Breville Panini Quattro BSG540XL

This is a great buy for the money.
While it does not have ridges (the press/grill is flat on top and bottom) it still grills sandwiches easily and perfectly.
My teenage children love using it too!
They have made bacon on it for BLT's and quesadillas. While it does not have a drip pan, it does have a shallow lip around the bottom and my husband has successfully grilled burgers on it.
It is very easy to clean and store.

I recently purchased this Breville sandwich press as my second one. I had purchased the earlier model SG820XL in 2006 and it is still operating flawlessly, having been used about 20-30 times per year, over the 5 years.

Knowing that, eventually favorite tools can break or malfunction, I did not want to risk not having a sandwich press with flat plates. For a more detailed review on grooved plates versus flat plates, see two of my 2006 reviews...one for the DeLonghi grooved grill versus a companion review of the Breville flat plate grill. I had purchased the Delonghi first and was unsatisfied with grooved plates for my intended purpose of use and returned it for the much more satisfactory flat plate Breville. And I can say from much experience, that the Breville flat plate grill is at the top of the food chain, in performance and build quality (after 5 years of constant use).

And it is much more versatile than a grooved plate panninni press, since you can use it for everything from toasted sandwiches (providing a perfectly browned crust and thoroughly "heated through" ingredients), to hamburger patties, quesadillas, pancakes, and reheating pizza slices (placing cold pizza slices on the bottom plate, crisps the crust back to original consistency while using the stair step locker on the side to adjust the top plate to "hover" at various clearances, just above the pizza surface, to radiate heat to the top side ingredients from above, without touching, makes for a great "leftovers" result).

There is no temperature control because one is not needed. This unit is "set" to be very forgiving, so there is virtually no risk of burning a sandwich. However, to provide consistent browning, I do open the lid and flip sandwiches in mid stream to keep the browning consistent. But be sure to use only plastic spatulas on the non stick surface. Most everything will cook in this unit within 5-7 minutes (including hamburger patties which benefit from being cooked on both sides at the same time). If you do hamburger patties, be sure to use lean (90/10 or 95/15), because 85/15 or 80/20 usually has so much grease shed that you may end up making more of a mess, since the unit has somewhat limited capacity for retaining a lot of juice and fat run-off. There is a raised lip around the perimeter to contain this but again, it is somewhat limited and bears experimentation and watching. But realize that is not the primary intended use for this unit so that is not a factor to conside at all in the purchase for use. Another "not intended for use" is bacon. I love being able to cook bacon "flattened out" by the press. Simple and easy, however, don't put too many slices in at one time because there is a lot of grease shed and may overflow the lip. So experiment with a few slices of your favorite and then add as many as you think you can get away with, until you get to the magic number of maximum it can handle without overflow.

In the locked position, this unit will sit upright, taking up very little counter space or cabinet space. And it is a very handsome piece of chrome equipment if you care to leave it out as kitchen decor on the countertop.

Cleanup is a snap. I usually let the unit cool down in the open position for 3-4 minutes after removal of ingredients and then take a paper towel to both the top plate and bottom plate while they are both still fairly warm. This prevents ingredients from having time to cool down and get dried onto the plates. You can then do a quick wipe down with either wet rag with soap and water, to be rinsed, or a clorox wipe, rinse and dry.

You will find this to become an indispensible kitchen tool I would be lost without mine since it makes such quick work of many things that might normally find me dragging out the skillet and firing up the stove. Enjoy.

I'm absolutely in love with this press, Very well made, no cheap parts here. This is my first panini press so I can't compare it any other brands. I do use it 3-5 times a week with no problems. Clean up is a breeze and it gets hot as I allow about 15 minutes to cool down to wipe clean. Again very impressed with this product and recommend it to anyone interested in a durable press.

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