Cuisinart Griddler Five Review: Does the 5-in-1 Design Deliver?

We like the Griddler Five best as a panini press and breakfast griddle. Sandwiches press evenly, pancakes and English muffins turn out well, and the plates come out for cleaning. Heat is quick but not perfectly even, and the surface is small.

We score a griddler on the jobs it is sold for: pressing sandwiches, griddling breakfast, and grilling quick proteins. Heat, smoke, and plate cleanup each count toward the rating.

We judge its intended cooking tasks with grilled cheese and Cubans in panini mode, pancakes, crumpets and English muffins on the griddle, and frozen turkey burgers and thin chicken breasts for quick meals.

Our performance notes come from the earlier GR-5B body, which Cuisinart kept unchanged in the redesign. Weight and dimensions vary by variant and by whether you measure closed or opened, so check the listing before you clear shelf space.

The Five is compact and light enough to store away. The stainless exterior looks good on a counter, and the top cover has a handlebar with a side latch that opens the unit flat to 180 degrees. The plates lock in and release with a simple press of a latch on each side, which makes setup and teardown quick.

The cord is the one design miss. The fixed 36-inch cord is short, so the unit needs to sit near an outlet.

LCD Display and Temperature Settings

The LCD with timer and beeps is a clear step up from the dial controls on older Griddlers. You pick a function, set the temperature from 175F to 450F, and the unit beeps when it has preheated. The sear function is a maximum-heat burst for meats, fish and poultry, and the LCD shows when it is active.

The Five offers contact grill, panini press, full grill, full griddle, and half grill/half griddle. Each mode is a different way of using the same two reversible plates.

Contact Grill and Panini Press

This is the strongest pair of modes. The floating lid presses sandwiches evenly without manual flipping, and at 375F sandwiches toast faster than they do in a frying pan. The one catch is thick foods like sausages, which stop the lid floating until you jiggle the handle.

Full Grill and Full Griddle

Flipped to the flat side, the griddle handles pancakes, crumpets and English muffins well, and the tilt-and-press lid applies even pressure.

Grilled cheese is the quickest test of the Five. The sandwich goes onto the preheated plates, the lid comes down, and about two minutes later it is done, so we stay at the counter. A thin chicken breast pressed like a panini takes roughly five minutes and clears 165F. Frozen turkey burgers follow at about six minutes.

Half Grill, Half Griddle

The split mode lets you sear a protein on one side and cook eggs or toast on the other. It is a handy trick for a small breakfast. Waffle plates are sold separately, so the "5-in-1" does not include waffles out of the box.

Speed is the headline. The unit preheats quickly and the nonstick coating releases food well. Smoke and burning are not a problem in normal use, and the closed lid keeps grease splatter to a minimum while grease drains into a built-in tray.

Searing and Temperature Accuracy

A thin chicken breast pressed like a panini finishes in roughly five minutes and clears 165F, which is the USDA safe minimum internal cooking temperature for poultry. The sear function is useful for steaks and burgers, but it is a short burst and not a replacement for a hot cast iron pan. The Deluxe reaches 500F by comparison.

Heat Evenness

Heat is quick but not perfectly even across the plates. Thick sandwiches take a bit longer to heat through the middle, and results improve once you learn your own temperature settings. After more than two years of regular use, the unit showed no problems.

Cleanup is the easy part. Once cool, the plates wipe clean with a paper towel, and the plates and drip tray also go in the dishwasher. The included scraper handles melted cheese.

The larger sibling we can compare spec by spec is the Deluxe GR-150NAS, so it stands in for the bigger Griddlers here. It adds a sixth mode, a 500F sear for up to two minutes, dual-zone control and 240 square inches of surface, but it uses LED indicator lights and no LCD. Its hinge and spring hardware wears with use, and the plates lose their easy food release after years of heavy use.

The GR-6SNAS Smoke-Less cleans easier and smokes less, but its controls are less intuitive. The older GR-4N is a different, dial-based machine, covered in our Cuisinart Griddler 5-in-1 (GR-4N) review.

Buy the Five if you want sandwiches, pancakes and small proteins from one tidy machine, and you value digital controls and easy cleanup. It suits couples, small households and anyone short on counter space.

Skip it if you cook for a family at once, or want a large surface. The Deluxe or GR-6SNAS give you more room.

For a family, we would skip the Five and start with the Deluxe or the GR-6SNAS. The Five makes the most sense at its usual price, or better still when a sale hits. The Deluxe costs noticeably more, and that gap is hard to justify unless you need the extra surface.