I love outdoor cooking, and I likely have many more options than I will ever reasonably need to that end, but I've wanted a griddle to round out my choices for a while now anyway. We were at a friend's house who did smash burgers on his Blackstone and my son just raved about them, so with some persuading I got clearance to litter up my patio with one more cooking toy. I would have probably gone with the Blackstone or another Camp Chef to match my pellet smoker, except I'm already at something of a premium for space. I'd love the Evo, but let's be honest, $5k for a griddle would probably have been the last purchase I ever made. There aren't a lot of reviews or detail to be found online about the Cuisinart 360, so it was a little bit of a leap of faith, but so far I'm pretty pleased, with a couple of asterisks. I was originally going to get the 30", because I almost always convince myself that more is better. I talked myself down, and I'm probably glad I did. In reality I won't frequently be called upon to cook for more than 6-8 people and the surface of this is ample for that, though probably a bit crowded if I were to have 8 patties and 8 buns all going at the same time. For 95% of my cooking, this is plenty. And I imagine the footprint is significantly larger, and three burners of the larger griddle probably go through a lot more propane. This may assemble in 30 minutes with two people. I don't know, I did it myself and it can be done, but it probably took closer to an hour. I strongly suggest not tightening anything down until you've got everything in place, even screws that seem like they won't come into play later. It's fairly wobbly while you assemble, but you'll appreciate the extra wiggle room, particularly when you're trying to get the top of it attached to the legs. I had to loosen screws a couple of times I never would have guessed would have made any difference later. Trust me on this, don't tighten anything all the way until you've got the last screw in. Once you've got it assembled, tighten everything down and it's pretty sturdy. One complaint I have is that the locking casters don't lock very well and it still rolls without a lot of exertion. I may replace the casters at some point, but I haven't looked into how much of a project that is yet. Contrary to many reviews I've seen, there were no warps, bends, dents, dings, etc, on the lid or the drip ring in particular. It all looks to be good quality. I scratched one of the legs dropping it when I was taking it out of the box, but only have myself to blame. The cooking surface is not pre-seasoned and you will definitely want to do that before your first cook. I suggest taking the time to do it right instead of getting in a big hurry to use it. All told, it took me probably 2 hours and half a tank of propane before I was satisfied with the seasoning. I used avocado oil, and patience. After that, this is a good cooking surface, and at least as easy to use as my antique Griswold cast iron pans. There are some hot and cold spots on the surface, but they're not dramatic and it doesn't take a lot of use to figure out where they are. Nothing that is going to be too frustrating. And mine had a couple of small scratches/grooves in it from production, one of them about 3/4 inch long. Looking at other pictures, this doesn't seem uncommon, but they're not significant or deep enough to make it problematic, it's primarily cosmetic, if that bothers you. I just turned the larger scratch toward the back. This isn't the $5k Evo, so I'm a little more forgiving here than I would be with that. The infinity edge of the round grill takes some getting used to, and not having a raised edge to stop food from rolling over the side does have its issues. I would recommend two decent turners, or at the very least a turner and a bench scraper (which is handy to clean the surface, so I'd suggest a bench scraper anyway) to help corral food. Remember to clean the cooking surface well after you cook (a bottle of water to steam off hard cooked gunk is helpful) and put a layer of oil on it before you're done, unless you want to have to season it every time you use it. I know this is billed as more than just a griddle, and I guess if it's the only cooking source you have you could get more creative than that, but I don't see it taking the place of a grill or the smoker so much as I see it as an option for things those can't do. The lid is an okay touch for things like trapping heat or melting cheese (though it's really not a melting dome, per se), but it is definitely not enough weather protection on its own. If you don't have an awning, even the morning dew is definitely going to get onto your cooking surface. I'd strongly recommend a cover for storage, even if you do keep it under an awning. So far I've cooked bacon, eggs, pancakes, smash burgers, patty melts, and a hot turkey and swiss on rye, so I'm still just getting to know the griddle, but I'm happy with my purchase so far. Honestly if space were no constraint, I likely would have gone for a rectangular setup, and I probably still would. This is a more than decent compromise, though.
