Customer Rating:  
Summary: This grill is HOT!... But not *that* hot.
Comment: I was very excited to receive this item from myself for Christmas. Though some of the reviews made me a bit wary I was willing to take the risk for the low price. Here's what I've found after having used it many times in the past 3 weeks:
This grill works pretty darn well, but not perfectly. If you add water to the drip pan it prevents smoke from the drippings, but the juices that stay on the cooking surface will still smoke some. In a way, that's a good thing because it helps your food still get *some* of that smokey grilled flavor, but not by filling your home with the stench of deceased cow juices. I find that as far as smell goes, making french fries on the stove has a stronger smell than this grill.
The flaw, as others have mentioned, is that the heating method is sometimes a little inefficient. The grill surface itself heats up as fast as any electric appliance, so don't worry about that, despite what you may have heard. The problem is that the heat isn't really retained around the food. This means that if you're cooking very thick things that it's going to be quite a bit longer cook time than your traditional enclosed barbeque.
I cooked some kebabs and found it took 15 minutes or so to make sure the meat was cooked thoroughly enough (and I like it medium). Then I took the advice of another amazon purchaser and put a sheet pan over the top of the grill. I also found that a standard cookie sheet with raised edges or a typical restaurant pan fit just fine. Enclosing the grill made the cook time drop to about 7 minutes.
All in all, I'm very pleased with this product. It isn't a perfect replacement for the old hibachi out back, but it's a lot faster, cleaner, and convenient. Since the weather has been snowy and below freezing lately I've really enjoyed being able to eat my food grilled when the mood strikes. The downsides are that the heat escapes a little too easily and that storage is a bit of a pain. But if you have the room, a bit of money, and a frequent craving for grilled food, get it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent grill, and the price is right
Comment: My wife bought this for me after doing a large amount of research on indoor grills. I got tired of starting my charcoal grill just to cook a small meal for the two of us. So far we have grilled steaks twice and chicken once.
The manual comes with suggested cooking times for many different types of meat. Even with chicken breasts that were about 2 inches thick, the manual was right on the money (about 15-20 minutes on each side). My friend came over for dinner and was so impressed with my chicken (marinated only in an roasted red pepper italian dressing I bought at the store) that he decided to buy the same grill.
The filet mignon I grilled was very thick, so I had to stray from the suggested cooking time. Since steak is so easy to overcook, I turned down the heat from the suggested 325 degrees and just let it cook longer. The result was absolutely delicious steak! My second attempt at steak was a much thinner cut of meat, so I did cook it for less time on a higher heat.
There really is very little smoke, and despite complaints from others, I think it takes minimal time for the grill to heat up. It's not instantaneous but it's certainly less prep time than a charcoal grill. If storage size is a problem, Sanyo makes a compact but similar version (see the HPS-SG2). Depending on the size of your sink, the SG2 may also be easier to clean.
I would definitely recommend this grill. It works great and allows you to stay inside and entertain guests while grilling, keep an eye on the little ones, and/or grill when weather conditions outside are unfavorable. The only downside I have seen so far is that the entire surface is always the same temperature. Not all meat is done at the same time, but I can't move meat off the grill for too long or else it will get cold.
Normally when I grill outside on my charcoal grill I leave one spot without coals, so that when some meat is done I can move it off of the coals but still keep it warm. This isn't possible with an electric grill such as this one, but one possible solution is to have an oven (or even toaster oven) on at 100-150 degrees. As things finish cooking on the grill, you can move them to the oven to keep them warm (without cooking them further) while you finish grilling the rest of the meal.
One final note: the sponges made for the George Foreman grills work perfectly for cleanup with this grill too!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yes
Comment: Just the thing when you have no yard. I live on the 19th floor and had no alternative for bar-b-que other than eating out. This is really great. Add water to the basin and you have no smoking to set off an alarm.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Comment: This is a wonderful electric grill. It heats up quickly and cooks my food thoroughly. I would recommend this to anyone who likes to grill indoors.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Made this my first review ever on Amazon!
Comment: I have bought many things on Amazon but this had to be the first item that I felt deserved my time. I just love this grill. I have an outdoor kitchen that is covered for the Winter. I bought whole filet mignon and made 2 meals out of it. The first meal I made on the stovetop in a pan. It came out ok but nothing like on the outside grill. So, I went searching for something portable. All I needed was a small grill to put on the deck to get me through the Winter. After searching Amazon, I came across indoor grills. For the price, we decided to give it a try. The grill arrived in 2 days and we took it out of the box and heated it up. Grilled the rest of the filet mignon and what a difference from the pan. It tasted and looked like we grilled it outside. It was done perfect! There was no smoke and we did not have to freeze our buns off outside. We have made chicken, steaks, shishkabobos and eggplant. All came out great! Have recommended to several friends and everyone is happy with it too.
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