It’s very good for people who simply want to cook meat and chicken without worrying about whether it’s cooked enough, whether it needs turning, whether you need to cut the chicken into pieces so it cooks properly, whether it has reached 73°C so you don’t get salmonella, etc., and generally so you can end up stopping paying attention to the cooking.

The device calculates the cooking time based on the type and thickness of the meat you put inside, using its sensor. You literally put the meat in and it tells you when it’s ready, while you prepare the rest. You don’t time it, adjust temperatures, set one temperature for the top plate and another for the bottom plate, or anything. By far the easiest way to cook meat without any fuss.

A note about chicken: because of the risk involved, Tefal doesn’t take any chances, so every time I tested the chicken fillets (you’re necessarily limited to the well-done setting for chicken), their temperature at the center, measured with a special meat thermometer, was between 91 and 97 degrees, instead of the minimum 74–76 I would have expected. But better safe than sorry, as they say in my village, and besides, with a few more tests over time, I think I’ll simply end up taking the meat out 3–4 minutes before it says “ready” if I see that it reaches the safe temperatures for juicy chicken fillets.

The process is simple:

Preheat it until it tells you it’s ready for the food to go in.

Put the food in and it measures the thickness and temperature, and uses the type you selected (meat, chicken, fish, vegetables).

It cooks it as much as needed and tells you, “it’s ready, take it out and eat” :)

The surface is angled just right, so the juices from whatever is cooking drain where they’re supposed to (into the very spacious container) rather than spilling out all over the place.

You can move it even when it’s switched on (it has a handle on both the top and bottom—you’ll understand when you pick it up).

It also has a manual mode, but I haven’t used it. The whole point is “set it and forget it.”

It’s easy to clean, but of course it has a grill surface, so with burnt meat juices/marinades, etc., you need to do a little “scrubbing” with a plastic brush after you’ve let the plates soak. But don’t put the plates in the dishwasher if you want them to last. It says “dishwasher safe,” but between us, that means they won’t be ruined after 2–3 washes. Like ALL nonstick cookware, its lifespan is greatly reduced by dishwasher detergents and very high temperatures.

Who it is NOT for:
– People who just want a sandwich press (it’s very expensive, and it doesn’t have a flat surface).
– Fussy hobby chefs who want to preheat their seasoned cast-iron pan for 20 minutes and then cook their ribeye with butter and rosemary for 55 seconds, and have complete control over how they cook the meat.

UPDATE after 2 months: it still has a prominent place on the counter, and is used every week. After trying quite a few different meats, though, a warning: it always overcooks, so you need to learn to take things out earlier than it tells you. When it says rare for beef, it’s medium-rare, and when it says medium, it’s medium to well-done. Likewise, as I mentioned earlier, it overcooks chicken, so for 3 fillets when it says 15 minutes, they’re definitely already safe to eat after 9–11 minutes.
P.S.: Damn if I understood why someone gave me a negative vote on an entire heartfelt review I wrote...

UPDATE after 8 months: I just solved one of its biggest problems. I discovered that there are also “flat” plates (XA728810) without the familiar “ridged” pattern. I got them and found the solution to my cleaning woes: no more burnt sauces and marinades stuck in the countless grooves on traditional grill plates. The juices still drain into the collection container just fine, the cooking is even (you just lose the black grill marks), and cleaning is now a breeze. The grill can now also make toast. I recommend it without any reservations!