I was hesitant to spend so much money on one pan but a cookbook writer I admire, Bryanna Clark Grogan, raved about these pans on her blog. I needed one this size because once again a cheaper non-stick pan had worn out. So I gulped and spent the money.

I have owned it for one month now and have used it at least once a day. This is a fantastic pan. It is truly non-stick and is so easy to wash. It heats very evenly. It is surprisingly light, much easier to lift than my cast iron pans.

This pan is a delight to cook with. I plan to buy more of this brand.

I'll keep my remarks short and to the point. This is a well balanced and substantial fry pan. My doctor told me to reduce my fat intake. On occasion, I love a good fried egg sandwich for breakfast. Now, I can fry those eggs without using one drop of butter. On medium heat the eggs are cooked to perfection and without the grease. The eggs do not stick. They slide onto the nylon turner with ease. Also, pan clean-up is a breeze. To be able to cook and get great results without oil, butter or pan-spray is wonderful. Buy this fry pan without hesitation. And yes, as a matter of common sense, don't use metal utensils when stirring or flipping - protect your investment.

i own or have owned calphalon, ironclad, french copper and many other brands and kinds of cookware and nothing compares to the swiss diamond fry pan. its cooking characteristics and it cleaning ease make it the "best ever" i have ever owned.

This pan is the best I have ever used. I have a glass cooktop, which made my tri-clad skillets useless, because the bottoms are thin and will warp when heated. The Swiss Diamond pan stays perfectly straight, creating almost a suction-like feeling when lifted. So I know I have the best heat transfer to my pan.
The non-stick surface is truly non-stick yet caramelizes food perfectly. Medium-high is about as high as you need to go, even on that glass cooktop.

I just picked up one of these 11" skillets after owning and using the 12.5" Swiss Diamond skillet for some time. Below the five-star symbol I have pasted my review of the 12.5" skillet. Here are some additional notes to augment it. This model did not come with a lid (reflected in the price). The slightly smaller diameter makes for a much lighter and easier to use skillet for most of my purposes (I almost always only cook for two). After an additional year of use, the 12.5" is still good as new. I once accidentally left it on high heat long enough for the residual grease in the pan to catch fire and fill the house with smoke. After cooling, the pan cleaned up with only a little more elbow grease than usual and no apparent harm. I have read some of the alarmist PTFE comments - while it is true that there is some PTFE used in the diamond coating, there is no PFOA and the PFOA is what causes Teflon (the DuPont process using PTFE and PFOA) to create toxic fumes at high heat. You can read all about this at the Swiss Diamond web site. Basically, ignore the rabid PTFE warnings from a handful of bitter customers. I will continue buying more and more of these products as I can afford them (I just ordered a Swiss Diamond 11-Inch/4.3-Quart Covered Casserole - which just happens to come with an 11" lid that will fit this skillet, too!). And now, what I wrote previously about the 12.5" skillet, which applies to this one except for the lid:

*****

I found one of these locally at just below Amazon price, and bought it to try out. Now that I have used it for several months, I highly recommend it even at full list price, and am saving up to purchase a complete set to replace my other worn out pots and pans.

First things first:

This is one of the best nonstick surfaces I have ever used. Messes clean up better than from Teflon coated pans, even after sitting and getting cold and hard. I have never had to use more effort than simply wiping off with a kitchen sponge and some warm soapy water.

Unlike other surfaces, this one holds food in place until you are ready to move it. Things don't slide around, so they can properly sear and brown. This is also handy for things like fried eggs. I fried an egg just today and it came out perfect. With a little bacon grease for flavor, the surface gave the egg white just enough tension that the cooking egg held together into a nice 4 inch circle instead of spreading thin all over the place. I have suffered a lot of frustration with other cooking surfaces over this.

Heat transfer is incredible. When you put food on this pan after preheating, it sears up and browns immediately. I'd say it equals cast iron in this respect, with the added bonus of being nonstick.

Heat distribution and retention is also very good. Not quite as good as cast iron here, but then nothing else ever will be -- and even though the pan is heavy, it is still considerably lighter than my 12 inch cast iron.

About the only caution I would have is that, despite the manufacturer's hype, the surface is NOT 100% resistant to whatever you throw at it. I did a controlled test on a part of the skillet that will never see food, and you CAN put a nice scratch in the diamond-coat with a strong stainless steel tool. So be sure to stick to wood and synthetics, not steel. However, to be fair, it IS tougher than any Teflon surface I have tried, and about equal to some of the fancier anodized finishes.

The handle is good and solid, but you may want to grab it and test it yourself in the store before you buy - it all depends on each individual's hands. The helper handle could be improved, however. Because the helper is integrated with the cooking surface, it heats up. You need to use mitts to use the helper. Seriously. That surface will scar you for life if you grab it while hot. Always treat it like it is hot cast iron, because it will burn you the same way.

Some people will complain the handle isn't riveted into place. Those people need to embrace the 21st century. The handle is very secure without rivets. Unless you plan on using this pan as some sort of bludgeoning weapon on a regular basis, the lack of rivets poses no problem. Moreover, the rivetless design ensures that the entire interior surface of the skillet is smooth and uniformly nonstick. I personally have always found the rivets in other "nonstick" pans to be the surface area where food always manages to get stuck. No rivets for me, please.

The lid is decent - but it is just a lid. Nothing too fancy. It is a good grade of glass with a vent-lid handle. When you close the vent, it holds steam very well. With the vent open, you get a pretty decent evaporation rate, so you can quickly reduce liquids by retaining heat by letting moisture escape.

Like I said, I want to buy a complete set. Highly recommended.