Customer Reviews

As Seen On TV 8153 Big Boss Grill 15-Piece Grill Set

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I cannot believe that such a reputable place would keep these grills on their sites. I recieved this grill for Christmas and was so excited because I had seen it on TV and it looked perfect for my husband and I.
I used it a few times and it grilled perfectly. However, after about 3 times when I plugged it in nothing happened. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was. I went to the computer to see if anyone else had this problem and lo and behold their were hundreds of customers with similar problems. It seems to me that if a company had recieved numerous complaints about a product they sold (The Big Boss Grill) they would look into what was causing the problems and either fix it or take it off the market. I would have sent it back and I still might, but the shipping charges cost almost as much as the grill. Since most people don't send it back precisely for that reason the company makes out. Amazon I have done a lot of business with you in the past and I have been extremely satisfied with everything I purchased. I know people sell things through your site and if something isn't right it is up to the company that is selling it. However, if I were you after reading all the negative comments about the big boss grill I would not accept the site that was selling that product. It is your name that makes people think everything you sell on your site will be A-Okey.
Janet

What was I thinking? This thing would be okay if you are cooking for 1 or 2 people. Any more and everyone would have to eat at separate times.
I only use it to cook omlettes and waffles now. The grilled cheese has the crusty ends which my kids do not like. When I cooked chicken on it, I have to cut the breasts into tenders. It takes closer to 9 minutes for 1 chicken breast cut medium thickness. If you are cooking for four or more, someone is getting a cold piece of chicken.
Also, last night I cooked a breast in it, I noticed that all the juices had nowhere to go. So much of it went under the plate. I DO know that electricity and liquids don't mix.. I hope it isn't damaged now. So now when I cook chicken, I will take out the old frying pan again..
I haven't made a donut, hamburger, or a pannini yet. Donuts look real small though. I do like the way the omlettes come out, but it takes closer to 9 minutes, than 5 minutes as suggested. I feel french toast would probably work, but again, only 2 at a time. 5-6 minutes each.. Good Luck!
Also, I recieved a phone call telling me that since I was such a good customer , that I would be recieving $40 in free gas vouchers in the mail, along with a bunch of other discounts that I could use for a try out period. It would cost me $24, after the first month. If I want to cancel it, just call the number. I did not recieve this envelope, therefore cannot camcel. I called Big Boss Headquarters, and they told me that they have nothing to do with this promo. How dare them give my credit card number to someone else. Now I have to go to my bank and fix this mess.!!
Anyway, if you want to eat waffles or omlettes for one or 2 people, this is for you. I won't use this for chicken or grilled cheese ever again.
I wish I could get my money back.. Maybe I'll stop payment.
DG

First off, this is not an expensive kitchen appliance and it is apparent in the design; no on/off switch, plug into outlet equals on, unplug equals off. There is really no frills to this device, which you would expect at this price point. I purchased this device in order to make waffles every now and again at home and liked the fact that it was capable of making other food items. As far as form, it is small and will fit easily in a drawer or cupboard when not in use. The 6 no-stick inserts come with a rack which is also nice for storage in a cupboard. The inserts snap into place and are removed easily. As far as function goes, it cooks really well and will turn out approximately 2 servings at a time with a 3-5 minute warm up and an average of 5 minutes to cook just about anything. I would say that this device is best used for waffles, eggs, grilled pocket sandwiches and panini sandwiches versus more complicated meals such as raw chicken breasts. I feel the price is worth it for the versatility as well as easy clean up and I use it about twice a week for a quick grilled sandwiches or waffles on the weekend. Some may not like the fact that you can only turn out two at a time, but really how many grilled cheese can you make at once in a frying pan? And those don't seal the edges. Good product considering you are not dropping tons of money, the versatility of items you can make and small size for storage. You are basically spending about the same as a toaster oven, so don't expect it to mop your floors too. If your expectations are reasonable, this is a convenient little device.

I bought this thinking it looked very versatile. Well maybe it is but in minature size. Silly me..I didn't look at dimensions. This unit is quite small. The Dounut pan would make dounuts the size or smaller that Dunkin Holes. I don't know what I was expecting but I'm not sure this is it. haven't used it yet as I'm not sure whether I should bother keeping it.

I live in a small apartment with a very small kitchen, and I have an even smaller amount of time to clean a grill. I've had contact grills before (the George Foreman line is so far still the best IMHO), but when you need to save both space and time this is a good buy. It's not great, but it does work once you figure out its quirks. The indicator lights are a great touch so I know when it's come up to heat. Also, the dishwasher-safe plates are a definite plus.

Some things I've found:
-The heater does not have the wattage to deal with frozen hamburger patties. It will, however, work great on fresh ones.

-If you're a culinary nitpicker, the omelet plate won't make a true omelet. However, it does make a tasty breakfast "scramble."

-The grill will hold grease away from the meat, but you need to drain it between individual servings. This can be dangerous to say the least. (I use a set of nomex gloves...good luck finding those.)

-The griddle is good, but not great. It might make a good supplemental griddle for, say, when you have a lot of relatives over and you've got all burners going on the cook top.

For a general-purpose all-in-one appliance, this is a good design. However, it is not the best for all tasks. A good starter, say for the college or graduate student, but not for someone who wants a serious contact grill.

I saw this on TV, but I can't believe what came in the box was the same product. Since there are just the two of us now, my wife really wanted to use this for easy breakfasts, lunches and light dinners. In two days, she made blueberry pancakes, strawberry waffles, plain waffles, hamburger fajitas, and a couple of omelets.

Results were uniform, uniformly bad. The blueberry stuck to the Teflon "pans". In fact, everything stuck to the Teflon pans. Strawberries got the same result and in both cases, the batter stuck to the pans as well. Nothing cooked evenly, and it got to the point when we wondered if they had photoshopped their entire commercials. Is that even possible?

Before you start believing that the grill was too hot, the eggs never got done, and the omelets certainly didn't just flip over. The only thing that flipped was my wife.

The piece de la resistance was melted cheese sandwiches. The key word is "resistance," since they resisted coming out of the teflon pans. AND, to top it off, it was not easy to clean. The plates/pans didn't clean in the dishwasher, and it took some elbow grease to get them clean with a dishrag and detergent.

The food was edible, but that's about as far as I'd go with an evaluation. We have packed it up - the one thing that was easy to do - but now we don't know what to do with it. We can't give it to charity. That wouldn't be charitable. We can't give it to friends. We have so few to start with. We can't give it to our kids. They wouldn't take it. I hate to recycle it, but...

It isn't big at all. It makes two waffle squares at a time. That is okay for one or two people. The omelettes are far too messy for me to bother with again. The grilled chicken didn't look 'grilled' but it was tasty. The french toast turned out okay. I'm giving it an "its okay" rating because I expected it to be more than it turned out to be.

When I first saw the picture of the Big Boss Grill on the box I was anxious to try out the product for myself (having read several negative reviews on the grill before my own arrived). But as soon as I unpacked the actual grill, and got a look at its size, I began to have my doubts about its usefullness.

This thing is small, folks, and probablly only really suitable for someone living alone. It would make a pretty good dorm cooker (if those are still allowed in college dorms) for quick snacks, omelets, or sandwiches but it is impractical for anyone with even one or two children because so little food can be cooked at once.

The Big Boss Grill is a basic, bottom-of-the-line, kind of grill and it is typical of all those other "as advertised on TV" products whose reality never seem to measure up to what you see in the commercial.
First, the good news...this thing makes a pretty fair omelet, one that doesn't stick to the provided tray, making the clean-up fairly easy. It cooks eggs quickly enough that two people could probably get by with it for the same breakfast.

Now, the bad news...the donut recipe is pretty awful (tastewise) and the first batch that we cooked up mostly stuck inside the little donut-shaped imprints inside the two dounut trays (top and bottom). By the time they were scraped from the trays, they were good for nothing but the garbage can. A second batch (with lots of Pam applied to the trays) came out better, but the taste and texture was not that great.

Overall observations:

Turning the unit on and off at the wall plug is not all that terrible and actually works pretty well.

Anything that drips from the cooking trays (be it grease, batter, or eggs, etc.) causes a huge clean-up problem because, by design of the product, it gets everywhere.

The temperature indicator light works fine but a simple "beep" would be so much better than having to watch the grill so carefully.

Some of the estimated cooking times in the recipe book do not seem to be all that accurate (especially the recommended 5 minutes for donuts that were actually done in just over two minutes).

When there are no spills, clean-up is quick and easy. The trays go right into the dishwasher, the grill itself is wiped down, and that's it.

The trays do seem to scratch rather easily and will quickly show wear.

So, overall, this is a product suited for singles, not for families. It does some things rather well, and other things really poorly. It's one of those cases of "buyer beware." If this suits your lifestyle go for it; if not, buy something with a larger capacity and a few more bells and whistles.

after using my big boss grill for breakfast lunch and dinner i was compelled to write a review.

let me give you a run down of my breakfast this morning first i put in the omelet plate and made the most delicious eggs.
then i made some waffles that where great.

for lunch i had a delicious grill cheese sandwich with tomato inside.. (really GOOD)

For dinner i put on the grill plate and made burgers (2 full size burgers fit well on the tray).

if you think about this product its so many appliances in one "its the counter saver".

Given the many negative reviews of the Big Boss Grill, I was not sure what to expect, but I approached it with an open mind. What you get is an electric appliance that can take sets of cooking plates of various shapes, a plastic rack to store the plates, instruction and recipe book. The recipe book is useful, but is also padded - for example, some five or six variations on omelets. Don't take the "Big Boss" name literally - the whole grill is about nine inches wide. It can make a single regular sandwich, but other things such as burgers or waffles will need to be small. The "donut" plate it provides makes tiny donut-shape bites.

The grill plates themselves are aluminum (or some similar alloy) with a non-stick coating on one side. The coating did, at least for the few things I tried it on, allow easy washing of the plates. There is no power switch - you have to unplug the unit to turn it off. There are two lights, one indicating power and another indicating that it is up to temperature.

The Big Boss Grill most closely resembles a panini press, and it can be used for that, but the hinge is fixed so if your sandwich is at all thick, the top will not close nor rest evenly on the sandwich. A real panini press has a sliding hinge. The first thing I tried was a grilled cheese sandwich, and it did a fine job on that. The lid would not lock down, but I could watch the progress of the sandwich and remove it when the cheese had melted.

Flushed with success, I tried waffles, a favorite of mine. Apparently I did not put enough oil in the mix as the waffles stuck mightily to the plates, but I would have forgiven that if it weren't for the fact that the batter oozed out from between the plates and got into crevices in the hinge area, including around the power cable that connects the two sides. Not only was this incredibly difficult to clean afterward, but I worry about a design that encourages liquids to collect near a power opening.

Using the Big Boss grill to make omelets seems a bit wrong to me - what you end up with is an omelet-shaped scrambled egg mixture with your additions mixed in, since there is no way for a layer of cooked egg to fold on top of the vegetables, etc. Not quite the same thing.

As long as you avoid using the waffle plate, or anything else that would let liquids run out the back of the grill, I could see some usefulness of the Big Boss grill for singles or others who had small appetites. But the poor design of the hinge area and the potential safety hazard it entails means that I cannot recommend the Big Boss Grill.