I did just buy cabinets, but am not an expert. This is my first ever home kitchen remodel. I had Merillat cabinets in my old house and liked them. I've noticed many positive posts about Medallion in this forum. My contractor who I totally trust also highly recommended medallion. He felt the quality of their finish was outstanding for the price. I ended up going with Mid-continent cabinets (My contractor felt they were good value also - not quite as nice as the medallions, but a little less expensive) because the Kitchen designer I wanted to use carried them for an excellent price. I just was too inexperienced to pick out the Medallions I wanted at Menards without getting professional guidance.

The Merrilat's I priced were very similar to the Medallions, so if you know exactly what you want, they might be the way to go. Note that Merrilat and medallion have have 3 levels of cabinets they sell and will vary in price depending on level. I'm going to attempt to post my Merrilat Quote for you. Bear with me as this will be my first try at putting a document or photo up in this forum.
Note: Upgrades were for full extension drawers w/soft close

Here is a link that might be useful: Merrilat Cabinet Layout & Quote

I got merillat masterpiece. I paid a very different price than chefkevs quote. But we got a lot of options/upgrades.

Maple Cabinet
Full overlay
Door Style-Bentley
All plywood box-UPCHARGE
Vanilla Bean Glaze Finish-18% UPCHARGE
Full Extension Guides and Blum Tandem with buffer(on all drawers and Roll out trays)-UPCHARGE
Dovetail Drawers

36" uppers
Crown moulding
Light rail
Toe Kick
Scribe Moulding

5-Door Panels for finished ends
Wall Cabs
3- 2 door 27" wide with NO center style
1- 1 Door 27" corner wall angle
1- 2 door 33" no center stile
BASE
1-24" 4 drawer
1-36" corner easy reach with Super Susan
2-21" with 2 full width deluxe dovetail slide out trays
1-36" sink base angle
1-15" slide out slide out trash and recyle
BIG CABINETS
1-36" X 90" TALL Pantry with 4 full width (no center stile) deluxe dovetail roll out trays. 2 doors with shelves on top
1-30" x 90" tall microwave cooking center. The top is 2 doors then built in MW then 2 drawers, one drawer has a pull out cutting board, then 2 doors on bottom.
Refrigerator panel enclosure with a deep 24" cabinet on top

The 2 big cabinets were the big money items ($3892 & $3368 before contractor discount, we paid half that amount)
Before going with merillat we got a price on Kraftmaid from Lowes without the Microwave Center and the 24" deep fridge cabinet lowes was the about the same. So if you want to compare apples to apples, Lowes Kraftmaid would have been more money.

We have the American Woodwark in glazed maple and like them. While these aren't top of the line, we're easy on cabinets here due to no kids, so they work nicely for us without spending a bundle. We did install the blumotion on the doors so there is no slamming, which will help them to last as well. Love that feature! We opted for the drawers with the soft close option, which was not an option on the doors, but we took care of that easily as noted above.

I suppose it depends what your budget is. Our kitchen is by no means a chef's kichen like many that you see here on GW (we have an L-shaped, modest setup).

I hear that Merillat cabinets are very nice.