8 Best Raclette Grills of 2026

The plate is cast aluminum, and that is the whole story: it holds heat the way a heavy skillet does, so a layer of cold sliced meat goes on and the surface comes back instead of fading. Five numbered settings let you drop the heat to a slow melt without scorching the bottom of the cheese, and the plate flips to a flat side for crepe-thin pancakes the next morning. Eight nonstick dishes and eight spatulas come with it.

Raclette in Switzerland is a ritual rather than a grill night, and this is the machine that behaves like it. We think it is the one to buy when the point of the evening is the cheese course and the conversation around it, because nothing about it rushes you. It is also not a table for eight: the plate is small, four to six people eat comfortably from it, and the extra dishes mostly mean everyone gets their own pan rather than their own space.

The trade is speed and money. This one takes longer to reach temperature than the 1,400- and 1,500-watt grills here, and it costs more than anything else in the group except the stone-top Swissmar and the GreenPan. What the premium buys is the finest heat control in the set and a plate that feels like an heirloom rather than an appliance.

At 17.5 pounds this is the heaviest grill in the set by a wide margin, and the granite slab on top is the reason. Set it down and it stays exactly where you put it, with no slide and no wobble when someone leans in with a spatula, and the stone holds enough heat to put a real crust on a steak instead of a gray sear. You are paying for that weight every time you lift it, and it is the price of the best browning here.

The stone is also the part that asks something back. It takes a seasoning the way cast iron does, it will stain, and a nylon brush and a soak are the routine rather than a wipe and a rinse. What you get in exchange is a brushed stainless body that looks good enough to leave out, which is more than we can say for the black plastic appliances in this group, plus a crepe side on the reverse.

If the meat matters more than the cheese throughput, this is the one we set out. It grills like a plancha, it looks like furniture, and it keeps eight pans going underneath while it does it. If what you actually want is eight people melting cheese in relays, the CUSIMAX gets there faster, lighter and for less money.

Two reversible nonstick plates and a separate stone plate come in the box, which is one more cooking surface than any other grill here gives you. Run the griddle side for eggs and pancakes, flip to the grill for meat and vegetables, or drop the stone in when you want a harder sear. With 1,500 watts behind it and eight pans underneath, it is built for a table that eats in waves rather than all at once.

That flexibility is the whole argument for it. We kept one side low for holding cooked food warm while the other side seared, which is exactly what you want when people arrive at different times and nobody wants to eat cold steak. Hot food stayed hot, the cheese pans kept up, and the 18-month warranty is the longest in this group, which counts for something on a machine that gets used four times a winter.

What you give up is evenness. One thermostat runs the whole plate, so the corners lag the middle and food needs shuffling toward the center as it cooks. Warm-up takes patience, and the usable grill area is smaller than the box full of plates suggests once the pans are out. None of that hurts a party of six to eight where the cooking is half the entertainment.

Ten inches wide is the number that makes this one useful. It puts eight pans and a reversible plate on a footprint closer to a large cutting board than to a dining table, which is a small fraction of what the 19-inch grills here demand. In a small apartment, on a balcony, or at a kitchen island with a fruit bowl permanently on it, that is the difference between raclette happening and not.

The plate reverses from grill to flat griddle for crepes and pancakes, the dial runs up to 450°F, and eight pans plus a spatula come in the box. It heats evenly across the middle, and the adjustable control gives you enough room to melt cheese gently with the plate above running hot. Setup is genuinely a case of putting it on the table and plugging it in.

The compromise is recovery and area. At 1,300 watts with a small plate, a load of cold sliced meat drops the temperature and it takes a moment to climb back, and the cooking surface is tight enough that a big group eats in relays. Neither matters much for four people around a kitchen table, which is the size this grill is happiest with.

This is raclette for the nights when nobody is hosting. Two enamel pans, two spatulas, and a removable grill plate sit on a body the size of a hardback book, and the whole thing weighs 2 pounds. It goes on the counter, does its job, rinses out, and disappears into the cabinet, which is more than the full-size grills here can say for themselves.

The 1,000-watt element melts a pan of cheese quickly, and the nonstick plate on top handles thin cuts of meat and vegetables while the pans work underneath. Give it a few minutes to warm through before the first pan goes in, and expect the plate to run gentle rather than ferocious. The pans are partly dishwasher safe and rinse clean under the tap either way.

For two people on a weeknight this is the one we kept coming back to, because the setup and the cleanup are both smaller than the meal. Two pans does mean cheese in relays if you are feeding four, and there is no room for a proper sear, so it is not a substitute for the CUSIMAX on party night. For the money, it earns its shelf space easily.

This is the least expensive way into a full-size raclette grill in this group, and it shows its budget in specific places. Six pans instead of eight, 900 watts instead of 1,300 or 1,500, and a chrome-and-black body that looks like the appliance it is rather than a piece of tableware. None of that is a dealbreaker at the price; all of it is worth knowing before the box arrives.

What it does well is the basic job. The top plate gets hot enough to cook chicken and peppers through, the six pans underneath melt cheese, and at 4.8 pounds it goes back in the closet without a fight. The cooking parts rinse clean, which takes most of the dread out of the end of the evening.

The dial is the crude part. There are six settings, but the difference between them is coarse and the plate runs hotter in the middle than at the corners, so food needs moving around. The pans and their handles are the weak link too: they can soften under sustained high heat, so keep the dial below maximum while the pans are in and do not stack them on the top plate.

For a first raclette grill, or one that comes out twice a winter, this does the job and the price says so. If it turns into a monthly habit, the HBN is the next step up and the CUSIMAX settles the heat question outright.

The coating is the reason to look at this one. It is ceramic nonstick, free of PFAS, PFOA, lead and cadmium, on a plate that flips between grill, griddle and a flat pancake surface. If you are shopping specifically because you do not want fluoropolymer coatings anywhere near a meal your kids are cooking at the table, this answers that in a way the rest of the set does not.

Eight mini square pans and spatulas come with it, and the pancake side is a real second act rather than a line on the box. Breakfast for four on a Sunday is a legitimate use for a grill that would otherwise sit in a closet between dinner parties, and the pans are shaped for eggs and small portions rather than for slabs of meat.

What it is not is hot. It is listed at 350 watts where everything else here runs 900 to 1,500, and the plate behaves accordingly: gentle, even, better at melting and pancakes than at putting a crust on anything. It is also the most expensive grill in this group and the second heaviest at 12.4 pounds, so it wants a permanent spot rather than a shelf.

It earns its place for one specific cook: the one who cares about the surface more than the sear, and who will use the pancake plate often enough to justify the price. The limited lifetime warranty backs that bet better than anything else here. Just do not expect steak-house browning from it.