Vonhaus 1200W 8 Person Raclette Grill And Stone Review

Reviewed by Jane Warwick

I was keen to try this VONHAUS 1200W 8 person raclette grill and stone out to see if it is a grill I would use with guests as it is always nice to do something different when having friends and family round. Basically, the instruction manual states that this is for you and up to 7 guests to experience the charming joy of grilling, searing and frying your own food directly at the dining table. That sounds great but there is a snag and that is the electric cable which is not long enough to reach the socket on the wall without becoming a major hazard. The instructions suggest that you should not use an extension cable, so I trialled it on the marble kitchen work surface. However next time I am going to use an extension cable and have it on the table and just be aware of the hazards involved.

At first, I was unclear what Raclette meant so searched on Google and found out that Raclette originates from the Canton Wallis in Switzerland and is around 400 years old. The star ingredient is melted cheese. “Bratchäs, or “roasted cheese” as it is called in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Traditionally the cheese is melted over an open fire. You can buy Raclette cheese in either Lidl Tesco, Waitrose, or Aldi or, so I have been told but I was unsuccessful so bought a Gruyere type of cheese. Looking up more information on Raclette recipes on Google, I noticed that some people have several cheeses available for their meal. This is a good idea if you are having 6/7 guests around, as it is nice to provide a variety of cheeses so there is a cheese suitable for everyone.

The raclette comes with a stone as well as grill though I have only used the grill so far. The raclette grill is easy to assemble and is in black with smart wooden sides so looks very modern. One side has the on off buttons and the temperature control. This control is useful to make sure what you are cooking is cooked thoroughly. I initially grilled two different types of sausages and one was much thicker so to avoid the sausages having a black surface I turned the dial down and just cooked the sausages for longer. They tasted really nice and two of my family made sausage sandwiches. Having had a variety of vegetables left over from the night before these were cut and placed on a plate along with a bowl of grated Gruyere. Having our own individual pans to place our chosen vegetables and cheese is useful as we all prefer different vegetables and amounts. We are then all responsible for making sure the food in our individual pans under the grill are cooked well (Cheese bubbling away is a giveaway), and the food in the pans cook quite quickly so it is important if cooking something big like sausages you cook these first and then add the pans under the grill with vegetables and cheese later. I noticed a review mentioned that the 2 guests at the end of the table (in other words next to the wooden ends of the raclette grill), cannot see their pans nor do they have easy access to their pans in order to control them, but with a little communication the other guests help them out.

A downside after a meal is that the grill and pans cannot be placed in a dish washer but need to be hand washed. To be honest this is not a major problem as the grill and pans are very easy to clean due to being non-stick.

Next time (having guests again tomorrow), I am going to get the guests to cook starters using this grill with chopped up chorizo sausage, asparagus as well as baby tomatoes, sliced peppers and onion with a variety of cheeses, gruyere, cheddar and a small amount of parmesan.

Even though there are 8 pans so this can be used with eight people, I can see it could be a nice romantic thing to do on Valentine’s Day using the pans to create different dishes.

It certainly is something easy to use, a novelty and because you can grill quite a variety of foods; something that you can easily use each week and it must save on energy costs as you only cook what you are going to eat.

Rating: 3.5/5

RRP: £59.99 with free UK mainland delivery

This product can be purchase from Vonhaus here.