Open, Hooded or Contact? Choosing the Best Indoor Grill

Houston has a long grilling season, but not a year-round one. When it rains for a week, when it is too hot to stand over coals, or when you live in an apartment with no patio, an electric indoor grill is how carne asada, pollo asado and grilled onions still happen at home. A good one gets hot enough to brown thin steak quickly, drains the fat away, and comes apart for cleaning.

Indoor grills come in three shapes, and the right one depends on what you cook. Open grills are flat plates with a ridged surface, like a small plancha with grill lines. Hooded grills close a lid over the food and use fans or radiant heat. Contact grills press food between two hot plates, like a panini press, and cook both sides at once. This guide covers all three. For each we list the cooking area, maximum temperature, plates and coating, cleaning and warranty as the maker or the Amazon listing states them, and we report smoke claims only as the makers’ own claims.

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Quick verdict: which indoor grill to buy

The table below shows our five standout picks, one for each kind of cook. All ten grills are reviewed in full after it.

Five indoor grills side by side

Type, maximum temperature and cleanup for our five standout picks, as each maker or Amazon listing states them.

Product images from Amazon. Specifications as stated by each maker or Amazon listing; check the listing before you buy.

Our picks for the best indoor grill

These ten grills cover open, hooded and contact designs, from a compact 4-to-5-serving press to a 15-serving round grill on a stand. Each review explains what the grill does well, what the maker says about smoke, how it cleans, and one honest reason to skip it. If you mostly want a flat surface for pancakes, eggs and tortillas, see our guide to the best electric griddle instead.

How to choose an indoor grill

An indoor grill only earns its counter space if it gets hot enough, fits what you cook and cleans up quickly. These six points sort that out.

1. Open, hooded or contact

Open grills, like the Ninja Sizzle, Zojirushi and Chefman, work like a small plancha with grill lines: you see and turn every piece, which suits fajitas, vegetables and thin steak. Hooded grills, like the Ninja Foodi and Hamilton Beach, close a lid over the food to hold heat and reduce splatter. Contact grills, like the Cuisinart, Breville, T-fal and George Foreman, cook both sides at once and double as panini presses, which is ideal for tortas and quesadillas but flattens anything you put in them.

2. Maximum temperature

Heat is what separates grilled steak from steamed steak. Carne asada needs a very hot surface to brown before the inside overcooks, so look for 450°F or more: the two Ninjas reach 500°F, the Cuisinart, Breville and Hamilton Beach 450°F, the Zojirushi 410°F. Several grills here do not publish a figure at all, which makes them harder to judge.

3. Cooking area

Most indoor grills feed two to six. Square inches are the best measure when the maker gives them: the Hamilton Beach has 118, the Breville 260 opened flat. A 14-by-9-inch plate, like the Ninja Sizzle’s, fits half a dozen burgers, according to Ninja. For a crowd, an open grill you can keep loading beats a contact grill you have to open, empty and refill.

4. Plates and coating

Almost every indoor grill uses a nonstick coating, and the makers describe them differently: Ninja calls the Foodi’s grate ceramic-coated and PTFE- and PFOA-free, Hamilton Beach calls its plate PFAS-free, Zojirushi uses a titanium and ceramic enhanced nonstick, and Breville uses its Quantanium coating. Care rules come from each manual: Breville, for example, warns against metal utensils and spray-on nonstick coatings, and George Foreman recommends nylon scrubbers. Removable plates make cleaning easier whatever the coating.

5. Smoke

“Smokeless” is a maker’s word, not a measurement. Grills reduce smoke with mesh lids, cool zones under the grate, grease channels or water trays, and every maker’s claim here comes with the same reality, which Ninja states plainly: smoke depends on the meat and its fat. Trim fat, pat marinades dry, and run your range hood.

6. Cleaning and warranty

Check which parts go in the dishwasher. The George Foreman Submersible goes in whole once the control panel is off; the Hamilton Beach sends its hood, plate and tray; others only the lid or the drip tray. Warranties run from one year on most grills to three on the Cuisinart Griddler and the 15-serving George Foreman.

How we picked these ten indoor grills

We started from what a restaurant kitchen asks of a grill: high, even heat for a fast sear, a way to drain fat, enough room for meat and vegetables, and parts that clean easily. We looked for indoor electric grills of each common type sold on Amazon in the United States and showing as in stock when we checked, and confirmed each specification on the maker’s page, the maker’s manual or the brand’s Amazon listing. Where sources disagree, as with the George Foreman Submersible’s warranty and coating, we say so; where a maker gives no figure, we write “Not stated”. Smoke claims are reported as each maker’s claim. We left out grills showing very low stock, including PowerXL’s Smokeless Grill Elite, Ninja’s Foodi Smart XL Pro and T-fal’s OptiGrill 4-in-1, and lesser-known brands with sparse listings. We have not cooked on these grills for this guide, and we did not read or rely on Consumer Reports, Wirecutter or other outside reviews for it.

Indoor grilling safety

An indoor grill means an electric grill. The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s charcoal grill safety tips warn that burning charcoal gives off carbon monoxide, which you cannot see or smell and which can kill, and say never to burn charcoal inside homes, vehicles or tents or to barbecue in a garage. The U.S. Fire Administration’s outdoor fire safety page says to use propane, charcoal and wood pellet grills only outside, because indoor use can cause a fire or carbon monoxide poisoning. Beyond that, follow your grill’s manual: keep it on a stable, heat-safe counter, away from the wall and cabinets, and unplug it to clean.

Grilling Mexican food indoors

• Carne asada: use thin skirt or flap steak, pat the marinade off before it goes on, and preheat fully. Sear at the highest setting, rest, then slice across the grain. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service’s safe minimum internal temperature chart lists 145°F for beef steaks with a rest of at least three minutes.
• Pollo asado and burgers: FSIS lists 165°F for all poultry and 160°F for ground meat, so use a thermometer, especially with automatic programs or a contact grill.
• Fajitas: grill the meat, then switch to a griddle plate or a pan for peppers and onions. Our best cast iron skillet and best fajita skillet guides cover the pans, and how to eat fajitas explains the build at the table.
• Tortillas: warm them on a griddle plate or a dry comal; see the best comal for tortillas.
• Salsa vegetables: char tomatoes, onions and jalapeños on the hottest part of an open grill for a smoky salsa roja.

Indoor grill questions, answered

What is the best indoor grill on the market?

For most kitchens, the Ninja Sizzle: 500°F, grill and griddle plates, and a mesh lid Ninja says helps control smoke. Choose the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 for a hooded grill that air fries, the Cuisinart Griddler for a contact grill, and the Breville Smart Grill for a premium contact grill.

Which indoor grill brands are worth looking at?

Ninja for high-heat open and hooded grills; Cuisinart, Breville and T-fal for contact grills; Zojirushi for simple open grills; George Foreman and Hamilton Beach for affordable, easy-clean grills. PowerXL makes smokeless grills too, but its models were scarce on Amazon when we checked.

Is a smokeless indoor grill really smokeless?

No grill makes zero smoke with fatty meat. “Smokeless” and “smoke-less” are makers’ terms for designs that reduce it: Ninja’s mesh lid, Cuisinart’s tilting grease-reducing plates, Chefman’s water tray. Ninja itself notes that smoke varies with the meat and fat. Expect less, not none, and use your range hood.

Did you use Consumer Reports or Wirecutter for this guide?

No. We did not read or rely on their reviews for this page. Our picks come from maker specifications, manuals, Amazon listings and what a restaurant kitchen needs from a grill, and we say where sources disagree.

Is an indoor grill better than a grill pan?

An electric grill holds its own temperature and drains fat into a tray, and an open model like the Ninja Sizzle reaches 500°F without your stove. A cast iron grill pan or reversible griddle on the stove costs less and needs no counter space, but you control the heat with the burner; our best cast iron griddle guide covers the reversible grill-and-griddle kind.

What is the best indoor kitchen grill for a small apartment?

A compact contact grill such as the George Foreman 5-Serving Submersible, or the Ninja Foodi if you also want an air fryer. Both stand on a counter, and the Foodi’s closed hood keeps splatter in.

Our final pick for grilling indoors

Buy the Ninja Sizzle if you want one indoor grill for carne asada, fajita vegetables and tortillas, with real 500°F heat and plates that come out for the sink. Choose the Ninja Foodi 6-in-1 for a hooded grill and air fryer, the Cuisinart Griddler for a versatile contact grill with a three-year warranty, the Zojirushi for simple tabletop grilling, and the George Foreman Submersible when easy cleanup matters most.

Prefer a stovetop pan to another appliance? Our guide to the best grill pan compares cast iron, enameled and nonstick grill pans.

Hosting a cheese night? See our guide to the best raclette grills.

Short on space? See our guide to the best small indoor grills.

Cooking Korean barbecue at the table? See the best indoor Korean BBQ grills.

Deciding between a stovetop pan and a plug-in grill? See grill pan vs indoor grill.

Want one machine that grills and air fries? See our guide to the best indoor grill and air fryer combos.

Related guide: Best indoor grill and griddle combo.

For flat-top cooking, see our best electric griddle and best electric skillet guides, and when the weather turns, the best charcoal grill. Or let us do the cooking: see the menu or call to order.