Does anyone have any thoughts about the Komin cast iron grill pan from Williams Sonoma?

I just found the Komin grill pan at a thrift shop today for $5, been doing research on it. I have many pieces of Lodge cast iron, never saw a cast iron pan from Japan, and it looks pretty cool. Doesn`t look like WS sells it anymore, I just plan on grilling bruschetta on it. Love my Lodge pans, but learned a lesson grilling meat in my over sized, well seasoned Costco Lodge grill pan, sold it at yard sale, was just to hard to clean after grilling meats, wasn`t worth it. Won`t be trying to grill meat in this pan either.

I was gifted a lovely Komin pan about 9" oval? I love the weight (lighter than Lodge or Le Creuset or Staub) but I really disliked the silicon (not silicone) pre - seasoning. I had given up and chucked it into the closet thinking maybe I'd take it to a restaurant with a pizza oven and ask them to blast it so I could build up fresh seasoning.

Now, many years later, I am teaching a cast iron cooking class and I thought this would be a good teaching point. Dug it out. Took the pan down to the iron with Barkeepers Friend and a steel brush. Currently re seasoning. Fingers crossed.

I purchased the Komin cast iron grill pan (on sale from Williams-Sonoma) for its looks, and was not too disappointed with its performance, initially. Today, when I picked it up from the oven where I store it, one of the handles broke off. So my assessment is, don't even worry about the coating, the thing is an absolute p.o.s.

I also have this pan, and have been back and forth with Williams Sonoma about seasoning. I had the same problem with sticking and went ahead and treated the pan just like my cast iron pieces. It works very well. And it's so beautiful, I reach for it often. I am still enchanted with the weight of the pan. One point bought up on another site is that this pan is coated with silicon, not silicone...different. I would not use this pan at very high searing temperatures, I save that for my heavy cast iron pans.

Oh good, I'm glad you like it! And thanks for reporting back!

Thanks for the info! I went ahead and bought one. My thoughts so far: the silicone coating definitely provides non-stick properties. I've used it about 4x, and I haven't yet noticed any wearing off, scratching, etc. that Cook's Illustrated noted. I also tried heating up the Komin grill at the same time as my lodge cast iron pan at the same temperature, and the Komin grill smoked up much faster than the lodge pan. I wish that the grills had slightly higher ridges so that when I cook bacon, the meat doesn't touch the fat drippings. Other than that, I like it and will keep it.

It certainly looks sleek! Cook's Illustrated has this to say about silicone copolymer coatings:

"Silicone copolymer coatings, in which a fine layer of a silicone copolymer is sprayed over a metal pan, proved more resilient than ceramic coatings, but still wore off within a few days as we cooked and washed them repeatedly. While these pans reacted more predictably to temperature adjustment, steak did not release easily and left fond; eventually food stuck even when we added oil, leaving a blackened mess. Despite this flaw, their low marks on durability, and their tendency to discolor and become scratched, these pans still outperformed the ceramic contenders." (from here - http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/overview.asp?docid=20400)