Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat little grill! No holes for things to fall through.
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019
The unique part of this grill is the grilling surface. Instead of the usual wire grate like other grills, this has a solid plate with vents in it to distribute the heat. The plate is corrugated to give you nice grill marks, but you can also put vegetables, shrimp and other smaller items directly on the grilling surface without having to worry about them falling through into the flames below. I also put soaked wood chips directly on the grill surface while cooking food to add a rich, smoky flavor. No need to light 'em with a propane torch first either. The grill is hot enough to get them smoking right away.
This grill gets really hot! *REALLY* hot. One of the major complaints in other reviews is that it gets too hot and will burn the food. You have to change the way you do things a little bit to get the best results. Read the manuals that come with it and follow the directions. Oil and preheat the grill, then turn it down to the appropriate setting for whatever you are cooking. Watch your food closely, because it will cook lightning fast! If it is still too hot, prop the lid open to let it cool down some more, or open it briefly to let it cool off then close the lid again. Some recipes actually call for preheating the grill, putting your food on, bringing it to temperature and then then shutting the gas off entirely to let the retained heat do the rest of the cooking.
This grill also has a little bit different maintenance than other grills, however it is really worth it to me for what a great job it does. Every use, once food is done cooking, you close the lid and turn it up to the High setting for 10-15 minutes, which will burn any residue to ash, just like a self-cleaning oven! There is a special tool that comes with the grill to scrape it clean once it has cooled down from this final burn-off. It is great at cleaning the ash from those little vents and keeping it working at top performance. Finally, rub the grill surface down with some kind of high temp cooking oil to season it. Over time, as you use it, the surface will imbibe the oil like a cast iron cooking pan and develop a nice almost non-stick surface.
Finally, another complaint in previous reviews mentions that the grill fires up great for the first use then will not get over 250 degrees after that in subsequent uses. This grill is rather particular about the order in which you do things to light it up and shut it off. If this problem happens to you (like it did to me) the solution is fortunately an easy fix. Shut down the fuel to the grill and remove the supply line (or propane bottle) from the regulator. Leave it off for about a minute, then reattach everything. Then follow the lighting and shut off instructions for your grill *exactly* as they are listed in your users manual. The regulator that comes with this grill has a built in safety mechanism that can be triggered if you shut things down in the wrong order, choking down the fuel supply until it has been reset. It happened to me the second time I fired it up and then, once I figured out the cause and reset it, it has not happened since.
This grill also has a drip pan that slides in and out the front, so it won't coat your cooking table with grease either.
