T-fal GC702D53 OptiGrill Stainless Steel Indoor Electric Grill, 1800-watt, Silver

First off, let me start by saying that the price on here is messed up. It is about twice as much as on other sites. This can be had for $179.99 at almost any other retailer. Not sure what Amazon is thinking, but they are seriously messed up. That being said, I received this as a Christmas gift, and it works fantastic. Easy to use, easy to clean, and the results are perfect. The cook time is amazingly short too. Once preheated, this little marvel cooked 3, one inch NY strip steaks in under 5 minutes to a beautiful Medium. The results were juicy perfectly cooked steak. I have also made chicken, a panini, and bacon (yes bacon!The slanted cooking surface makes all the fat run off.) This is a wonderful machine a great way to cook fast and healthy meals. I love outdoor grilling but it is way too cold for that where I live in the winter. This definitely is a great substitute, plus, I never have to worry about the meat being under or overcooked. It is perfect every time. If you like grilling, this is a great product at $179.99. Don’t pay more than that though.

I’ve had my OptiGrill for about a week now, I too purchased it elsewhere to save money. So far I’m very happy with the purchase. My old grill was a George Foreman, nothing fancy just plug in & grill. Both grills take up about the same amount of counter space. With the Foreman having a larger grilling area (about 13″X9″) than the OptiGrill (about 12″X7 1/2″). I find the added “bells & whistles” of the OptiGrill make it a better cooking experience. I just cooked frozen chicken breasts in about 16 minutes. 5 minutes for the grill to warm up & 11 for the chicken to cook. I like that I can walk away from it & do other things while it cooks. The OptiGrill beeps loud enough I can hear it from another room. With the Foreman I would need to stay close by and check on the food from time to time. That wasn’t much of an issue because I normally cook other things on the stove near by while using the grill. I have however over cooked things on the Foreman because my attention was too focused on the pots & pans & oven. So far the OptiGrill has cooked all my food consistently. I’ve enjoyed well done chicken, pork, & steak that was still juicy inside. I tried a grilled cheese & leaving it in till Well Done made it very flat. I’ve been using a paper towel to wipe a little olive oil on the plates before powering on & my meat has come out with nice char marks every time. I’ve noticed in some of the other reviews people complain about “No Char Marks” & I wonder if it’s because they don’t lightly oil the plates. I’m not so concerned with looks as I am taste, and my food thus far has tasted great. Though I’ve noticed cooking thawed meat tastes better than frozen. Last of all I really like the ease of clean up on the OptiGrill. On the the Foreman I had to let it cool a bit but not too much, then wash it down where it stood on the counter. Careful not to over fill the catch tray or burn my fingers. I found if I let the Foreman cool all the way it was a beast to clean. Despite my best efforts it was often a messy clean up. The OptiGrill has a much larger catch tray and REMOVABLE PLATES. If you don’t buy an OptiGrill make sure the grill you do get has removable plates. There is no more mess left on my counter top after cleaning my OptiGrill. That alone has made the upgrade worth while.

If you like to come home and want to eat but you forgot to take something out of the freezer, this is for you. I love this grill, it has many features that are lacking on my Cuisinart grill that I plan to donate to Goodwill. This OptiGrill has all of the features that I wanted in a grill, and it really does live up to its advertised reputation. I purchased my grill from Bed, Bath and Beyond, they are selling it for $179.00 but if you have a 20 percent coupon it will cost even less. I have no cons to offer about this grill and I consider it an excellent addition to my kitchen. I will publish and update in a month or so.

After seeing the infomercial on early morning cable TV, and reading Dorothy Sinkler’s review and comments here, I did as she did and bought this grill at Bed, Bath, & Beyond using a coupon. Total cost, including tax, was $152. How on earth Amazon wants just under $400. for the same item is beyond me, but my guess is that they are not selling any here. Maybe someone from Amazon can comment on this, as they generally have some of the lowest prices for many items.

This is a good grill for one or two people. I say this because it will only hold two large burgers, or maybe three small steaks or chicken breasts at a time. The included guides do caution against any meats thicker than one-and-a-half inches. I have used it so far to cook frozen hamburgers and fresh steaks. The hamburgers came out fine. However, the steaks were slightly over-cooked, but that may be because I was interrupted during the pre-heat cycle and therefore had to re-start it before placing the meat onto the grill. Medium came out well-done, and well done was slightly scorched.

This grill cooks quickly, is smokeless (thanks, Dorothy!), and very easy to clean. The lower grill tips slightly forward, and so if you rub any oil on the non-sick surface, frozen hamburgers tend to want to slide off before you can position them and close the top. However, fresh meat sticks long enough to give you the time you need. Once shut, you can easily remove one steak or burger at medium and leave the other on till well-done. I am getting nice dark grill marks, not the gray ones mentioned elsewhere. I am planning fresh burgers for supper tonight, and will turn the meat once to obtain the “crosshatch” pattern. The two plates come off easily, as does the drip pan from beneath. I have been washing them in the dishwasher without any problems. The grills are very light and easy to load into the bottom tray of a dishwasher.

As I learn more about how this machine cooks, I may switch to rare for steaks (me) and medium (wife) rather than our traditional medium and well-done. As the booklet says, the type, thickness, and quality of the meat is as important to your meal as is the grill you cook on. We have both enjoyed grilled meats together for almost forty years now, and I am getting tired of running back-and-forth to the back deck just to cook two hamburgers. We are willing to give up the true smoky flavor in favor of convenience and more precise doneness of the meats. I will continue to cook outdoors when we have more than two people, but this grill fits well on our kitchen countertop and into our current lifestyle.

This is my 3rd grill and finally an indoor grill that doesn’t press all the fat out and dry the heck out of the meat. I purchased this for dinner along with a bag of boneless skinless chicken breast, went home cleaned the grill & started grillin. The grill plates are light & very easy to take out & put back in (this was a problem I had with my last grill). Cleaning the grill plates was also a peice of cake. I only wish I would have purchased the chicken breast that are flatter (I think they call them grilling breast). I had the thicker ones which I think was the first part of my learning experience with this grill (the instructions say no thicker than 1.5 inches). I grilled mine frozen. Everything was fine until I realized the green light was on a little too long for me so I stopped the grill (now that the breast were thawed) and restarted the process but that was not a problem. The breast (though thick) were done and juicy within 3 or 4 mins. I was VERY pleased. Having learned from that experience I went ahead and thawed my husband’s breast (chicken breast, that is) seasoned them & split them down the center and I could smell the seasoning on the meat grillin all the way upstairs (yum). The only con about this grill so far is the size of the grill. I thhink We purchased this because my husband (who NEVER cooks) says he would start using this to make his own food and that he wanted to start eating healthier. Now that we know the grill works, let’s see if he will keep his word. He made his own chicken breast (though I prepared them) so we are off to a great start!!!

I have no idea how this thing works so well, but it does. So far I have done chicken breasts, steaks, sandwiches, and sausages on it and somehow the sensor gets it right every single time. It is heavy and solid (read: well-built) and the non-stick surface on the removable grill plates does not feel cheap, it should last a long time (especially if hand-washed). I show this grill off to everyone who comes over and people comment on how well it works. Can’t recommend it enough!

I am a working mom and I always struggle with forgetting to take something out of the freezer before I leave in the morning. Therefore, I come home to frozen chicken and screaming kids. This has completely solved my problem. You can actually put FROZEN meat on the grill and it DEFROSTS the meat and COOKS it. The end result is AMAZING.

Purchased this online just over a week ago.
Had a Foreman grill been using awhile. I liked the Foreman grill ok but many times I would overcook my food or the chicken would be a bit dry (probably cause I overcooked it too).
The Forman Grill worked well enough. It was the Next Gen version with temp controls. I did like the removable grates which this one has as well.
The build quality of the T-Fal is at least 1 order of magnitude better than the Foreman. You can see some of this when you pull the grates or open and close the lid. The grease trap is much larger on the T-Fal. The controls on the T-Fal are fine I would had liked a bit more solid feel to them for the price but they are not bad at all. Just use with some degree of care and feel.

Cooked a 1.5″ thick NY Strip for my 1st cooking. Turned out FANTASTIC! Used Weber Chicago Steak seasoning and PAM high Temp Non stick spray. It cooked the steak to a perfect med rare and fork tender n juicy. I may or may not have made a better steak on my Weber charcoal grill but that takes about 30-45 mins of prep. This prep took 5 mins.

Next I cooked a Frozen chicken breast. Using the same PAM high Temp spray again, set the grill to defrost, poutry and then OK. After a short preheat put the frozen chicken breast on and seasoned it with some Weber kick-n-chicken seasoning . Now doing it this way will take about 3x longer than cooking a chicken breast from thaw. Once it was done I immediately pulled it and cut and tasted it. It was pretty darn good from frozen I will say. Much better than when I use warm water or microwave(microwave thawing I think makes it a little tougher and slightly chewy). By far best same day frozen to done chicken I ever did.

I also cooked a thawed chicken breast. This was a Cilantro Lime pre-marinated breast from Wal-Mart (about $5.98). I set the grill to just poultry – then it preheated a bit longer, sprayed on the PAM High Temp Grill spray and let it rip. It was done a good bit quicker than the frozen and was absolutely marvelous! Very very juicy and fork tender. While the results were “good enough” on the frozen chicken to eat and enjoy cooking from say an overnight thaw should produce excellent results. Anytime you quick thaw something you tend to lose a bit of tenderness in either beef or poultry. I have to say I dont think I have made a chicken breast this good over open flame. While I miss the charcoal twang in the taste just a little, the fork tender and evenly cooked state of the breast is simply fantastic.

I did burgers from Frozen. I used SAMS Choice Jalapeno Black Angus frozen patties. They are 1/3rd pound thick. I used PAM High Temp Grill spray – Turned out perfectly! Now these were tender and juicy unlike poultry ground beef does pretty well from frozen.

My sister came over and made her Salmon on it and LOVED IT! Now if your doing fish DONT use the Pam High Temp cooking spray, Use your normal olive oil or regular spray as I believe the grill presets begin at a lower temp. Use normal olive oil for grilled veggies,shrimp and other stuff.

So what is the huge advantage vs the Foreman? Well in a busy schedule it removes a lot of the guesswork out of the time to grill and uses temp presets ,auto thawing, temp change programming and thickness of the selected item to predetermine time to done. And it really does work great! The only caveat to it and they mention it in the guide is if you want a medium rare steak, you cook it to Medium Rare but then let it sit say 5 minutes before eating it , most likely carryover cooking will take it to more Medium done. So stop your cooking about halfway between the Rare and Medium rare color change as I have started doing, let it sit 5 minutes and it will be perfect.

This is a great grill for a college student, elderly or someone who needs a fast efficient cooking grill that takes a lot of uncertain guesswork out of cooking.

Pros
SUPER EASY! Takes a lot of guess work out of cooking meats to desired doneness
Efficient – 1800 watts – about the same power as a hairdryer – lot less power than the oven
Removable grates – Cleanup isnt bad at all about the same as the Foreman
Fairly compact – fits easily and for me permanently on my counter

Cons
A little pricey – I paid $89 for my Foreman 4 or 5 years ago. This was about 2x that price
Alert beeper – Could be a little louder if your in another room or have noisy kids around
Soft Touch Controls – I prefer more solid feeling controls

For the first time in 25 years I can make a hamburger or chicken breast that isn’t overcooked. I’m not very good in the kitchen and always fear my meat will be undercooked. As a result, I overcook everything. I’ve had a George Foreman grill forever. But having to constantly check the meat, overcooking and messy clean-up lead me to the OptiGrill. Despite its bulky appearance, it’s pretty light. The grills snap on and off for very easy clean-up. And the set it & forget it capability is terrific. I lay out the meat, close the grill and watch the light turn color – letting me know where I’m at in the cooking process. I found my sweet spot where my burgers aren’t pink but very juicy. There is a manual setting that allows you to cook without the grill’s advice. You do have to preheat the grill before cooking. This means if you want to make a dozen burgers, you’ll have to preheat the grill each time you put on a new batch. This slows things down a bit, but the time factor is negligible. The drip tray is big and sturdy and needs to be kept separately if you want to store the grill in a tight space, as it adds some size to the machine. I bought mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond and used one of the ubiquitous 20% off coupons for about $160 including tax. I highly recommend this electric grill.

Not hard to operate at all, and I got good, consistent results. Great for people who need to cook quickly with minimal cleanup. Very easy to incorporate into a cooking routine. I initially became interested in electric grills on the advice of a weight loss cookbook on how to make quick nutritious meals. I chose T-Fal over a competitor because the grill plate is sloped, allowing the fat to drain off and away.