I feel like I am back on the streets of Paris every time I plug in my beautiful Cuisinart Panini and Sandwich Press. This press makes the best grilled cheese sandwich you ever ate, I guarantee it. I love how you can stick a whole hoagie roll or chunk of french bread loaf with sandwich makings inside into it and squish it into a hot & yummy hunk of cheese-oozong goodness. Or, you can use regular bread and make toasty club sandwiches or grilled cheese.
This guy hangs out in the cupboard and is easy to pull out, just plug in and wait for the green light to come on. You can have a quick french dip dinner ready in 5 minutes that everyone will love- also perfect for grilled cheese and tomato soup night- or just want to make some garlic bread to go with your spaghetti without heating up the whole oven? I LOVE my panini press.
It is really easy to clean- although I haven't tried grilling meats or anything beyond sandwiches and bread. Gooey cheese comes off easily and the whole thing wipes down quickly with a damp washcloth.
Elvis would have died over the peanut butter and banana sandwiches we make in this baby! The frying pan's got nothin' on our Panini Press.
Normally I'm not one to go crazy over kitchen appliances but I am compelled to sing the praises of this little wonder. This is sad, but my wife and I eat grilled cheese sandwiches a couple of nights a week because we love them so much. It's sort of our dirty little secret. This little miracle has opened up a whole new universe of possibilities. Our old-style Salton grilled-cheese maker would invariable push the top slice of bread out from the rest of the sandwich because of the operation of the hinge, and forget about putting anything in there other than bread and a couple of slices of cheese because it couldn't handle the thickness. With the GR-1 though, you can put a Dagwood-sized sandwich (the floating hinge allows HUGE sandwiches) in and in just a few minutes, the weight of the top plate has compressed the whole thing into a critical mass of concentrated goodness. Anything I can put between two piecs of bread is becoming a panini these days. This will probably take five years off of my life because I have doubled my weekly consumption of molten cheese, but it's worth it.
After reading the reviews of similar products and this one and knowing that I'm always disappointed when I go for the cheap stuff, I bought this one. I am SO glad I did. My son has been a big fan of grilled cheese sandwiches for 5 years now and it's not slowing down. I hate getting out the frying pan (and the butter) and making them the old-fashioned way. With the Cuisinart, I don't have to use butter. The taste is still great! My son gives it a thumbs up. Plus in less time than it takes me to make one the old-fashioned way I can make two. And my son can use it too. It's so easy, just put the cheese in the bread, wait for the green light, put the sandwich on the griddler and watch it do all the work. I've experimented with other kinds of sandwiches and they all turn out perfectly. I even use it to do quesadillas and heat up fish sticks. It works and makes them crunchy. Plus it doesn't heat up the whole house like the oven does.
I looked at several panini presses before deciding on the Cuisinart. We have been very happy with the performance of this panini press. It heats quickly and the floating hinge allows the cooking of thicker sandwiches. The press is simple to clean, even if cheese has baked onto the grill surface. The only thing that might make this press better is a larger grilling surface. But, for the money, this press certainly does the job.
I started out using the Griddler for meats and sandwiches, but now I use it nearly every day to heat beans or mashed potatoes, for frying eggs even for quick carmelizing of small batches of sauces. It seems I find a new way to use the thing nearly once a week. I've had it for six months and it is well used.
The only thing I don't like about it is I have to make certain it tilts slightly forward. The griddles are very shallow and juices and liquid eggs tend to run off the edge if you are not there to control them. When liquids run backward over the edge they tend to collect under the plate where they get burned by the heating elements -- and its damned hard to clean.
The stainless steel is difficult to clean. The outside gets very hot and tends to burn on any oil that makes its way to the front edge of the Griddler. Difficult to get off without resorting to harsh cleaners which scratch the surface.
But, as an everyday appliance it suits my bachleor life style very well and the design is typically Cuisinart: slick industrial. Despite its frustarting flaws I love the dmaned thing-- sort of the waya paraent loves a sloppy teen.
This panini press has two distinct advantages over larger and more expensive models--namely, it is smaller and less expensive! As panini are usually made one at a time anyway, getting a multi-sandwich sized machine is just a waste of counter and storage space. This press has room for two sandwiches if you want to cook more than one at a time, but it is compact and easy to put away. It heats up quickly, and works like a waffle iron--one light says ready to go, the other says wait a minute. Pretty simple.
The floating handle provides even pressure on sandwiches, which come out warm and deliciously crunchy. One warning for households with small kids--the whole unit (except for the handle) gets pretty hot.
This is a satisfactory low cost panini maker that is perfect for singles, couples, or even small families.'
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