Breville BGR820XL Smart Grill, Brushed Stainless Steel

This is a well designed grill for many reasons. The heating elements are in the grilling plates which heats up quickly and keeps the temperature consistent, when you put food on the plate you don’t have to wait for the plate to reheat. This is a larger size grill that you can stand up and push under the cabinets to save counter space. When you open the grill it does not hit the upper cabinets. The top plate variable height adjustment works perfectly and has a handle on the front so you won’t burn your fingers or have to use a pot holder for adjustments and the pivot hinges are not loose and stay in the place you put it. The cord plug design has a hole for your finger so you can pull and unplug the cord easily. It has a timer which is very easy to use and has come in handy. The temperature knob is easy to use with markings for panini or searing corresponding to the temperature. The plates are very easy to clean and the nonstick feels of quality that will last. I would recommend this grill especially because of the heating elements in the plates, the consistency of the temperature, the searing feature and overall design quality. It has made preparing meals faster and easier.

Since we couldn't find a George Foreman grill with removable plates that would get hot enough to sear the meat well (which provides the good taste, like in restaurants), I started looking around at different grills on Amazon. I read about the grills and read all the comments on each one.I finally decided on the Breville Smart Grill. I didn't like the price--$300, and I tried to find it cheaper elsewhere (other than Amazon), but no one had it for less. I live with my daughter, and I told her I was going to get it. She wanted to know how much. I said "$300," and she said "No way!" So I quietly ordered it anyway. I knew we could afford it and knew she would love it. And, she does love it! Almost everyone on Amazon.com's website's for the Breville "Comments" didn't like the price either, but said they decided to get it anyway, and they were so glad they did. They thought it was well made and that it was worth it. My daughter loves it so much she had me order another ribbed plate ($50) so our meat would have the grill marks on both sides of the meat. The Breville Smart Grill actually comes with 1 ribbed plate and 1 flat plate. You can use the flat plate for pancakes and sandwiches. A flat plate is available for $50.My daughter goes to a weight loss program, and so far she has lost over 50 pounds. She feels that the Breville has contributed to her weight loss by cooking the fat out of her food and making her food so tasty and flavorful, she stays on program. Every Saturday after she goes and weighs in, she goes grocery shopping for what she wants to eat for the next week. When she gets home, we start right in cooking. She grills lean sirloin burgers, beef strips, chicken burgers, chicken breasts and turkey burgers and freezes them. I get all of the vegetables ready to cook, and she cooks them. Our meals are all fixed ahead of time. All we have to do is thaw them and heat them up in the microwave.I like my meat extra rare, so my sirloin burgers come off after 1 minute. They are still raw in the middle, but continue to cook a little. They are rare enough so that after heating them in the microwave to warm them up, they are just perfect for me! My daughter cooks hers for 2 minutes, and after she heats hers up, they are perfect for her. We had to experiment in the beginning with the thickness of the hamburgers and how long to cook them to get them to how we wanted them. At first we overcooked a lot of things, not believing how quickly they cook. We checked in some grill cookbooks, and they all gave times that were way too long.What we like about our grill:1. The thing that we both like best about our Breville is that it gets hot enough to sear meats, which adds greatly to the taste.2. The grill plates are removable.3. The grill is slanted, and you can adjust the amount of the tilt.4. There is a drawer that contains the fat that runs off. It's not out in the open where you can easily bump and spill it.5. We love that there is a thermostat that you can adjust, and it actually works accurately.6. There is a window on the grill that shows the temperature.7. The grill is made of stainless steel and is extremely well built.8. You have to actually turn it on, not just plug it in.9. There is a built-in timer that dings.10. The grill plates lock in with metal locks (not plastic) and release easily.11. The large handle that you lift the lid with is placed where you would not be likely to burn yourself.12. You can adjust the distance between the grill plates so it will take a nice, 1" thick steak and also cook something thin without mashing it.13. You can lock the lid closed if you want to stand it up on the counter or carry it.Even though the grill plates are removable, I decided to hand wash them because I think it will preserve the non-stick finish. I also bought a Steven Raichlen Best of Barbecue Barbecue Sauce Mop with Removable Head. I use it without the handle, and it's just perfect for cleaning the grill. It's also easy and quick to hand wash. Also, I wouldn't hesitate to wash it in my washing machine to remove any bacteria, but I'd rinse it well first. I wrote a review on this mop.I saw another mop that looked like it would also work well to wash your grills. It's the Fox Run Silicone Barbecue Basting Mop, although it doesn't look like you can take the handle off of that one to wash in your washing machine. But you could probably figure a way to wash it in a corner of your dishwasher so the revolving arms don't hit it. Both of these mops are on Amazon.com's website.

If you're in the market for an electric grill look no further then this Breville "Smart" grill. If you're new to Breville you're probably questioning how Breville can get $300 for this product when most other grills are under $100. The difference however is in Breville's quality and performance. This is my second Breville product (I also own the Breville Smart Oven which is equally amazing) and I really couldn't be happier.In the interest of keeping this review show and readable I will highlight what I really like about this product.First, the grill comes with 2 plates, one is a flat griddle style plate and the other is ribbed like a regular grill. The flat plate is great for pancakes, grilled cheese, paninis and anything else you can think of to cook on a flat surface. The grill plate is great for steaks and chops and anything else you'd like to have grill marks for that caramelized flavor. Some people complain that the product does not come with 2 of each style but they can be purchased separately for $50 each. A great feature of this product and these plates is that they are dishwasher safe so when you are done cooking you simply move a level which releases them from the grill, drop them in the dishwasher and forget about them.Another great feature is the grill's ability to maintain temperature. For years and years I struggled to make the perfect pancake. Using a stovetop grill surface heated by my stove my pancakes never came out perfect. If my stovetop grill stayed under the gas too long it got to hot and if the gas wasn't high enough the grill would not get hot enough to fully cook pancakes. I'm happy to say that I can now make the perfect pancake each and every time. I dial the temperature to 370 degrees, pour the batter on the flat grill surface, wait 3 minutes, flip, wait 2 minutes and they are done, perfectly, each and every time. Breville claims this is the "smart" portion of the grill sensing when something cold was placed on a plate and causing the grill to heat more to maintain a constant temperature.For steaks and chops I use the grill plates (yes I bought the extra flat and grill plates), preheat the grill to 450 degrees, place my steaks or chops down and in just a few minutes they too are cooked to perfection.Another great feature is the built in timer. To set the timer you twist the left knob to set the minutes then press the center button. The grill will count down the time and signal when done but most importantly does not turn off the heating function which I think is great because sometimes you just want to check what you are cooking them set the timer a second time. As an added bonus the timer can also be used start along without cooking. This is useful to me because I leave the Smart Grill on the counter and it's always useful to have an extra timer in the kitchen.The Smart Grill includes a drip tray to catch dripping while cooking. Besides being very easy to remove and clean, it actually does catch ALL the drippings. At the end of the cooking session there are no stray drops of grease or oil, everything drips right into the tray. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Smart Grill can be adjusted by the flick of a level between a level or angled (toward the drip tray intake) cooking position. For pancakes and other sandwiches I use the flat/level position, for greasy food like steaks, chops, chicken, bacon (yes you can cook bacon on this grill) and anything else that gets wet while cooking I use the angled setting.Yet another great feature is the locking and height adjusting upper plate. When you close the lid on the Smart Grill you can choose to "lock" the top lid in place making it easily to lift, move and store the grill by lifting by the handle. Besides the locked position you can also choose from several height settings preventing the grill from crushing a fragile sandwich while cooking.The LCD display is very useful in telling you what is going on. Besides showing the timer function, it also displays the selected temperature and when the grill is heating (or not).All in all I can't think of a single bad thing to say about this product. It's easy to use, cooks wonderfully and is easy to clean. I know this Smart Grill costs a lot more than the competition but really there is no competition here, you get what you pay for and this product is worth every penny. Give it a try, you definitely won't be disappointed!