long as they didn't try to cook for me) with some excellent grilled salmon. That's what I do now, I just try to remember when things were great between us, and I try not to think about how bad things got - it's better this way.....it just wasn't meant to be.