Grills and griddles are different cooking surfaces that suit cooking different types of food.

With a grill your food gets direct flame contact, which can result in better tasting steaks and burgers, while the flat griddle surface is perfect for cooking more delicate food.

Let’s take a look at the differences, and explore the kinds of foods that work best with each, plus which you should buy if you can only get one.

Related – Best outdoor griddles

What is a griddle?

If you’ve ever been to an old-fashioned diner, then that colossal hissing hot plate in the kitchen is an excellent example of a griddle.

A griddle is basically the same as a gas grill, but instead of grill grates you have a large flat cooking surface mounted on the top.

Best foods to cook on a griddle:

• Eggs, pancakes, rice dishes, and fajitas are great examples of delicious foods that can only be prepared on a cooking surface with no holes in it.

• Fried breakfast featuring favorites such as fried eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, bacon, beans, and tomatoes. 

• The high heat of the griddle makes it perfect for Mexican food and can mimic a wok so you can stir-fry Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cuisines.

• Traditional grill staples like burgers, steak, hot dogs, and chicken will all cook perfectly well on a griddle.

Types of griddle

Griddles come a number of shapes and sizes, from free standing dedicated griddles, to special griddle attachments that fit on to your existing gas or charcoal grill.

Freestanding griddles

Freestanding griddles like the popular Blackstone come attached to their own stand and cart, and are a great choice if you want an lots of flat cooking space in your back yard. 

Most freestanding griddles use propane tanks, with multiple burners mounted underneath the steel cooking surface.

Depending on the model you choose, you can also get casters for moving it around, easy-clean grease traps, and folding side tables to help you with your cooking preparation.

Tabletop griddles

Similar to a hot plate, tabletop griddles are a small, portable cooking surface that can be taken with you when camping or going to a cookout.

They can also be used in the kitchen to cook up a great breakfast, and stored away without taking up much cupboard space.

The Blackstone Tabletop Gas Griddle is an excellent example. At 17.5 x 18 x 8.5 inches, it’s compact enough that traveling with it, or storing it, isn’t a hassle. 

Despite its small size, the Blackstones burners, powered by a 1 lb propane bottle, put out 12,000 BTUs of cooking heat, which is more than enough to get it cooking quickly and effectively.

Griddle insert

Usually an addition to a BBQ or grill, an insert griddle is a flat square cooking surface that can be fitted over a heating element or firepit to turn it into a griddle.

If you’ve already got a gas BBQ or charcoal grill and don’t have the space to invest in a freestanding griddle, then an insert griddle is a great compromise that increases the utility of your existing setup.

A good starting point is your grill manufacuter, with brands like Weber selling a variety of griddle inserts for their different grills. You also have Little Griddle who sell a few different sizes of stainless steel insert.

What is a grill?

In contrast to a griddle’s single fat surface, a grill’s cooking surface is a series of cooking grates, generally suspended above a charcoal firepit or gas burners.

The benefit of a grill is that it allows the grease and water from the food to run-off between the grates, it exposes the food to an open flame, and the metal grills transfer heat, browning the meat on contact and intensifying the Maillard reaction.

The greater exposure of the food to the cooking flame on a grill is important as wood and charcoal grills are often prized for the smokey flavor they impart to the food.

Should I buy a griddle or a grill?

If you’ve made it this far, I’m going to assume you can’t just buy both.

I would argue that a griddle offers slightly more versatility, since you can cook anything you would cook on a grill on a griddle, but not the other way around.

The flat surface of the griddle is surprisngly great for steak, since you get more even browning, and that’s where the flavor comes from.

There’s something about food cooked over a direct flame that can’t be beat though. In that case, you might want to look at either getting a standard gas or charcoal grill with an attachment, or getting a combo grill or a grill with interchanble surfaces.

I’m a big fan of the Grilla Primate, which is a full sized grill which allows you to swap out the entire surface to convert to a full sized griddle.

We have detailed guides that go through our favorite gas grills and griddles, if you’re ready to start narrowing down more which model is right for you.