Blackstone 1554 36” Omnivore Griddle with Folding Side Shelves, Powder Coated Steel, Black

This is an incredible deck cooking machine. When my old grill was getting to the last of it's economic life, and I was to either rebuild the burners etc. or buy a new one, I realized that my style of cooking had changed/evolved over the years. My preference now is more towards vegetables and fish instead of steaks, burgers, and dogs. I thought I was going to have to build something, but did a search online to make sure I wasn't re-invening the wheel. This griddle, no not a grill, came up on Amazon for $269 including shipping. Assembly was right at 1 hour, including trying to find live batteries for it. My whole family loves this thing. We have done Japanese steak house, turkey burgers, tuna steaks, salmon. It's great to be able to cook up finely chopped veggies, then add steamed brown rice, and do fried rice on the griddle. I have not found anybody in the area that has ever seen or heard of these. So, it's pretty novel. Photos of the griddle with multiple items cooking are now all over facebook thanks to my wife. The steel top by itself is heavier than any grill I have ever owned. It is truly a heavy duty machine. You will need to buy a cover for it if you keep yours outside. It will rust if left in the rain. I am so impressed with this, that I am fixing up my deck to entertain. I am buying an indoor/outdoor carpet to go over the entire old pressure treated planks, 12'*32', and a 6 person table and chairs from Lowes. The best burgers, turkey, I have ever cooked have come off of this. I can get a nice brown crust, and keep the burgers moist. No more flare ups, no more char. no more dried out burgers. Mixed veggies stir fry is my favorite though. We make huge amounts of turkey burgers, veggies, and fried rice, so we have left overs all week, cooked outside without heating up the house. And, with fish, the best way to cook, and without stinking up the house since it's done outside. I was thinking I may pick up a small grill to have on the deck, but the more I use the griddle, the less attractive that is. I had heard that the best steaks are prepared in a skillet super hot. But, I haven't tried steaks or dogs yet. If the picture comes through, what you are seeing is 2 lbs of turkey burgers, and 1 lb of ground turkey mixed with veggies. After cooling down to low, Added to this will be 10 whipped eggs, then once all cooked, it will be spread out, and topped with shredded cheese til it melts.

Love this grill. Got it as a christmas gift. Use it for cooking breakfast for large groups. Works awesome

Great grill, but shipper dumped it in my driveway and it was obviously damaged: I am glad I purchased the grill and have enjoyed cooking with it. I was a little concerned by the condition of the box dumped in my driveway, as it was held together by packaging tape and the box was all but destroyed (luckily I have a long driveway, as there was no attempt to conceal the box, and, as it was dumped on its end, it was easily seen from the street). Luckily, steel is tough stuff, and the obvious dumping didn't do too much damage because the cold-rolled steel griddle protected everything in the box from too much damage. The outside corner of the griddle surface was scuffed up pretty good (the side of the box was completely open, so the griddle, when dumped, was scraped up by my driveway), a rivet was popped off the device to hold the legs in the collapsed position (I'll never use it), and the front panel was distended a bit, but if it would fire up, I'd be OK with the damage. Everything assembled fine and I was able to bend the front panel back in place so it looks OK (but, who would really care if you could notice it). I cleaned the griddle good, seasoned it up with whatever oil I had around, and have cooked bacon, steaks, and eggs. Cleaning is a breeze, and involves a good scraping of any leftover food, some water steaming for sticky spots, and a good coat of oil when done to preserve the surface. It takes about five minutes to heat up, and several minutes for it to cool down. I didn't have any experience with the front, right-hand grease drain model, but the rear grease management on my griddle works well and just seems less messy. The wheels are tough enough to handle being pulled in and out of my garage easily enough. The side shelves are kinda cool, easily removed by loosening some knobs on the underside, and you may want to remove them if you are storing the grill in a tight space. The shelves slide right back in when you need them (hint: don't set anything made of plastic on those shelves up next to the grill). If my kids stole my Blackstone griddle, I'd buy another one. Wait until you cook bacon on it - a pain in the kitchen, a dream on the Blackstone.

We purchased this to replace our Coleman Road Trip camping grill that had just become a cleaning nightmare. We got it about a week before our week long camping trip and used it nearly every night to try it out prior to our trip. We used it to cook every single meal on the trip and it was the talk of every campground that we went to. I cannot say that I love this enough. everything that we have cooked on it has come out fantastic and the cleanup is a dream. Just wipe it down with some paper towels (keep lots of those handy) and put the cover back on it (the cover is a must have as it keeps the dirt and dust off of it while not in use). You must treat the cooking surface the same way you would a cast iron pan. It must be kept dry and oiled at all times or it will rust. If you are a neat freak that cannot deal with this, do not purchase this item. It needs to seasoned with oil and will get more non stick with use (I prefer bacon grease for the seasoning and you get lots of yummy bacon in the deal as well). The base does fold flat ish and they do have a carrying/storage bag for the griddle top so it is portable to a point but it does weigh in at over a hundred pounds. it fits nicely in one of the storage compartments on our motorhome. Suggested add on items Blackstone 1131 Griddle/Grill Carry Bag, 36-Inch (great if you plan on taking it camping or just need to store it in the off season) North Atlantic Imports 1528 36" Griddle Cover (a must have) Blackstone Grill and Gridde Kit (good starter kit although I would prefer wood handles on the spatulas) Maverick A0-01 BBQ Accessory Organizer (this keeps important things close by although the mounting bolt to mine stripped out and now I have it clamped on with a C clamp) Angelia Cast Iron Cleaner XL 7x7 Inch Premium Stainless Steel Chainmail Scrubber (safe way to scrub crusties off of the griddle) Outset F240 Leather Grill Apron (keeps the bacon grease off of your clothes) Lodge LGP3 Pre-Seasoned Rectangular Cast-Iron Grill Press (these help make the best bacon ever, (4) of them cover about 6 slices of bacon)

Great griddle for the price! I was using the Camp Chef with the griddle attachment before and the Blackstone is way better! It came packaged extremely well and is built well also and heats up evenly. The table that goes with this is a lot of money, but I would highly recommend it! Blackstone 36" Griddle Surround Table Accessory (Grill not included) Also you need to do a grease mod on this, becuase it is a design flaw and without it, the grease runs along the bottom and down the front of the griddle, which is very messy! I used a piece of 3/4 inch copper I had lying around, so I cut a piece at 1 1/4 inches long, then I filed a wedge into it to fit the bottom of the grease hole, then I used J-B Weld 8297 HighHeat 500 Degree Epoxy Putty - 2 oz to attach it since I don't have a welder and it worked out great! Lots of ideas on grease mods out there! The only maintenance that is required, is the burner tubes should be taken off before use in the spring and cleaned out! This is for any gas grill, because spiders can make webs in the tubes and cause back fire which will melt the knobs and damage your grill. There is a special tool to clean the inside of the tubes out. This has not happened to me yet and I own a few grills, but I do clean them. UPDATE 3/28/2017 - It is still working great, but since I am constantly moving mine in and out of the garage, I made the legs more stable! If you don't plan on folding it up, use a 10 x 3/4 self drilling screw and screw one in on each leg to make it more stable.

This review is for the 36” Blackstone griddle (model 1554) which I have been using for over a year now. Overall I have found this griddle to be an outstanding value, especially for its price point. You might be able to find a better griddle, but you will spend a LOT more money. Some simple assembly is required. My griddle came in a single box. Cut the two plastic straps and the box lid lifts right off. The components seem well packed. I used a 10mm wrench, an adjustable wrench, and a Philips screwdriver to assemble. Once I had it unpacked, assembly took about 15 mins. If I had someone assisting, we probably would have been done in 10 mins or less. Blackstone has a helpful 3 min assembly video you can watch either on Blackstone’s site or on youtube search for “Blackstone 36" Griddle Assembly”. I weighed the griddle top in at 55.5lbs. If you’re not comfortable lifting a bulky item of this weight, get someone to help you. If you discover a problem with your new griddle, email or call Blackstone directly. Page 23 in my manual had their customer service phone and email. I had a small issue and found their customer service to be extremely helpful. Replies to email were prompt and when I phoned, I was talking to a real human being within seconds (a real human being who spoke American as a primary language). Keep in mind, customer service operates M-F 9a-5p Mountain Standard Time. The griddle top comes coated in a protective oil to prevent rust. As noted in the instructions, your first step after assembly is to wash this oil off. I used dish soap in hot water. I followed this up with plain hot water to get the soap off. I towel dried the surface and then fired up the grill for a few mins to cook off any remaining moisture. The top is carbon steel (not Teflon nor stainless steel) and if not seasoned it will rust. For many griddle users, at this point they slap on some oil or bacon and immediately start cooking. Over time they build up the seasoning that helps protect the griddle surface from rusting and the food from sticking. In my case I wanted to do a more methodical seasoning. For a methodical, long lasting seasoning of the griddle, you follow similar steps as you would with seasoning cast iron cookware. Blackstone has a youtube video called “Blackstone Griddle Top Recovery”. This video was made to show people how to restore a rusted griddle top; however, at 2min39sec into this video they cover the topic of seasoning. The Blackstone video agreed with several articles I read about seasoning cast iron cookware with flax oil. Make sure you get the organic, cold pressed, unrefined, refrigerated flax oil. You don’t want any ingredients in the oil other than flax oil. Check the date on it, and shake well before using. It is expensive oil, but you don’t need a large bottle. I did 6 coatings on my griddle and used just a little more than 3oz total of the oil. Each successive layer used less oil. The seasoning coat/layer consisted of : 1. wiping on a thin layer of flax oil over the cooking surface (I applied with a paper towel). 2. wipe off excess oil (I used paper towel). 3. turning on all the burners for 30 mins or so to basically burn the oil in (I ran a little longer than 30 min). 4. turn the burners off and let the griddle cool Repeat the process. Blackstone recommends at least 4-5 coats. The cast iron cookware seasoning articles I read recommended 6 coats. Optimal seasoning will leave you with a shiny black cooking surface. After 6 coats of flax oil, I was nearing the optimal shiny black surface. Check level. Before starting to cook on the griddle, check level. Use a construction level or a marble or anything you have handy. You want to be sure that liquid will flow towards the drain. My patio slopes away from the house, so I had to set the left wheels of the griddle on a scrap of plywood to get the grease to head to the drain hole. Cooking. Even with a great seasoned cooking surface, I add a dash of oil with many of the things I cook (for example, eggs). Cleaning the griddle: Helped along by my well seasoned cooking surface, I find the griddle quick to clean. It typically takes me 3-5 mins. I found a video from a griddle user on youtube that was helpful. Search youtube for “Easy way to clean the Blackstone Griddle (Revised)”. Guy in the video uses spray oil, but I use liquid oil. My only complaint about the griddle would be the same issue that other reviews have mentioned: Blackstone still hasn’t conquered the grease drain problem. Randomly the grease running off will miss the cup and start running down the griddle leg. So use a paperclip or a piece of wire. If you stick it in the hole down to the grease cup, the grease will run down the wire instead of the surface tension causing fluids to flow up under the grease gutter. Or you can wrap a small piece of foil around the end of the drain to direct grease down.

A little expensive but honestly reasonable compared to higher end grills. Pros: 1) HUGE!! We could cook an entire meal for an army on this thing. There's a ton of room to mix and flip whatever you're cooking. With the multiple zones, you can cook chicken and steak for fajitas + peppers and onions AND heat the tortillas at the same time. Same thing with breakfast food...eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon...everything...at.the.same.time. 2) Easy to assemble. We were up and running in 15 minutes. The instructions were super easy. I'm thinking it could be broken down and transported to the cottage or a tailgating party pretty easily as well. 3) Cleaning has been pretty easy. We're going to a lot of effort not to mess the griddle up so cleaning takes a lot of time and I would recommend a longer handled scraper but it's been easy. Cons: 1) Doesn't come with a metal cover (at least the one we bought didn't). I'm use to closing the lid to melt cheese on burgers or keep things warm. Get a dome or two and you'll be fine. The good part of not having a solid metal cover is that we now store the griddle in the garage instead of leaving it out like the traditional grill and it will probably last longer. 2) I like having the grill as an option but we couldn't find (or not easily anyway) a combo griddle/grill with a gas grill. The only combos I found had charcoal grills. I'm surprised gas grill combos were more prevalent. Also, the combo griddle/grills were much smaller. Overall...SUPER happy I finally caved in and bought this. My 18 yr old son had been hinting for quite a while..

I have a Weber grill that I bought last year and I love it. However, my wife and I have a lot of gatherings and party's that I figured I'd invest in a nice griddle and this Blackstone was exactly what I was looking for. I used it during my daughters first birthday party a few weeks ago and I was able to cook for a large party in no time. I put down 12 burgers, 24 hot dogs, and grilled onions on the first batch and it all fit and cooked extremely well. I repeated the same with the second batch and I called it a day. It is large enough that two people can cook at the same time which I found out when my bother-n-law stepped in to help a bit. It's very sturdy and built tough. We placed a lot of weight on the side shelves as I cooked and I wasn't worried at all. There is a few con's worth mentioning. There's no way you can level either side of the griddle so if you have a slight grade... the oil tends to collect on that side. I wish they had a way to adjust the wheels in a way that you can level the griddle so that doesn't happen. However, a small piece of cardboard or anything similar and that fixed my problem. The other con is attempting to light the other burners with wind. I spent a few minutes attempting to light the second burner because of the wind. I had to blow between the flat top and second burner so the fire could reach the second burner. I then had to do the same with the third and then the fourth burner. So that was a little bit of a pain. I know there's videos on YouTube and reviews here that complain about the way the oil drains to the side. We the company heard those folks and made changes where the drain is now in the middle rear. It's a perfect placement when you're scraping burned or oil contents. So I hope the company now hears the folks that say they need to figure out a way to engineer and develop this thing to allow one to level the griddle. I don't know of any concrete slab that does not have a certain degree of grading.