What are flat top grills used for?

Flat top grills, also called griddles, are used to cook on a large, flat, solid metal surface heated from below, rather than on the open grates of a traditional grill. That flat surface makes them ideal for cooking breakfasts, eggs, bacon and pancakes, burgers and especially smash burgers, stir-fries and fried rice, vegetables, and all the small or loose foods that would fall through grill grates, with plenty of room to cook a lot at once. They give even, consistent heat across a big cooking area and let you develop a good sear, which is why flat tops are used for everything from diner-style breakfasts to backyard cooking for a crowd. Our Best Flat Top Grills compares five of them.

What a flat top grill is

A flat top grill is a cooking appliance with a large, flat, solid cooking surface, usually steel, heated by burners or an element underneath, so the whole surface gets hot and you cook directly on it, much like a giant frying pan or the griddle at a diner. It differs from a traditional grill, which has open grates over the heat with gaps between them; the flat top has no gaps, giving one continuous solid surface.

That solid surface is the defining feature and determines what it is used for. Because there are no grates with gaps, you can cook foods that would otherwise fall through or that need a flat base, and because the surface is large and evenly heated, you can cook a lot at once with consistent results. Understanding that a flat top is essentially a big, flat, evenly heated cooking surface explains the range of foods and situations it suits, which is much of what a frying pan does but on a far larger scale.

Breakfasts, eggs and pancakes

A classic use is cooking breakfast, diner-style. The flat surface is perfect for eggs cooked any way, bacon, sausages, hash browns, French toast and pancakes, all of which need a flat base and would be impossible on grates. You can cook a whole breakfast spread at once on the big surface, keeping different foods in their own areas, which is why flat tops are the heart of diner and brunch cooking and a favorite for big weekend breakfasts at home.

Pancakes and eggs in particular show off what the flat top does: the even, steady heat across the surface cooks pancakes evenly for consistent browning, and the solid surface lets you fry eggs neatly and flip them with room to spare. Being able to cook many portions together makes it ideal for feeding a family or group breakfast, so cooking breakfast foods, especially eggs and pancakes, is one of the most popular and natural uses of a flat top grill.

Burgers, smash burgers and searing

Flat tops are prized for burgers, and especially smash burgers. Because the surface is solid and gets hot and holds heat well, you can press a ball of mince flat onto it to make a smash burger with a deeply browned, crisp crust, which the direct full contact with the flat hot surface creates and which grates cannot replicate. The flat top’s ability to make smash burgers is a big reason many people buy one.

More generally, the solid surface is excellent for searing and browning. Steaks, burgers, chicken, chopped meats and anything you want a good crust on sear well on the even, consistent heat, and because the food sits in full contact with the surface and its juices and fats stay around it rather than dripping through grates, you get rich browning and flavor. So developing a good sear and crust on burgers, smash burgers and other meats is a central use, which is why flat tops are so popular for backyard and griddle-style cooking.

Loose foods, big-batch cooking and versatility

A key use of the flat top is cooking all the foods that fall through or do not suit grill grates. Stir-fries and fried rice, chopped and sliced vegetables, diced onions and peppers, shrimp and small seafood, and chopped or loose ingredients all cook easily on the solid surface, where you can push them around, keep them from falling through, and cook them like a huge wok or frying pan. This hugely expands what you can cook outdoors or on a griddle compared with a grate grill.

The large surface and even heat also make flat tops ideal for cooking in volume and for versatility. You can cook many portions and several different foods at once, keeping them in separate zones, which suits feeding a crowd, and the same surface handles everything from breakfast to burgers to stir-fries to fajitas and teppanyaki-style cooking. So flat top grills are used as a large, versatile, even cooking surface for loose foods, batch cooking and a wide variety of dishes, which, together with breakfasts and seared meats, is the full range of what they are for.

The short answer

Flat top grills, or griddles, are used to cook on a large, flat, solid hot surface instead of open grates, which makes them ideal for a wide range of foods. They excel at breakfasts, eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns and pancakes, that need a flat base, at burgers and especially smash burgers and other searing where the solid surface gives a deep, crisp crust, and at all the loose or small foods that would fall through grates, such as stir-fries, fried rice, chopped vegetables, onions and seafood. The big, evenly heated surface also lets you cook a lot at once and several foods together, so flat tops suit feeding a crowd and versatile cooking from breakfast to fajitas. In short, a flat top is used like a giant, even frying pan or griddle, cooking everything a grate grill cannot and much more, with great searing and plenty of room.