One naming note before the criteria, because it sends a lot of people to the wrong page. If you are shopping for a griddle to cook roti, dosa, chapati or tortillas, the search term you want is a comal or a tawa rather than a griddle — the pans overlap almost completely, but they get ranked on different things, chiefly handle length. Our cast iron tawa and comal roundup covers that side of it. If you are shaping the tortillas as well as cooking them, our cast iron tortilla press roundup ranks the presses — and flags the famous “cast iron” press whose own listing says it is aluminum.
How to choose a cast iron griddle
Match it to your burner and your household. If you cook breakfast for one or two, a single-burner round or square plateis all you need — the square fits more bacon, the round is classic for pancakes and tortillas. If you feed a crowd, the two-burner reversible griddle doubles your surface and gives you grill ridges on the flip side. For tortillas and dry-charring specifically, a comal with a long handle is the traditional (and safest to move) choice.
Whichever plate you pick, the accessory that earns its place next to it is a weighted press: bacon contracts as the fat renders and a smashed patty springs back, and a few pounds of iron laid on top holds both flat against the surface. Our cast iron grill press roundup ranks them on Lodge’s own published weights, which span 1.72 lb to 3.95 lb across the four presses it makes.
Griddle vs grill pan
A flat griddle gives you all-over contact for browning; a ridged grill pan gives you grill marks and drains fat away, but only the ridge tops touch the food. They do different jobs — get a flat griddle for pancakes and searing surface area, a grill pan for indoor grill marks on steak and vegetables. Many kitchens want both, and the reversible griddle is one way to get them in a single pan. If it’s the ridges you’re after, our cast iron grill pan roundup compares the square, round and enameled options on their own terms. And if you want a flat pan mainly for pizza, the cast iron pizza pan roundup covers the rimless bakeware and Sicilian rectangles a griddle can’t match — note that Lodge lists its pizza and baking pans as oven-only. One more flat-iron relative worth knowing about: the small oval cast iron fajita pan is a griddle sold for the last ninety seconds of the meal rather than the cooking, which is why the decision there is the wood underliner and not the iron.
Care is the same as any cast iron
Season it, keep it dry, wipe with oil after washing. The ridges of a grill pan are the only fiddly part to clean — a stiff brush and hot water handle it. See the cleaning guide.
