ZYLISS Classic Rotary Cheese Grater

Have you ever found yourself jealous of the waiter at your favorite Italian place? How he just cranks the little handle and out comes a gorgeous shower of delicious Parmesan cheese? He says, "Now just say 'When,'" and you watch as a delicious mound of tasty cheese piles up, completely obscuring your salad, but your waiter still smiles, even though you are clearly not going to say, "When," anytime soon. Why? Because his rotary-style grater makes grating cheese an easy task. Have you ever wanted to *be* that waiter?Well, now you can, with this super grater from Zyliss.I really like that everything comes apart, so I can just throw the grater bit in the dishwasher, because that is how I roll. I was having nightmares of having to dig up in there with a bottle brush, but this thing is super-easy to clean. I like that all the sharp bits are otherwise concealed inside a nice, sturdy, plastic body, because I am clumsy, and have grated my own fingers on more than one occasion.I am a bit surprised at those who have trouble with this grater. I can only imagine they are somehow holding it oddly -- perhaps their waiter uses a different type of grater, so they aren't sure how to hold it? For the record, you ought to place a small wedge of cheese in the grater, hold the grater in your left hand, pressing down on the doo-hickey (I don't know what it is called, do you?) with gentle pressure from your thumb. Not too hard, mind. That's just going to make it hard to crank! Then simply turn with your right hand. Around and around and around and around...I suspect some people probably are putting too much pressure on the aforementioned doo-hickey because I am 5'2" with very small hands (one of my ring fingers is a 4½) and almost no upper arm strength (in school, when they made me do chin-ups, all I could do was just hang there... and even then only for a few seconds) and I'm not having any trouble grating my parm.Now, this probably would not work for soft cheeses. In general, in my experience, all graters suck at soft cheeses. They just get all jammed up in there. It might would work for, like, a hard cheddar, but I don't know, because -- let's face it -- this thing can bill itself as some sort of generalized grater all it wants, but this is a Parmesan grater. Its job is to grate Parmesan cheese over your salad, your marinara, your Alfredo... (yes, I put cheese on Alfredo.. don't judge me!). If you are looking for something that is more of a cheese multitasker, I'd look elsewhere.For a Parmesan grater, however, this cannot be beat!

In truth, I haven't used this yet. I purchased it on the reviews after returning three metal graters. I say metal because they were not the stainless steel I had expected, among other faults. As to being able to use it right or left handed, the handle screws into the drum on one side. If you're right handed there's no problem grinding. But if you are left handed and insert the drum on the opposite side, you'll find that you have to turn the drum in reverse. That's all I have to say about this at the moment. I'm sure it will do a fine job of grinding but I have to wait until I've used all the parmigiano I presently have.I HAVE NOW USED IT AND HERE'S WHAT I FIND. Yes, it grates well. The handle could be just a bit bigger, though. And when you're done, at least when I finished, you can't unscrew the handle from the drum. Try as I might, I can't. But it cleans up fine and fits in the drawer so I'm not going to make a big deal out of this minor flaw.

I grated cheese for many years with a regular box grater. It was always a pain, so i usually just bought pre-shredded Parmesan. No more!What i like about this machine:-Comes with a "fine" grating drum. Some other graters sell multiple drums. I was ok with the one drum, because i generally want my cheese grated finely. If you want a bigger drum, i don't think i would buy this item. I can't seem to find a "course" drum on amazon.-Handle is comfortable. I have no issues grating 3-4 platefuls of cheese for people (and i'm not a big burly guy either).-The lever that holds the cheese does a good job. The counter fits the drum, so you can get almost all of the cheese grated before you encounter problems (see below).-Easy to clean. Just turn the handle counter clockwise while holding the drum still and it pops right off. Then the drums slides right out. Just put it all the dishwasher. Simple.-Holds a good size chunk of cheese.Things to watch out for:-You have to press very firmly on the lever mechanism with your left thumb, otherwise you'll find that the drum just spins and pushes the cheese up. BUT - i don't find it particularly uncomfortable.-When you get toward the end of the piece of cheese, it can slip through the gap between the drum and the main body. Means you can't quite grate everything.PRO TIP: Because of that last item, i like to cut triangles. Put the triangle "point up". That way when you get toward the end, you don't end up with a long piece of ungrated cheese. Just a small sliver. Then just throw that piece on whatever it is you're eating.Also, the grater fits in a regular sandwich size ziploc. So if you don't feel like cleaning the grater every day, you can slip it in there and put it in the fridge, cheese and all.

Cheese gets stuck in this like its nothing. That last little nub you have?? Yeah, its not going to grate that. At the end you have little cheese slices that just wont go. The set up time makes it slower than grating small amounts and it doesn't accept larger blocks, so you have to cut them anyway. Unless you are doing like 3 pounds of cheese at a time OR you are a ninja and can cut cheese as quickly as you can grate(and in that point, why do you need a grater?), its not going to save time. Clean up is a pain in the ass. I end up soaking it in warm water. Forgetting it. There is still hardened cheese on it because I let the water go cold. Get warm water again and repeat this process two more times. You can scrub it, but it takes a lot of time and again, that eats up time savings. You pretty much have to clean it immediately after use.BUT! Its fun, and its cheap. I don't feel taken with it because of the price. If you want to play with one like I did, this is the one to start with!

Sehr einfach und sauber zu bedienen

Resilient plastic, so it's pretty strong. Only problem is that the grating surface holes are too small to allow the passing of anything but the hardest cheeses (parmesan, etc) Not much use for grating standard cheese and mozerella would be totally out of the question. I was able to grate "old cheddar" but it still got gummed up, because the cheese was still too soft.Update: works a treat for grating chocolate (sort of powders it) - useful for topping hot chocolate with whipped creamSecond update (NOV 2017): Unfortunately, this grater has been laying in the drawer unused as a result of its limits. So I can no longer recommend it. An all metal rotary grater (like the Mouli Grater) is much better.

I love this product for grateing hard cheeses like parm, it works like a dream. It does not work for grating softer cheeses but I didn't really expect it too. It comes apart so you can just throw it in the washing machine which I love. And even though I use it at least 1-2 times a week for the last 2 years it still works like new. All in all great value for the price, however, if you want something to grate cheeses like cheddar or softer this is not for you.

Feels like it could break so you must be careful and not be in a hurry - treat it gently. That being said ... it does an excellent job of grating HARD cheeses to a beautiful, ultra-fine shred. It also works great on nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc.). Clean up is easy. Highly recommended.

This is my second Zyliss grater and I am not disappointed. Two minor quibbles on this one compared to my previous one: 1. It is right hand use only (previous model was L/R reversible). 2. The rotating black end on the handle means another moving part to possibly break (previous model had a fixed handle).