Are griddles worth it?

A griddle is worth it if you regularly cook the kind of food it suits and in any quantity: breakfasts, pancakes, eggs and bacon, grilled sandwiches, burgers, and batches of food, because its large, flat cooking surface lets you cook a lot at once and handles flat and loose foods that a grill grate cannot and that a frying pan does in smaller amounts. For a family or anyone who cooks these foods often, that capacity and versatility make it genuinely useful. If you cook for one or two, rarely make griddle-type foods, or already manage fine with a frying pan, a griddle may be more than you need, so its worth depends on how much and what you cook. Our Best Griddles compares five of them.

What a griddle is

A griddle is a large, flat cooking surface you cook directly on, as opposed to a pan with high sides or a grill with gaps between grates. It comes in several forms: a flat metal plate that sits over one or two stovetop burners (a stovetop griddle), a reversible griddle pan, an electric griddle with its own heat, or the griddle side of a grill pan. Whatever the form, the defining feature is a broad, flat, solid cooking area.

That large flat surface is what defines its uses and its value. It gives lots of room to cook many items at once, it has no gaps so flat and small foods do not fall through or need a pan’s sides, and it heats a wide area fairly evenly for cooking foods flat. So a griddle is essentially a big frying surface, and whether it is worth it comes down to whether you cook the foods, and in the quantities, that benefit from that broad flat cooking area, rather than it doing anything a pan fundamentally cannot.

Why it is worth it: capacity and the right foods

The biggest reason a griddle is worth it is capacity: the large surface cooks a lot at once. You can make a whole breakfast, several pancakes, many rashers of bacon and eggs, or a batch of grilled sandwiches or burgers in one go, which a frying pan does only a couple at a time, so for cooking for a family, guests or a crowd, the griddle saves a lot of time and lets everything be ready together. This batch capacity is the clearest practical benefit.

It is also worth it for the foods it suits. The flat surface is ideal for breakfast foods (pancakes, eggs, bacon, hash browns, French toast), grilled cheese and toasted sandwiches, burgers and smash burgers, and foods you want cooked flat with good contact and browning, and it handles loose or small items that would fall through a grill. For anyone who cooks these foods regularly, a griddle does them better and in bigger batches than a pan, which is exactly where it earns its place and why it is worth it for the right cook.

Versatility and types

A griddle’s versatility adds to its worth, and the type you choose shapes that. A stovetop griddle that spans two burners gives a big flat surface using your existing hob, great for batch breakfasts and sandwiches, and a reversible griddle pan often has a flat side and a ridged grill side, so one piece does both griddling and grill-marking. An electric griddle has its own thermostat-controlled heat and a large surface, good for cooking at the table or away from the hob and for consistent batch cooking, while a flat-top style griddle extends this further for smash burgers and more.

This range means a griddle can suit different needs and kitchens, and many fit over the cooking equipment you already have. Matching the type to how you cook, stovetop for using your hob, electric for standalone batch and tabletop cooking, reversible for both flat and grilled, makes the griddle more useful and so more worth it. So beyond raw capacity, the griddle’s flat surface and the variety of forms make it a versatile tool for a wide span of flat and batch cooking, which is part of why keen cooks and families value one.

When a pan is enough and how to decide

You can manage without a griddle if your cooking does not need its capacity or specific strengths. If you cook for one or two, rarely make breakfasts, pancakes, grilled sandwiches or batches, or already cook these fine in a frying pan in the small amounts you need, a griddle adds little and would take up space, since a good frying pan handles the same foods in smaller quantities. For light or small-scale cooking, the pan you have may be all you need.

There are practical considerations too: a griddle, especially a large stovetop or electric one, takes up storage and counter space, and a two-burner stovetop griddle needs a hob that suits it and enough heat to cover the surface. So to decide, weigh how often you cook griddle-type foods and in what quantity against the space and whether a pan already copes. If you cook breakfasts, pancakes, sandwiches, burgers or batches regularly, or cook for a family, a griddle is worth it for the capacity and the foods it suits; if not, a frying pan likely covers your needs, making the griddle optional.

The short answer

A griddle is worth it if you regularly cook the foods it suits and in any quantity, breakfasts, pancakes, eggs and bacon, grilled sandwiches, burgers and batches, because its large, flat cooking surface cooks a lot at once and handles flat and loose foods that a grill grate cannot and a frying pan does only in small amounts. For families and anyone who cooks these foods often, that batch capacity and the way the flat surface suits breakfast foods, toasted sandwiches and burgers make it genuinely useful, and its versatility, across stovetop, electric and reversible griddle-and-grill types, widens where it helps and lets it fit the kitchen you have. But it is essentially a big frying surface, so if you cook for one or two, rarely make griddle-type foods, or already manage with a frying pan, it may be more than you need and take up space. So it is worth it for regular or batch cooking of its foods, and optional for light, small-scale cooking a pan already covers.