Thrill to Grill Slot Review
A barbecue that only counts what lands on the middle nine positions of the grid: that’s the whole idea behind this hand-drawn cove of carved stone, burlap and tropical leaves from NetEnt, and it makes for a game where location matters more than almost anything else on the reels. A Meat symbol in the corner pays nothing extra. The same symbol in the centre of the 5×5 grid can end a bonus round on its own.
Thrill to Grill runs on a 5×5 grid with 3,125 bet ways, a 96.05% RTP and a 24% hit frequency, with stakes from 0.2 to 200 per spin and a maximum win of 1,900x the bet. It sits in the studio’s catalogue alongside the likes of Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen, Starburst Galaxy and Dead or Alive 2, though it cooks with its own recipe.
Symbols and Bet Ways
Wins form through matching symbols in any position on three or more adjacent reels, running left to right. More instances of a symbol on the same reels multiply the winning ways: a Q symbol landing once on reels 1 and 4, twice on reels 2 and 3, and once on reel 5 counts as 1 x 2 x 2 x 1 x 1, or four winning bet ways. Only the longest combination per symbol is paid, and wins on different bet ways all count towards the total.
Wilds appear in the main game and in Free Spins on reels 2, 3 and 4, substituting for the paying symbols. They don’t substitute for Scatters.
There are five food symbols above the royals, from Meat at the top down through Ribs, Corn, Broccoli and Eggplant, with A, K, Q, J, 10 and 9 filling out the lower end. Payout values are multiples of the total bet, and they scale with whatever stake you’ve selected:
- Meat: 1x for three, 5x for four, 10x for five
- Ribs: 0.75x, 1.5x, 5x
- Corn: 0.5x, 1x, 3.75x
- Broccoli: 0.5x, 1.25x, 2.5x
- Eggplant: 0.4x, 0.75x, 2.5x
- A and K: 0.25x, 0.5x, 1.25x
- Q and J: 0.15x, 0.4x, 1x
- 10 and 9: 0.1x, 0.25x, 0.75x
The Collection Feature
The Collection feature can be randomly activated during any spin in the main game, and it’s always active from the start of Free Spins. When it begins, a 3-reel, 3-row Collection area opens in the centre of the reels and one Grill symbol is chosen at random.
From that point the aim is to land the chosen Grill symbol inside that central area. Which symbol gets picked changes each time the feature activates, so the value of a filled Collection area varies with the draw. A Meat draw is worth chasing; a 9 draw considerably less. Grill symbols don’t pay on their own; they only matter inside the Collection area.
The area itself is a fixed 3×3 block of positions in the middle of the 5×5 grid. Reels 2, 3 and 4 supply all nine of its positions, so a symbol needs to stack up on the middle three reels specifically to count. Grill symbols landing outside the area do nothing for the feature.
Re-Spins
In the main game, five or more Grill symbols landing in the Collection area award a Re-Spin. That’s the whole trigger: fill enough of the central 3×3 area with the chosen symbol and the reels run again, with the Re-Spin mechanism shown on the left side of the reels. It’s a simple hook, and it feeds directly into what Free Spins do with the same area.
Free Spins and the Three Modifiers
The round is triggered by Scatters, and the threshold is unusually high: five anywhere on the grid. Three Free Spins are awarded, a number that looks small and is, but the round works on a reset system rather than a countdown. In Free Spins the Collection feature is permanently on, and whenever a Grill symbol appears in the Collection area, the spin count resets to the maximum of three.
One or more of three bonus features can also be randomly activated on any Free Spin, and more than one can fire on the same spin:
- Expand: the Expand symbol appears above or below the Collection area and its position becomes part of that area until Free Spins end
- Slap: a random Grill symbol appears in the Collection area and, on the next Free Spin, absorbs all Grill symbols there, taking a multiplier worth x1 plus the number of absorbed symbols without multipliers plus the multipliers of any absorbed symbols that carry them
- Extra Spin: raises the maximum number of Free Spins to four and resets the count to four until the round ends
The three modifiers stack in practice. Expand widens the area the Grill symbols can occupy, which means more resets per spin and more Grill symbols available for the other two features to work with. Extra Spin raises the ceiling on the reset itself, to a maximum of four. Slap converts a crowded Collection area into a single multiplied symbol, and its multiplier applies to all winning Grill symbol combinations, which is where the round’s real money sits.
A Slap that fires after an Expand is the strongest combination the round offers: the wider area holds more Grill symbols, so the absorbing symbol’s multiplier starts from a higher base. Free Spins are played at the same bet as the round that activated them, and at the end the total win from the round is added to any wins that led into it before the game returns to the triggering spin.
The Buy Feature
Free Spins can be bought outright for 60 times the bet, and the round starts immediately when you do. The bought round runs at 96.02% RTP against the standard game’s 96.05%, a negligible difference for a price this steep relative to the 1,900x ceiling.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.2/10
Playing Thrill to Grill is watching the middle of the screen and hoping the right symbol stacks there, and that’s a genuinely unusual thing to be doing in a barbecue slot. The one reason to pick it: no other game makes the centre of the grid the whole point quite so completely.
Its strength is the reset design. A Free Spins round that keeps topping itself back up while the grill fills makes every spin matter, and the Slap multiplier gives a crowded board a proper payoff. The weakness is everything outside that centre: 3,125 bet ways that mostly deliver royal wins worth fractions of the stake, capped by a 1,900x ceiling that won’t pull in anyone hunting four or five figures.
This is a slot for players who enjoy watching a mechanic build and don’t need a life-changing number at the end of it. Chasers of big ceilings will want a bigger fire elsewhere; everyone else can settle in by this cove and let the grill do the work.
Thrill to Grill FAQs
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How do you trigger Free Spins in Thrill to Grill?
Five or more Scatter symbols appearing anywhere during the main game award three Free Spins. During the round, every Grill symbol that lands in the Collection area resets the spin count to the maximum, so the round can keep running. -
What does the Slap feature do in Thrill to Grill?
Slap is one of three random Free Spins modifiers. A random Grill symbol appears in the Collection area and, on the next Free Spin, absorbs all Grill symbols there. It receives a multiplier worth x1 plus the number of absorbed symbols without multipliers plus the multipliers of any absorbed symbols that carry them, and that multiplier applies to all winning Grill symbol combinations. -
Can Free Spins retrigger in Thrill to Grill?
Yes, in effect. Whenever a Grill symbol appears in the Collection area during Free Spins, the number of spins is reset to the maximum of three. If the Extra Spin feature has activated, the maximum rises to four and the reset goes to four instead. -
What is the Collection feature in Thrill to Grill?
A 3-reel, 3-row Collection area in the centre of the reels activates, and one Grill symbol is chosen at random. In the main game, five or more Grill symbols appearing in the Collection area award a Re-Spin. The feature can be randomly activated on any main-game spin and is always active during Free Spins. -
What does the Expand feature do in Thrill to Grill?
Expand is one of the three random Free Spins modifiers. The Expand symbol appears above or below the Collection area and its position becomes part of that area until the end of Free Spins, giving Grill symbols more room to land in and more chances to reset the spin count. -
What is the RTP of Thrill to Grill?
The theoretical return to player is 96.05%. The Buy Feature runs at 96.02%. -
What is the maximum win on Thrill to Grill?
The maximum win is 1,900x the bet. -
What is the minimum and maximum bet on Thrill to Grill?
Stakes run from 0.2 to 200 per spin, and the paytable values scale with whichever stake you select.
