In this RCS Cutlass Elite review, we test all the features of this premium outdoor kitchen grill from Renaissance Cooking Systems.

RCS Cutlass Elite outdoor kitchen Grill from Renaissance Cooking Systems

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Gas grills have become a throwaway item. We go to the big box stores, spend what used to be $300 before tariffs, and is now double that on a grill, only to throw it away a couple of years later when the parts fail, and it rusts through. The big box store grill sales model is ridiculous to me, and it’s not the only way.

What if you could buy 1 grill and have it last for the rest of your life? Sound impossible? It’s actually very possible, and in this article, I’ll show you the real meaning of buy once, cry once.

We’ve been testing the new Renaissance Cooking Systems Cutlass Elite grill for a few weeks now, and it’s been designed to be the last grill you’ll ever own.

I’m going to show you how it does reverse searing a Tomahawk steak, how you can make it a combo griddle and grill with a fajita cook, and help you determine if this is the outdoor kitchen grill you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Disclaimer

Renaissance Cooking Systems is the brand that we chose to build our outdoor kitchen with. We’ve been testing and using RCS grills and outdoor kitchen pieces for 6 years now, so when they asked us if we wanted to test out their new flagship grill, we jumped at the opportunity. What follows in this article is our test cooks on this outdoor kitchen grill, and we’ll show you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

RCS Cutlass Elite Specifications

Built-In Grill or Cart

The Cutlass Elite is first and foremost a grill head that’s designed to be installed into an outdoor kitchen. The grill head comes fully assembled, and there’s really nothing that needs to be done besides pick it up, slide it into place, and hook up the gas and power.

However, since we’re not currently building another outdoor kitchen, we have it on a cart. The cart, of course, does require assembly, but installing the grill head onto the cart is as easy as picking it up and sliding it into place.

Propane or Natural Gas

The Renaissance Cooking Systems Cutlass Elite grill is available in both LP or natural gas. Since we don’t have a natural gas hookup at the Lab, we are using the propane version for our testing.

Cooking Grates

On this 30″ model, 4 cooking grids offer 600 square inches of cooking space. These grill grates are nothing like what you would find in lower-budget grills. Each is made of 8 millimeter square bars, and they’re very heavy.

heavy duty grill grates on the Cutlass Elite grill from Renaissance Cooking Systems

There is also a warming rack or potato rack, as some people call it, to give you a second level of cooking, and what I love is that it can fold out of the way and stay in the grill if it’s not in use. We review hundreds of grills here at The Barbecue Lab, and there are so many upper racks leaning against walls around here that I can’t keep track of which goes with what anymore. Being able to keep it in the grill is a game-changer for the way I cook.

Burners

The 3 burners are made of cast stainless steel, and each burner puts out 20,000 BTU’s. I’ll show you how it can sear in just a minute, but there’s extra power in this outdoor kitchen grill for searing, which I love. There’s also a 12,500 BTU ceramic infrared back burner for the included rotisserie.

The RCS cutlass elite grill comes with 3 Cast-Stainless Burners offering a total of 60,000 BTU's

Zone dividers might be a new feature if you haven’t experienced this level of grill before, but they sit between the burners and allow multiple heat zones on a single grill. There are ceramic briquette trays instead of heat tents, which I prefer to vaporize drippings and return that flavor back to the food.

Burner Zone Separators and Briquette Trays under the square grill grates

Lights

There are two halogen lights inside the grill, which make it very easy to grill in the dark. The knobs have LED color-changing dials that glow blue when unlit and red when lit, so there’s no guessing when the gas is flowing.

RCS Cutlass elite lights

Spring Loaded

The lid is spring-assisted and double-lined, just like the grill we put in our outdoor kitchen 6 years ago. I love that feature, since these are heavy-duty grills, and the lids are bulky without a spring assist.

Lifetime Warranty

The most important specification I can lay out for you is that this outdoor kitchen grill has a Lifetime warranty on anything you can touch.

Cooking Tests

Grilled Hamburgers with Mushrooms and Onions

Knowing how the grill is built is one thing, but seeing it in action is another. We fired it up for the first time for a flight of burgers for the team in the office.

We started with some mushrooms and onions in our Hexclad grill pan on the right side of the grill.

hamburgers and mushrooms grilled on the RCS cutlass elite grill

The burgers came next, and yes, we grabbed the frozen membership club premade patties, because even professional grill testers can use a hand now and then. We seasoned the burgers with our own Essential Equation SPG rub, and at the flip, we could see just how much those upgraded grates matter. Burgers are a pretty quick cook, and getting this much sear just shows this grill has power to spare.

Achiote Chicken Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

One of our favorite tacos is our achiote chicken tacos with pineapple salsa. Since this outdoor kitchen grill comes with a rotisserie, we started by putting a fresh pineapple on the spit until we got those lovely caramelized edges and pulled it off to rest.

The RCS cutlass elite includes a Ceramic Infrared Back Burner and rotisserie where we cooked a pineapple

I then roasted a bell pepper, jalapeno, and red onion to add to the pineapple for our salsa.

grilled peppers and onions for salsa

The chicken was marinated overnight, and the achiote gives it such a beautiful red color. This chicken does like to stick though, so I loosened it up with a spatula before turning it over. I verified internal temperature with the Thermoworks Thermapen to make sure we were food safe, and I was very happy with how the grill charred the chicken.

grilled achiote marinated chicken on the RCS Cutlass Elite outdoor kitchen grill

While the last few pieces of chicken were finishing up, I dropped some tortillas on the warming rack to get pliable, and it was time to assemble these delicious tacos to share with our visiting fractional CFO and accountant. Funny how meetings at the Lab always somehow get scheduled around lunch time…

achiote chicken tacos with pineapple salsa

Tomahawk Steak

We’ve tested direct heat grilling, but when I think of cooking a thick steak like a Tomahawk on a gas grill, I get nervous. Direct heat and such a thick steak can be a problem, so we decided to test it out.

We reached out to CrowdCow and got this beautiful black angus tomahawk ribeye from the Little Belt Cattle Company. We seasoned the steak with a generous amount of salt the night before and let it cure overnight in our outdoor kitchen fridge.

Once we were at The Lab for the workday, we inserted the included smoke tray on top of the middle burner and added in a mix of our favorite wood chips to infuse some smoke flavor. We fired up the right burner of the grill to high and the center burner to low and the left burner stayed off.

The RCS Cutlass Elite outdoor kitchen grill includes a smoke tray for smoking wood chips.

We inserted our Thermoworks RFX wireless thermometer, set the app to notify us when the internal doneness hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit, and placed the steak on the left grate. After about 45 minutes, the RFX was telling us that the steak was where we wanted it to be, and we pulled it off to rest while turning all 3 burners all the way to high.

We came out to sear the steak, saw that the partial tank I put on the grill was now empty, and the grill had died. That’s definitely the downside of propane tanks versus natural gas. After a quick tank swap and a few more minutes, we laid the steak on a 600-700 degree hot grill and set a 60 second timer. We rotated 45 degrees and after another 60 seconds, we had such a hard sear that we decided to only go 40 seconds on the second side for each.

reverse seared tomahawk steak

Reverse searing this tomahawk only confirms for me that the grill has power to spare. Even without a dedicated sear burner, it has no problem searing, but you can add one if you want even more power for some reason.

The steak was an incredible birthday lunch for Melissa, the subtle flavor of the added smoke came through, the doneness was perfect for how we like it, and 10 out of 10 I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

By the way, if you want to check out Crowd Cow, they’ve got a great selection of high-quality cuts you don’t usually see at the grocery store. It’s all shipped straight to your door, which makes it really easy to get something special on the grill without the extra legwork.

Steak Fajitas

The Cutlas Elite grill includes some pretty great extras, like the rotisserie and smoke box, but there is one extra accessory I would suggest adding if you’re able.

I said earlier that this outdoor kitchen grill can also be a griddle-style combo grill if you want. We added in the optional griddle insert to make some fajitas. Like our LeGriddle at home, it has a cast-iron plate welded to the bottom of the stainless steel griddle to help retain heat and distribute it evenly. The swap from grill grates to griddle and back is really simple, and the drip tray pulls out for easy cleanup after the cook.

using the griddle insert to cook steak fajitas during our RCS cutlass elite review video

Peppers and onions went on the griddle while our skirt steak was grilled on the other side for fajitas. It’s a simple solution for a combo-style grill that will last decades longer than any combo grill you’ll find in the local big box store.

Final Thoughts

If I were going to summarize my thoughts on the new Cutlass Elite from Renaissance Cooking Systems, I’d have to start with the lifetime warranty on anything you can touch. That’s the main thing that makes this outdoor kitchen grill a great buy for me. If you can touch it, it’s covered for life, including the halogen light bulbs themselves.

I’d follow that up with performance. If you know it’s going to last for many decades, as long as the performance is great, it’s a really good purchase if you have the money for it. I was impressed with the sear power that was more than enough for anything we tried.

I like that it’s expandable for a sear burner, but I don’t think you’ll need one, and I love that you can get a Le Griddle style flat top to make it a combo grill.

The lights in the cooking chamber are some of the best I’ve seen in high-end gas grills, and I’ve tested a lot of them over the years.

The cooking grates are heavy and stable, which is a must for me in a good grill as many middle of the road grills have grates that move around everywhere and they’re hard to cook on. These are different. Solid, pretty easy to clean and make look good, even after a cook with a sticky chicken marinade.

We installed this grade of RCS gas grill into our outdoor kitchen, and we haven’t regretted it for a single minute. This new model is easily as proficient as the older model that I have, with a few upgrades like the multicolor LED’s on the burner knobs that I really enjoy.

You can get your best price by using the code BBQLAB at checkout to get VIP pricing only for followers of The Barbecue Lab. I know if you decide to go with this grill, you’ll be happy with it. We’re 6 years in, and we love ours.

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