My parents have the plain stainless version of this pan and love it. I think the appeal is the stovetop to oven to table thing. It's also a nice shape, deep enough to do a sauce, wide enough to brown a lot, nice sloped edges to prevent bits of burned sauce in the corners. And then there's the price. Calphalon makes good pans and at that price it'd be hard to beat.

Don't know about the Caphalon -- I have a large Caphalon frying pan, and the coating is starting to come off (although it is probably at least 7 years old). But I did just buy the lovely Carribean blue 4.25 quart Le Creuset soup pot for 99 bucks! Thanks!!

I have it! Many ebay sellers sell them and just drop ship them from Amazon, listing the suggested retail price as much higher than the everyday Amazon price. But I am very happy with the pan. Its great for searing stove top and then tossing into the oven, and leaves foods with a nice darkened crust.

We have this pan and use it as a large skillet, essentially. It works pretty well and the domed lid makes it useful for steaming big piles of stuff. And I agree with Timat the Red, it's a nice enough shape to put right on the table.

We have this pan and LOVE it and use it all the time. Mostly we use it a lot like a skillet, but some of the things we love about it are

-- plenty of space to cook nearly anything.
-- the handle of the lid is perfect, you don't even need a hot mitt to protect your hands when you remove it, unlike a lot of knob handles
-- the little loop handles make it easy to store too, because there's no giant skillet handle getting in the way
-- also love the loop handles because its easy to carry to the table, the weight is distributed between both hands, instead of one trying to balance a heavy skillet.
-- it's durable, we can use pretty much any utensil we have in the kitchen in this pan

I ordered the new wusthof/Emeril bread knife and cutting board combo for $20. Since we started making our own bread, our cheap-o knife has been really lacking. I'm hoping this will be just what we needed! Thanks for the heads-up about the sale. I hadn't known about it.

Betsy, I have the Wusthoff/Emeril Knife; it's okay but I started making my own bread also and it doesn't quite cut it for the crusty round loaves I've been making. Also, I've had to sharpen it twice since I've had it, so I'd suggest getting a sharpener to go with it. It's worth the price you paid, though, especially since it comes with a cutting board...

I am a huge Calphalon fan and my mom bought this pan last year to replace an older skillet. Unfortunately I HATE this pan!

Ours could be just a dud, but since my mom used "unnaproved cleaners" on it to try and salvage the burn mark I put on it, we won't be able to use Calphalon's warranty (which I think is great).

This pan has hot spots and cooks unevenly and was scalded beyond repair the fourth time I used it. I also don't like the "feel" of it, it's kind of like chalkboard material.

I have read that since it's a "commercial" pan it works much better on gas stoves, and ours is a flat top.

It's still usable but I won't touch it, the only thing I like is the lid fits my Calphalon One 12-inch--which I do love!

For the price it's a good deal and I'd probably recommend it, because even if you hate it like I do, you didn't drop a lot of money on it. I will say my favorite Calphalon purchase to date is the Cooks Illustrated recommended Short and Saucy 2.5 quart saucepan. I use this almost daily and it's so versatile and cleaning it is incredibly easy.

http://www.amazon.com/Calphalon-Contemporary-Nonstick-2-Quart-Saucepan/dp/B0000936JZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1213638823&sr=1-1

I bought this exact pan from Amazon a couple of years ago and have been generally happy with it. Regarding its surface, I've found this pan to be great for paella and other foods that require a little bit of pan-scorching. In other words, it can be treated like a stainless steel pan. Putting this pan in the dishwasher voids its warranty and causes it to have a grayish/whitish tinge.

In terms of shape, this pan is great. I second FrannyA's opinion. It gives me a June-Cleaver-like happiness pulling this pan out of the oven with something like a frittata in it.

i ordered this pan from amazon a year or two ago and love it. it seems a bit thinner than my mom's old-school calphalon hard anodized pots, but that may be by design rather than a decline in quality, because it works fantastically. it is still a very substantial pan. yes, the shininess of the anodized interior will fade and get burn marks with a few super-searings of meat, but i do not mind that and have had really great luck cleaning this pan even after browning and baking a very juicy marinated, spice-rubbed tri-tip in it. i just soak for a while first. i don't use metal utensils on it, so i don't know what those would do to its surface. seems to me the perfect thing for a spanish tortilla or fritatta, as mentioned above.

I have this one, too, and love it. It's perfect for risotto and the recently-touted skillet flatbreads on Mark Bittman's blog, and anything you can think of that goes from stovetop to oven. It's also pretty easy to clean despite not being "non-stick" -- I've never had any trouble getting food off with a dobie scrubber and a little soaking. I have a terrible stovetop and it still manages to heat evenly and cook well, and it's a breeze to handle. Wonderful bargain, and yes, it does make me want more from the Calphalon line (in part because I detest Teflon). I have their 12-qt stockpot, too (bought in a sale like this one), which is a miracle for making things like Minestrone for an army in winter.

I got this from amazon a few years back because it was sooo cheap, I had other Calphalon anodized aluminum cookware and liked it, and I didn't have a traditional 12-inch skillet at the time (only non-stick). I didn't start using it a lot until I wound up with dietary restrictions on sodium and had to do a lot more of my own cooking with less energy to spend on the process.

I'd still like an expensive 12-inch skillet with a really heavy bottom for certain tasks, but this does just about everything I need, and was a steal at the price. For me, the best thing about it is that it fits completely within the sink if I want to soak it to get burned-on junk off it. The "no dishwasher" thing is not a problem for me because my house doesn't have a dishwasher, which gets to be a real problem in a lot of other recipes. ("Oh, just put all 22 of these ingredients in individual bowls" is a big time sink when you can't throw them in the dishwasher later.)

A traditional skillet wouldn't sit completely within the sink to soak for an hour or two, or if it did, it would have to be angled so it takes up the entire sink. With this pan, I put it on bottom, put some plates or other stuff on top, fill the sink with hot soapy water, and walk away for an hour or two. When I come back, it cleans up with the wipe of a sponge or nylon brushwy. For me, that's absolutely fantastic.

I bought this pan from Amazon for 19.99. I love it. Mine cooks very evenly. It replaces an All-Clad pan that I accidentally ruined. The All-Clad pan weighed more than this new pan. I love the two handles vs one long handle. I have bad wrists and it is much easier to handle when it's full of food. I also love the higher, straighter sides.

I also noticed that the one I received has a glass lid, which I didn't think I'd like, but I do.

I just snagged this pan from my mother-in-law's "i'm getting rid of stuff" pile. the reason i took it is because i cook at her house a lot, and i always use this pan.

it makes the most perfect caramelized onions i've ever ever made. and it's a great size for stir frys. it fits veggies, meats and everything else you can think of for those "everything but the kitchen sink" meals.

buy it.

I have one of these too. It and the similarly priced 2.5q shallow saucepan were the first Decent Pans I bought, and still the ones I reach for before any others. It's a lovely pan, and a real workhorse -- we use it for tomato sauces and chilis and curries, and just all kinds of things. We do actually machine wash it, and it's never been a problem.