Swissmar Classic 8-Person Raclette Party Grill - Indoor Electric Grill & Griller with Granite Stone Grill Plate - Red

Invented in Switzerland, and way late making it to my table, this cook stove, if you want to call it that, is fantastic. Most people use it for parties. We do, too, but we cook on it 2-4 times a week. The name shouts, "Cheese," but we don't eat much cheese and when we do it is veggie cheese. In fact, the only meat we eat is wild 'caught in US' seafood. This cooks great shrimp! We also buy lobster tales and remove the shell and cut into pieces and cook. Salmon is mouth watering. Veggies are great on the grill. You can use the trays for heating bread, or crisping cooked veggies, or just warming food that is getting cold. The stone looks frightful after cooking a lot of food but let is sit overnight, run hot water over top, use a soft sponge, and it sparkles. We have used this to cook things like thinly slice sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, left over corn on cob that we cut off and lightly fry. In fact, it turns leftovers into fun meals. You are limited only by your imagination. When I read you could buy another top for eggs, pancakes, and crepes, I ordered one, and it, too, is amazing. We don't eat store bought eggs-we get them from a friend who has pet chickens that are never killed, and it fries up perfect eggs. Pancakes are yummy and the crepes are light. We throw our veggie sausages in the trays to cook, and if we have leftover broiled potatoes we cut them up and cook on top on in tray. The most amazing thing about both cooking surfaces is you don't have grease to clean up. No splatter! Ever. And it is virtually smokeless. We have a smoke detector over the table where we use the raclette and it has not set it off once. Now, what to know is why no one has not made a regular kitchen stovetop that cooks with this. I would buy a new stove in a jiffy!

All of the extended family sat down around the big table with raclette in the middle. I didn't think there would be enough space on the stone for everyone to work their food, but I was wrong. There was plenty of space for all eight of us! The pre-teens had fun using the tongs and creating their own concoctions of cheese, potato and shrimp. At first, the adults gingerly worked the asparagus and steak and shrimp. For the first ten minutes or so, it was pretty quiet. But then as everyone practiced, the process went faster and the chatter got louder. Oh me oh my, it was fun and the food was yummy! The side benefit for our family is that we were all sitting down at once at the big table. Grandma wasn't in the kitchen and the pre-teens weren't moping on the couch. One thing that surprised me was how easy the clean up went! I thought for sure that the stone of the raclette would be a pain to clean. Not so. It was easy, easy, easy. We'll definitely be doing this again soon. Family and food, who could want for more than that? P.S. buy a cookbook of raclette recipes. It was very helpful in choosing and preparing the foods.

We used our raclette for the first time last night, New Years Eve, and had a great time cooking vegetables and mushrooms on the granite surface and melting gruyere on boiled potatoes in the small pans under the heating element. This will be a regular part of our meal regimen. We can't wait to branch out into other types of food. Four stars is only because one of the spatulas arrived broken. Other than that, five stars for tasty food and a good time! 6th

This is such a fun way to entertain, or just dine as an older couple, chatting instead of eating and watching TV! I do not see the need to preheat in the oven. I plug it in when I start the baby potatoes in cold water on the stove top. By the time potatoes are done, stone is plenty hot to cook steak, chicken, salmon, shrimp, pork, veggies, whatever. I slice the proteins and veggies to about 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch. Cooks fast, so if you want rare, be quick! I had raclette about 50 years ago when visiting Switzerland. Never thought about it again until I saw it on Pinterest...rang a bell and just had to have one. We eat less, chat more, and just have a great meal and a great time with friends!

This grill heats up quickly and does a great job cooking vegetables and melting cheese. We used this twice for different family dinners, and the experience of sitting around the table together (which is less and less common among families these days, it seems) and "cooking" our meal was wonderful. We chatted and laughed. Food as social and familial bond. Wonderful. The stone is relatively easy to clean, but I would recommend the scraper that is sold by Swissmar since you aren't supposed to use anything abrasive when cleaning up. Quality product that provides lots of enjoyment!

We love this raclette! We've used it several times and no complaints so far. It heats up nicely and there is a knob to control the temperature on the side. The trays and scrapers are perfect. The people sitting at the ends of the table have to reach around to the trays but it really isn't a problem. The granite top comes right off and cleans up so easily - no scrubbing or scraping required. We've had some great dinner parties with it, and its a fun conversation piece. Plus I love the red on the bottom!

My wife and I had dinner with friends who had a Raclette. We cooked steak, shrimp, melted cheese and had a great time. So, we ordered one. This Swissmar Raclette is great. Has a nice stone top that looks great and functions great. We've had friends over to cook on it and everything turned out wonderful. Can melt cheese in the bottom trays and we've put mushrooms and potatoes in the trays. I nuke the potatoes first. A very nice product.

It took me awhile to review this product, mainly because I got this for my mom on mothers day, and it wasn't cold enough to use it until recently. I had my reservations based on what other people said on here about how hot it gets (or how hot it doesn't get I should say), and I found that that was pretty true. We do the trick of heating the stone up in the oven before hand, and it definitely does get the job done of cooking what we need to cook, but it isn't so much a "sizzling" type experience as much as it is just a slow steady heat. That being said, the unit is hands down the nicest looking raclette grill I have ever seen. I lived in Germany for awhile, and I used a variety of them, but this one is just gorgeous. I love the red and black grill, and the stone on top is beautiful. This was honestly the major reason I purchased it, because I know my mom likes good looking appliances (who doesn't?). Also the quality is extremely good. The pans that you put your cheese on underneath or amazing nonstick pans that are so easy to clean. Nothing is a pain to clean on this thing, even the stone. Overall, I would buy this again, mainly because it looks great, it gets the job done, and we love using it. If I was really annoyed enough by the heat, I would probably just order the metal grill top, but I think we will be just fine with this version!