Breville BGR820XL Smart Grill, Brushed Stainless Steel

Newest Update: Grill still working fine! I am using it now several times per week. It is my favorite and most useful small appliance. The removable plates and the ability to get really hot to sear meat are probably the two best features.When putting the two plates back onto the appliance, just seat the two corner tabs for each plate into the nesting place for them and tap each plate into place. I was trying to seat the connectors on the back of each plate, and it was giving me some trouble, but don't do it that way. The connectors seat themselves when you slide the corner tabs into their little holders. It really is duck soup to reseat the plates if you pay attention to the little corner tabs, only. They go right in, and so does each plate. Then tap each plate to complete seating it.Earlier Update: Try cooking bacon on this grill. It cooks bacon much faster than bacon cooks in a pan, and the clam shell top keeps the bacon flat. There is obviously a lot of grease from a whole tray lined with bacon strips, but it all runs out the back and into the grease tray.Suggestions: When you buy steaks, get boneless ones because the bone can hold the top grill plate above the steak, and the top won't cook. Also, when you buy steaks, be sure to ask for all of them to be the same height, that is, of equal thickness. That way, you can stick a thermometer into one of the steaks (stick it in from the side) and the other(s) will be the same doneness as the first. Always ask for this at the meat counter. Sometimes I forget to, and I am always annoyed when I get home with two pieces of meat that are different thicknesses.As you may be able to tell from the review below, I really love this grill. Great product!I have had two of the previous Breville clam shell grills. The first one died, but I liked it quite a bit so I bought another. They were both good. My husband refuses to eat charcoal or gas-grilled food (especially charcoal) so it isn't worth it for me to try to grill out for myself and then try to fix something for him in the house. So an indoor grill is nice for us. Also the clam shell feature is wonderful because it speeds up cooking a lot. You get so spoiled by it that you don't want to grill things in a pan on the stove at all.Three things that I wished the earlier two Breville grills had were adjustable temperature (never got hot enough to really sear meat), removable grill plates, and a tilted design with grease tray underneath. This new one has all three! I am glad that I didn't wait for the second grill to die before I bought this one. It is a huge improvement in design over the ones I had before, and they were good. Even my husband is happy with it, and he never wants to replace anything that isn't actually broken.The two plates come off easily and go back on fairly easily (you do have to get the hang of getting them back into place). The grill gets as hot as you want and fairly fast. It sears meat just fine. The grease tray is as convenient as one could possibly be. It catches the grease at the back of the grill, but it extends all the way underneath the grill from front to back so that you remove it easily from the front, like pulling out a little drawer. It goes back in very easily. Everything washes up just fine.I love this grill! It was absolutely worth the price for me. I wish I had bought it sooner. I grill loads of things on it. As others have mentioned, I leave it out on the counter. It would be a little hard to store.

I have been a fan of George Foreman grills for a long time, and hence I was a little taken aback by the price of this one, which is 10X the price of an entry level George Foreman, so the obvious question is, it is worth it.I have put the unit through its paces, and have been very impressed. First, I should say right off the bat that I purchased the extra ribbed grill plate. Call me old fashioned, but I like grill marks on both sides of my food, and I really did not plan on using the flat plate. Hence, most of my testing was with the ribbed plate on top and bottom.The first thing I notices was how quickly the unit comes up to temperature. I like to chargrill/sear meat, and after plugging in and turning on, the unit was up to 450 degrees in a matter of minutes. My first test was Gyro patties. I had almost two pounds of ground lamb, which I portioned into 6 patties. The fat content of the meat was fairly high . . . 20%, so this was a good test to see if spattering was going to be a problem. When I put the almost 2 pounds of ground lamp onto the grill, and closed the lid, the unit came back to full temperature quickly. I took at peak inside at 4:00 minutes, and meat was nicely seared on both sides, and it looked fully cooked. I left it on for another two minutes, and the meat was nicely well done with impressive chargrill marks on both sides. So for two pounds of meat, it was perfectly done in about six minutes. I did a test where I put one gyro patty on by itself, and it was completely cooked at about 4 minutes.While I love my wife, she is a little bit of a Kitchen Nazi, and I take my life into my hands when I cook something, especially something that might generate a greasy mess in her kitchen. I must say I was extremely pleased to see virtually no splatter cooking with this thing, with the lid down. Again, the meat I was cooking was fairly high fat lamb. and cooking two pounds, the meat was getting close to the edge of the grill on all sides. So, this was pretty much a worst case test, and almost no splatter at all.Cleanup was a snap. The grill plates snap right off. They are listed as "Dishwasher Safe", but I would never risk that. I washed them by hand, which took just a couple of minutes, hand dried them with a soft towel, and then put them back safely on the unit. Understand that is no such thing as a rugged non-stick surface, and to be happy with this unit, like all fine things, you must be very careful cleaning, handling and cooking on the non-stick surface. Use only soft spatulas, and no metal against them. Be careful washing them as well. The grill plates are relatively expensive, and I dont want to have to replace them for years, so I am being very careful with them.The food I have cooked on the grill has turned out perfectly. The unit is easy to use, easy to clean up, does not make a mess while you are cooking and cooks meat FAST. The meat can be cooked with pronounced chargrill marks, if that is what you are after. Of course, you can turn the temp down and get more of a slow roast effect, but I like the chargrill marks, and associated char flavor.OK, the big question . . . was it worth it. What I like about this unit is that it gets the grill plates hot, and keeps them hot even if you put a big load of cold meat on them. The second thing is it has a very large cooking area. Like I say, I cooked six large portions of ground lamb in one cooking, so you can cook for a fairly large group with it.So, as a fairly serious cook, I think these two features make it worth the money. I do love the little George Foreman grills and still have several, but I musts say that I am very pleased with the Breville, and can suggest it to anyone wanting to take their indoor grilling to the next level.OK, a couple of minor quibbles. I think shipping the unit with one flat and one ribbed grill plate is the worst of both worlds, and was stung a little by having to pay an extra $50 because I wanted top and bottom with ribbed plate. With these really high prices, Breville should offer the purchaser the option of which plates they want, two smooth, or two ribbed, or one each.Again, even though this unit is expensive, I think it is worth it, and I am pleased to own it, and recommend it to other serious cooks.

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.