Royal Gourmet PD1301S Portable 24-Inch 3-Burner Table Top Gas Grill Griddle with Cover, 25,500 BTUs, Outdoor Cooking Camping or Tailgating, Black

Well all has started with a grilling event on the ocean side, we used a small charcoal grill. We got smoke minor burns, raw food, completely burnt food, lighter fluid, and remained hungry.So I was looking for some alternatives. Among a few searches this one popped out. I didn't even know that people use griddle outside of professional kitchen. I've bought a grill when we moved to the USA, though it is always a hustle to keep that clean, so I've lost the interest in it a few months after the purchase.Since I have this griddle I use it 2-4 or even more times a week (it's still summer).So let's review the details.Size: It's portable, though it is not small or compact. It can run on a small propane tank (with a suitable adapter) for about an hour with all the burners on low. You can use about the upper 4/5 of the cooking surface, as the bottom part usually too cold. It's enough to comfortably cook 8 burger patties in one batch.Heat: For me, this griddle runs hot, I usually cook on low. sometimes switching a burner or two off if the food needs to have different temperatures. I use the high setting only if I have a lot of food on the plate with high water content (hash browns, rice).Maintenance: That's a big surprise. This thing is porcelain coated which is not common for larger grills. I only can guess. This type of coating is quite brittle, so the unavoidable bends on a larger surface makes this coating impractical. Also the instructions is not that clear how to clean/prepare the plate surface. I've spent hours with seasoning, realizing that I would scrape of all that burned oil from the surface with my next spatula movement.Unlike ceramics, it is fine to use metal tools on this surface, as long as it's not a sharp poking one. So cleaning is just scraping the surface, and applying water on hot surface then wipe it with paper towel using a clip will do. Occasionally I use grill stone to get rid of some nasty burnt-downs. I did that only twice in 5 months so far, and the first one was after my, last, failed seasoning attempt. Both times I got the non-stick porcelain surface back.Comfort:- Well, leveling the plate is an important thing, I feel the four screws on the bottom of the plate does not provide enough setting if you you put this grill to an uneven surface (which could happen, since it is supposed to be portable). Also those screws change the distance between the plate an the burner, so the heat distribution changes as well.- There is no wind protection between the burners an the plate, which again can be challenging in a breezy outdoor setting. (I'd recommend to buy the hard cover, which could provide a wind shield from at least one direction.)- The drain hole for the grease trap could be larger.Even with it's shortcomings, this is a great little griddle for the money.

Absolutely love this griddle! Super easy to put together and use. Wonderful design with very even heat distribution, only one cooler spot on the front near the drain hole but it’s negligible. The build quality is pretty good with the griddle plate itself being a good thickness. After I put it together I did a burn in for about 15-20 minutes. Then I made chicken fajitas on it for the first cook. They turned out amazing! Even though the griddle is porcelain coated it’s not non stick. You’ve gotta use oil when cooking or your food will stick. The coating does make for easy clean up though and the drain cup has pretty large capacity. I’ve made pancakes and eggs for breakfast and they get done super fast even on low heat. Now for the spider part, the stand I use for it must have had a jumping spider on it near the top. After my first burn in I was satisfied with how it was preforming so I decided to cook. About half way through cooking i noticed flames coming out of the back of the griddle. I looked under the griddle at the burners and the center burner was putting out the big yellow flames you don’t want to see. The next day I took the center burner out and went to clean it out. I flung out what I thought was plastic but then it began crawling across my kitchen floor. It was a good sized jumping spider, I took it back outside but further away from my patio. After clearing out the spider and its nest the burner functions just fine. Tonight I made a stir fry on it an I am so happy with my purchase. 100% recommend getting this if you’re wanting to cook at the lake, camping, or anywhere you desire. It’s very portable and can feed 4-6 people with one cook session.

Great

Heat went from right to left. Highest temperature at right with lowest temperature on left. I don't mind a little variation: I like the idea of cooking on one side with already cooked foods on the other side to keep warm while finishing.However, what was happening was the middle and right side was extremely hot (on lowest settings) while left side was barely hot enough to cook on. It may have been from breeze direction based on looking at the carbon marks on the burners. See how it travels to the right? Kind'a strange since the wind was actually blowing right to left. I'll know more next time when I build a wind shelter to wrap around the unit for my next cook. In the meantime, based on what I know, I have to give it low marks on heat distribution and temperature control.That being said, I followed - as best I could - the instructions on seasoning the griddle. While foods stick on the center and right side, the left (cold) side was absolutely flawless. Even with the sticking however, very little elbow grease went into the clean-up so on that front I'm pretty happy. Would probably be better if the heat control was better during seasoning.

This is really nice. I use it on camping trips. It works great just the right size for two people.