George Foreman Entertaining Grill Review

If you're already fond of indoor grilling products and now need more grilling surface area, or you're on the lookout for a large capacity option, this could be the one. It's the George Foreman (20850) Entertaining Sized Grill, stated to be adequate to grill up to six portions of food.

Design & Features

The design is so easy to operate that any age group could get to grips with it. One temperature slider, which has four temperature settings respectively, is all that you need to be use to get your grilling action on. The top of the grill has two lights to indicate its activity status, the left light glows when the grill is plugged in and the right light comes on when the grill is heating and automatically goes off when the thermostat reaches its desired temperature, then oscillates on and off dependent on the temperature. A feature that we would have liked to see though, would have been an inbuilt timer.

Heat Up Time & Usability

Apparently this George Foreman grill heats up roughly 25% quicker than previous models and achieves a higher max temperature. From our testing it reaches the desired temperature in under two minutes and each 320 sq cm grill plate does have a separate heating element. The light folio styled floating hinge mechanism opens to stably and independently keep the top grill in the air for when you need to add or turn food items over. Because it's a floating hinge it has the capacity to handle chunky food items like a panini or a bread roll without tightly squeezing out the contents. And the permacoat non stick coating (claimed to last 3x longer than previous George Foreman grills and other non stick coatings) on each of the grill plates makes sure food items don't stick and are no hassle when the time comes to whip the contents off.

Grilling Results

Of course, George Foreman grills are famous for being fat reducing: if you're in the dark about how this is possible, it's pretty simple. Basically the grill plates are tilted downwards, so excess fat is directed to drip via gravity and from compression into the removable drip tray located at the front. Does this mean food is less interesting though? We'd argue that it doesn't, but it's a matter of personal preference. After using this product we feel it's really aimed at health conscious individuals and possibly people who don't already have a grilling facility at home, who love grilled food, particularly meats, but want to strip away a lot of the fat from them. Obviously flavours and the overall consistency of the food items grilled are different because of this. We've grilled sausages, burgers, toasted sandwiches and vegetables with success. The folio mechanism of the grill has meant that things like frozen burgers and toasted sandwiches have heat directly projected into them from the top and bottom, so they cook right through quicker than a conventional oven. Cooking food items right through is something traditional grilling can often not achieve on high heats. With either chilled or fresh foods you have the option to grill via just one plate with the grill open, so you could cook a pizza. However, we feel the claimed six portion usage is a stretch, at best this is really suitable for a family of four.

Value

Let's not hide behind any delusions, however. If you're considering this grill, you will no doubt be aware of all the alternative cheaper George Foreman and other brand options out there. But this grill does have a few features that others lack which have proved useful in our experience. The best feature is without a shadow of doubt the ability to quickly remove the two grill plates via simple press buttons, so they can be popped in the dishwasher and cleaned with ease. Additionally it also has two large grill plates, the variable temperature control and permacoat non stick coating.

Overall

The George Foreman Entertaining six portion grill is quick in action and achieves tasty results with a large enough surface area and some helpful features to cook for families and groups of four.