Microwaves: How to buy the best microwave Grill microwaves

Grill microwaves use a heating element along with normal microwave cooking to brown food

How grill microwaves work

Grill microwaves combine normal microwave cooking with a heating element – this means they're able to brown food and give it a more attractive appearance and texture.

Grill microwaves 

Pros

• Good at performing general microwave cooking tasks.
• Also able to crisp and brown food.
• Great for cooking pizzas.
• Often come with a metal rack to bring food closer to the grill.

Cons

• Doesn't offer convectional heating like a combination microwave.
• Usually more expensive than a basic microwave.

What you can do with a grill microwave

Grill microwaves can perform all the normal duties you'd expect from a standard microwave – reheating soup, cooking a jacket potato or ready meal, reheating your dinner and so on. But the grill function is able to give microwave food a brown, crisp finish you'd usually only achieve using a standard grill in an oven or cooker – making it great for grilling toast, melting cheese or crisping a pizza.

We also give each microwave we test a 'jacket potato' rating to tell you how well the microwave cooks a jacket potato.

Grill microwave prices

We've tested more than 20 grill microwaves, with prices ranging between £60 and £400, so you should be able to find a reasonably priced grill microwave to suit your needs.