Rob's Rants

There are some things that even the best grill – gas or charcoal – just can’t do well. Like make a hamburger with a nice crust on the outside. Or make hash browns. The usual way to overcome this flaw is to use a pan or some sort, like a cast iron skillet. Or to get a fancy new grill with a side burner and some kind of cheap accessory griddle. My grill came with one – it’s about the size of two postage stamps and has a cheap non-stick surface that barely browns anything.

And those are the major problems with most solutions that try and address this issue: they’re either too small or they don’t really brown things. What I’m talking about of course is a real restaurant style griddle. Having one of these really opens up cooking possibilities – especially if you can use it with your grill. I mean, a lot of things that are typically cooked on a griddle can be stinky or spray grease, so all the better if they can be cooked outside. Especially in the summer.

Enter the Little Griddle Company, makers of the Griddle-Q and Sizzle-Q grilltop griddles.

These are advertised as restaurant-like griddles for your grill. I first heard about them on the BBQ Source message boards that I frequent and a few guys there have them liked them. So this summer I took the plunge.

I looked at the Griddle-Q site and almost choked … the smallest one costs $169.99! for a 12″ x 16″ surface. Whoa! I understand that they are thick stainless steel and have a lifetime warranty and all, but wow. For some reason that was just more than I was willing to spend. And, the sizes didn’t really work for my current grill. The 12″ x 16″ was too small for what I thought I’d be cooking and the 21″ x 13.5″ was a bit too wide.

Fresh on the Sizzle-Q

Thankfully, they also make a model that is much less expensive: the Sizzle-Q. 18″ x 13″ for $69.99 MSRP. Now we’re talking. I looked around online to see if I could find it anywhere less expensive and I did – on EBay. I picked one up, brand new, for $59.49, shipping included from a seller called CSNStores.

So- how does it work? Great. Exactly as advertised. My first meal was a couple of frozen hamburgers and they turned out just as I hoped. Medium rare but with a nice crust on the outside. On a cheap white roll they are the perfect all-American diner burger. There’s a picture of them on the left. Later I also made an ambitious meal of grilled sausages, peppers, onions, and hash-browned potatoes. Although this size is somewhat constrained in space, it did an admirable job with the peppers and onions – certainly better than anything I could have done on the grill itself.

Even though the Sizzle-Q is the cheaper model, it feels and looks plenty sturdy to me. All the welds look well done and the finish is very good. I honestly can’t imagine that the Griddle-Q really improves much in this for almost three times the price.

My advice is this: if you like to cook outdoors and are looking for a way to expand what you can do, the Sizzle-Q is a great accessory. On my grill it covers about 3/4 of the grill surface so I still have some area left for regular grilling. The stainless surface of the Sizzle-Q cleans up easily just by spraying it with a little water and hitting it with a scraper. And the stainless surface really browns and cooks food much better than any non-stick surface out there and cleans up just as easily. Is this really that much better than a cast iron pan? I think so – the squared corners and larger surface make moving food around a little easier, and the clean up is easier. I’m satisfied that this is worth the $60 I paid for it. But I still balk at the $190 or $200 prices of the Griddle-Q models. I’m not sure those can be justified.

So I say go ahead and get a Sizzle-Q and expand your cooking options. Happy grilling.