i'll start this review by saying I have sold grills for years and am a huge fan of the big guns such as Weber. Sadly do to living in a condo i can only have electric grills. In the past Char-Broil has made some sub-par items. Not this time. This is THE best electric grill option for under five hundred bucks. the people bashing it have obviously never grilled or assembled somthing as much as legos.

1- ITS EASY TO PUT TOGETHER- All these people on here complain as to how hard it is to put together. WHY? It took me a bit over an hour and a half working slowly and I didnt even curse once. Thats a miracles in and of it self. Simple tools, easy instructions, and not a ton of steps. There is a bit of lining up holes at one point but thats it. If you even have the slightest ability to put things together you'll be fine. Putting together Ikea furniture is WAY harder than this.

2- IT HEATS UP BLAZING HOT- Another complaint was that it didnt heat above 150 degrees. Mine... Read more

The Bottom Line: 3 Stars and Rising.

The Patio Bistro does its intended purpose. I like this grill the more I use it. It gets, hot, is easy to clean, and has a nice large cooking area. With time my rating may improve as the painfull memory of assebly fades into the past. This would be a nice choice for use where charcoal and propane grills are not allowed.

As of this writing I have owned the Patio Bistro Grill for a little over 1 month. I own and have used various charcoal and gas grills, smokers, and barbeques over the past 30 years. I consider myself as very experienced in outdoor grilling.

This remainder of this review will be in two parts.

First the Good! The Patio Bistro Grill Does Cook Food quite Nicely: 4 Stars

Once assembled the Patio Bistro is quite a nice little grill. It has a nice large grilling surface, and heats quite adequately for grilling and roasting. Once the lid is closed, the temperatures easily rise... Read more

As a condo dweller, I've been a fan of the earlier model Patio Caddie for years. Reliability, fast/high heat generation, and never running out of fuel have been huge advantages. I've known about infrared grills for years, but knew they cost up over a grand. 'Saw this new Infrared Bistro model and had to have it! I gave my beloved Caddie to my son (who loves it!) and got this new model.

Putting the grill together was logical and straight forward. It did not go together instantly, but what's the big deal? I took it step-by-step and it came together just fine. When completed, the Bistro looks good; much more substantial and better styled than the ol' Caddie. Plus, the grill size is substantially larger.

'Plugged it in, turned up the power, and WOW! This sucker was up over 550 degress in about ten minutes. As I'd done before, put a small handfull of hickory chips into a foil pouch, poked a few holes in it, and tossed it on the grill and closed the lid. In a few more... Read more

This is one appliance that lives up to every one of the manufacturer's claims. I follow directions and spray the grill surface with cooking spray and put half a cup of water in the pan below, and the grill really is, as advertised, smokeless and extremely easy to clean. I like the adjustable grill temperature, a feature I'm not used to since my faithful antique Farberware, now deceased, had only two settings, namely "plugged in and on" or "unplugged and off". The Sanyo cooks everying in half the time the old grill did, and without cabinet-endangering flareups. I particularly like the enormous cooking surface since I'm regularly cooking for 5 adults and a child and with this grill I can cook for all of us at once. The dimensions make it easy to store if you set it vertically rather than horizontally. The appliance is so low in height that I set mine on a silicone countertop protector, but I'm not sure this is really necessary. My only complaint is that there is no surrounding rim... Read more

I read the review about how long it takes to preheat this grill, well being a full time chef (aa culinary arts) and over 20 years in the industry, I have used many different types of grills, and in most cases when I needed it to heat up quickly we would just place a sheet pan over it and it decreased the startup time significantly. Well I found a aluminum baking pan which fit this grill perfectly, the metal does not come in contact with the plastic base, and it took only 4 minutes to reach the high setting. I used a litte non stick spray and placed 2, 1 inch thick lamb chops on it and it seared them perfectly and quickly, placed the cover (pan) back over them, waited about 3 minutes, turned them over, and grilled another 2 minutes and they were well done. Totoal time grill was on 10 minutes. Now lamb is about the greasiest meat and I did get a little smoke, but that was only when the searing was taking place, and with the cover very little splatter also. I think if they could the... Read more

All considered, I decided to give this Sanyo indoor grill a 5-star rating. It's probably more like 4.5 stars, but Amazon doesn't allow that. I'll explain.

On the plus side, I really like the simplicity of this grill. It's also light-weight, registering a little under seven pounds, which means it's easy to move around - no breaking your back! It's also quite easy to clean: just soapy warm water and dry! The grill consists of three pieces: a metal grill, a sheet metal oil drip pan, and a plastic base. The base does feel a little insubstantial, but the whole thing, put together, is quite sturdy. The 200 in^2 cooking surface is good for a family of up to four.

I also loved the price: I never imagined I could have a quality indoor grill for such a low price. (Thanks to Amazon, too?) This is probably what tilted me to the five-star rating. The grill, made in China, is of pretty good build quality, and looks like it'll last a long time. The price and value... Read more

We have had our grill for over 6 months. When our tiny old George Foreman grill died, I looked around for a new one. We checked Target and Best Buy and found grills with removable plates. In most these removable plates were lying loose within the grill or on the counter. Can that be good? What if the grillplate is hot and falls off on your hand? I decided on a fixed plate grill and began to look online. This is where I first discovered the value of Amazon reviews.
The feature I like best is that this grill gets HOT! The temperature can be adjusted and includes a 500 degree sear option. I chose the fixed plates so the grill is not a snap to clean, I balance it on the edge of the sink so I can use the sprayer (carefully so as not to get the works wet) in between bouts of gently scraping off the crusty bits. I must say, I have been faithful about keeping it clean because the teflon wears off if you are careless and use any scratchy tools. One annoyance: The little grease... Read more

The "Sear" button works pretty well, and the grill makes great food, and fast. I find I use it often to grill meats, fish, vegetables. The grills are not removable for dishwasher cleaning, but they aren't too hard to clean with the nonstick surfaces. The item seems substantially built. No complaints, quite pleased.

this grill is totally awesome, its easy to clean, you can control the temp, and it cooks food really well and qucik too, the sear button is great too, it leaves the black marks in your food to look like you cooked it outside on a grill, I totally recommend this grill over any other grill, george formans are too expensive.