Food ยท Gear Review
Best Cast Iron Grill Pan. Grill marks without the grill.
Our pick is the Lodge Chef Collection 11-inch Square Grill Pan. Tall, well-spaced ridges leave bold grill marks and clean up easily, two looped handles make it easy to lift, and it costs about $40. Two alternatives follow for a smaller budget and for enamel.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
At a glance: Lodge Chef Collection 11-inch Square Grill Pan
Strengths
- America's Test Kitchen named it the best grill pan, with tall ridges that left bold grill marks.
- It arrived well seasoned, released food, cleaned up easily, and still looked new after testing.
- Two looped handles make it easy to lift and compact to store.
- It costs about $40.
Limitations
- At about 7 pounds, it is still a heavy pan.
- An 11-inch square surface means cooking in batches for a large family.
- Some owners find the ridges hard to clean.
The verdict
Tall ridges, low walls, two handles.
Our cast iron cookware handbook covers the four core pieces. A grill pan is the kitchen specialist among them: it puts grill marks on food and drains fat away into the channels. We judged ridge height, how easily food released, how hard the pan was to clean, and how it handled.
Best for most households
Lodge Chef Collection
The test-kitchen winner, at about $40.
About $35 to $45
Budget pick
Lodge 10.5-inch
Tall ridges for less, with a skillet handle.
About $25 to $35
If you want enamel
Le Creuset Signature
Soap-and-water care, more scrubbing.
About $155 to $245
Affiliate disclosure: New World Survival earns a small commission on qualifying Amazon purchases at no cost to you. This helps us cover operating costs and keep building new content. We only recommend gear we would put in our own kit. Commission never decides a recommendation.
Why the pick wins
The ridges are the whole point.
A grill pan that does not leave bold grill marks is a skillet with grooves to clean. The winner's ridges were the reason it won.
01
Bold marks
Testers found the tallest ridges made the crispest marks and lifted food above the drippings. (ATK)
02
Easy to clean
Widely spaced ridges let a brush or fingertip in between, so food does not get trapped.
03
Easy to flip
Low, flared sides let a spatula slide under fish and burgers at a comfortable angle.
04
Easy to lift
Two looped handles balance the weight better than one long handle.
America's Test Kitchen compared burgers, panini, and salmon made in grill pans with the same foods made in ordinary skillets; the skillet versions lacked the flavorful char marks. Testers prefer bare cast iron for grill pans because it holds heat and forms taller ridges than thin stamped nonstick pans, and because its seasoning keeps improving. (America's Test Kitchen)
The picks
Choose the handle, then the surface.
All three pans cook on any stovetop and in the oven. The real choices are two loop handles or a long one, and bare iron or enamel.
Best for most households
Lodge Chef Collection 11-inch Square Grill Pan
A tray-shaped square pan with elevated ridges, low flared sides, and two looped handles in place of a long skillet handle. Lodge lists it at about 7 pounds. (Lodge)
It won America's Test Kitchen's June 2025 grill pan testing. Testers found it arrived well seasoned, released food and cleaned up easily, made excellent grill marks with tall, well-defined ridges, and still looked new after extensive testing. They found the best pans weighed about 6.5 to 7 pounds, with low walls for sliding a spatula under fish and ridges at least a fingertip apart for easy scrubbing; this one fits all three. (America's Test Kitchen)
Specifications
Budget pick
Lodge 10.5-inch Square Cast Iron Grill Pan
Lodge's long-running grill pan, with a skillet-style handle and a helper handle. Lodge lists it at about 7.3 pounds. (Lodge)
America's Test Kitchen recommended it, one tier below the winner: its tall ridges made crisp panini and distinct marks on fish, but fish stuck a bit and the taller sides made a spatula awkward. Its seasoning improved over the course of testing. (America's Test Kitchen) For burgers, steaks, and vegetables it does the same job for less.
Specifications
If you want enamel
Le Creuset Signature Square Skillet Grill, 10.25-inch
An enameled grill pan that needs no seasoning and can be washed with plenty of soap. America's Test Kitchen recommended it for excellent panini and flared walls that make flipping easier, but salmon stuck and left char in the ridges, and it usually took a fair amount of scrubbing to clean. (America's Test Kitchen)
Testers also noted that enameled cast iron never becomes more nonstick the way bare iron does. (America's Test Kitchen) A retailer lists it at about 6.5 pounds, oven-safe to 500°F. (Cutlery and More) Choose it if you want enamel's easy soap-and-water care more than the best release.
Specifications
What owners actually say
Great steaks, tedious ridges.
These patterns come from retailer reviews, cooking forums, and expert testing. A theme appears here only when more than one source raises it independently.
Lodge Chef Collection
Owners praise even heating and say it brings grilling indoors, that it arrives seasoned as advertised, and that the size is right.
The split is over cleaning: some find it easy, others do not, which matches the common forum complaint about ridged pans generally.
Lodge 10.5-inch
Across more than thirty thousand ratings, owners love it for steaks and searing and call it well worth the price.
Cleaning and maintenance divide them, opinions on weight are mixed, and a number report rust, which is the cost of skipping the dry-and-oil step.
Le Creuset square grill
Owners like how it cooks steaks and holds heat and expect it to last for years.
They find it hard to clean, and some consider it overpriced.
The one thing to know
Smoke comes from the last batch.
Grill pans smoke more than skillets, and America's Test Kitchen traced much of it to batches: in a small pan, residue from the first burgers scorches while the second batch cooks. A roomier pan, fewer batches, and a clean pan before each use mean less smoke. (America's Test Kitchen) Run the range hood or open a window when you grill indoors.
Ridged pans also collect fat in their channels. Pour it off between batches, and keep a lid or baking sheet nearby; the U.S. Fire Administration's advice for a pan that catches fire is to cover it and turn the burner off. (U.S. Fire Administration)
How they fail, what they cost
The ridges trap food. The iron lasts.
A cast iron grill pan rarely wears out. It disappoints when food welds into the ridges, and it rusts when it is put away wet.
Stuck food in the ridges
Scrub while the pan is warm with a stiff brush that reaches between the ridges, then dry it on the burner. Widely spaced ridges make this far easier.
Rust on bare iron
Lodge's fix for rust is to scour it off, dry the pan, oil it, and re-season it in a 450 to 500°F oven for an hour. (Lodge)
What it costs to own
Close to nothing: cooking oil and a stiff brush that fits the ridges. A grill press, if you want panini, is the only add-on worth buying.
What we didn't pick
And who should skip these.
Borough Furnace grill pan
America's Test Kitchen's runner-up: handmade, smooth, and beautiful, and it doubles as a lid for the maker's 12-inch skillet. At just over $100 and sold direct, it is a gift-level choice. (America's Test Kitchen)
Staub 12-inch square grill pan
Spacious with tall ridges, but very heavy, and fish left a char mark testers could not scrub off. About $260. (America's Test Kitchen)
Victoria round grill pan
Recommended with reservations: small, low ridges, ineffective pre-seasoning, and it overheated and scorched food. (America's Test Kitchen)
Reversible grill and griddle plates
The Amazon Basics plate on many lists is a two-burner griddle, not a grill pan. If you want a ridged side for the outdoor grill, our griddle comparison covers that format.
Skip a grill pan if
You already own a cast iron skillet and a grill. The skillet sears, and the grill grills. A grill pan is a convenience for indoor grill marks.
Skip the Le Creuset if
Release and easy scrubbing matter more to you than soap-friendly enamel. Testers preferred bare iron for grill pans.
Where it fits in your readiness
A kitchen convenience, not a readiness tool.
A grill pan sits outside the core readiness tiers. It does a job the skillet and the outdoor grill already cover. We include it because readers asked, and because a good one is a pleasure on a rainy night.
When the power is out
The readiness version of this job is the ridged side of a reversible griddle laid on an outdoor grill, which cooks for more people at once. Our griddle comparison covers it.
Everyday cooking
Where it shines is a weeknight steak, chicken, or vegetables in winter when no one wants to stand at the grill.
Maintenance
Brush the ridges while it is warm.
- Wash with warm, soapy water and a stiff brush, dry completely, and wipe on a thin coat of oil, as Lodge recommends for its cast iron. (Lodge)
- Scrub the ridges while the pan is still warm; stuck food comes away far more easily.
- Preheat on medium before the food goes in.
- For enamel, use wood or silicone tools and no steel wool.
Questions people ask
Before the first steak.
Is a grill pan worth it if I have a cast iron skillet?
Only if you want grill marks indoors. America's Test Kitchen found foods cooked in ordinary skillets lacked the char marks of grill pans, but a skillet sears just as well. If you already have a skillet and an outdoor grill, a grill pan is a convenience, not a need.
How do I keep a grill pan from smoking?
America's Test Kitchen found much of the smoke comes from residue scorching between batches in small pans. Use a roomy pan, cook in as few batches as possible, start with a clean pan, and run the range hood.
How do I clean a cast iron grill pan?
Scrub it while it is still warm with a stiff brush that reaches between the ridges, using warm, soapy water, then dry it completely and wipe on a thin coat of oil. Pans with ridges at least a fingertip apart are much easier to clean.
Is a bare or enameled grill pan better?
America's Test Kitchen prefers bare cast iron for grill pans. Its seasoning keeps improving and released food better in testing, while enamel never becomes more nonstick and an enameled pan produced one of the worst cases of fish sticking.