The marginal pros and cons of each have been beaten to death. It does seem that perhaps it comes down to esthetics for some to cboose. Speaking for myself, esthetics actually play a fairly big role in my decision to place ANYTHING in my home.

As for cleaning the two brands, again, it has been beaten and defended to no end. I prefer the all cast iron industrial type cooktop of the bluestar, not nesessarily that it iis easy to keep clean, but rather that it doesn't really have to be kept clean. An all cast iron cooktop imho should be left to season.

BS has a standard built-in grill.

Culinarian has a hybrid grill which gives the quick preheat and most of the top end power of infrared but the variability in temperature on the low end of a standard grill.

This is from reading not firsthand knowledge as I don't own the CC grill nor used the BS one.

BS has the all cast iron cooktop that should be left to season.

Culinarian has that sliver of SS. I clean it up every two weeks or so. But that sliver is the SS panel underneath the grates that catches most of a liquid spill. It does not get all over the wires or venture tubes.

Searing, woking, simmering, and heat evenness have been beaten to death. Revived and beaten to death again.

Thanks for the feedback - did not mean to bring up an age old topic - I did utilize the search function and read and read and was still on the fence - I do appreciate you taking the time to post your thoughts - thanks so much

I honestly don't think you can go wrong with either.

Either are fine. I have a 36" bluestar with six burners and love it. My neighbor a few blocks down got the 36" with the grill and regrets it. Nothing against its performance. He just doesn't use it as often as he originally thought he would.

Now bluestar just came out with their Platinum model. It's burners now go up to 25k btu and, more importantly, it appears to have an interchangeable griddle and grill option. When either aren't in use, it remains a six burner range. Check out the video on their site:
http://www.bluestarcooking.com/products/platinum/platinum-video

It's a brand new feature so there probably won't be any reviews on here about it. But if you're near a dealer who has this model on the floor, it's definitely worth checking out.

The Platinum is only available on the 48 and 60 inch models. The interchangeability sounds cool but I wonder about storing the cast iron grill and griddle--they must be very unwieldy and would need to be cleaned every time you remove them for storage.

Oh ok. I didn't realize that about the platinum. But I'm wondering if the grill/griddle thing would still work on a 36" all burner model. I assume that The size and shape of the grates are the same on the older model as it is on the newer platinum model

Yea that's a thing of beauty alright. Figures this one comes out just a year after bought my RNB.

I hope that the grill/griddle combo can retroactively fit on older models. As for storage, I'd just break everything down, clean it and stash it in the oven itself while not in use.

The only thing I'm wondering is if there's a grease tray or capture area somewhere on the griddle. Hard to see from the short video. Also wondering about whether grilling right over the 2 sburners will clog or gunk them up. I think there's some sort of heat deflector but still, grease goes everywhere.

But all in all, bluestar has def stepped up its game. Very impressed and I was already impressed with their older stuff!