Fire Sense Large Rectangle Yakatori Charcoal Grills

I inaugurated my Yakatori grill tonight, and I will share my thoughts. First, I love it. One has to understand that it is thoroughly different from any typical American style charcoal grill. It is a traditional Japanese Yakatori grill, made of CLAY. You must understand and appreciate that clay is not as sturdy a metal, and requires special care. The clay is used for its special heat retention and refraction properties, so there is some trade-off with durability. On the other hand it's not that expensive, so if you get a few seasons out of it, its worth it. I used Pok Pok Thaan charcoal, which I liked very much, although it has its own learning curve. Slow to light and get up to cooking temp, but maintains even heat and cooking temp for several hours. Even though the grill is relatively small by American standards, it will cook for hours on one burn. I attribute that to a combination of charcoal, grill design, and the refractory clay material. Food cooked on the grill was outstanding, and I am enjoying learning a new (for me) style of cooking. Update:I'm now into my second season with my Fire Sense grill, I thought it necessary to update because of other reviews that point out the loss of integrity in the grill itself when it gets wet. Yes. it will crumble or break when it gets wet, because it is CLAY. Hello? You have to store it inside when not in use, and it will be fine. The special clay is used in some traditional Yakitori grills because of its special refectory properties. I live in a rainy, high humidity climate, and my grill is fine. You just need to be aware that some special care is necessary.

First off: it took forever to arrive. I ordered the skewers and the grill at the same time. The skewers arrived first while the grill arrived 3-4 weeks later. This was supposed to be a present; I ended up buying a replacement present. Shipping delays aside, this is a practical little grill that has been working quite well so far. The cooking capacity is good, specially if you have the right skewers for the job. Assembly was a breeze; it comes practically assembled already. That said, the packaging material (styrofoam) does stick to the grill, so make sure to thoroughly clean it before first use. On the looks side, I think it looks quite adorable and I quite like the peach/light pink color. That said, the paint/coating is a matte one, so it can be stained a bit too easily. We've managed to keep it stain free so far by immediately wiping down anything that lands on it (granted that the grill is not piping hot, of course). Regarding durability: will have to revisit the review for this, but so far, so good. I imagine that the big impact to durability is regarding the grill's integrity. So, don't drop it or crack it, and you should be fine.

So I purchased this grill as a starter yakatori grill and a grill to use my wok with. I figured it's relatively inexpensive, looked to be built well and I liked that the entire unit was ceramic and not cheap stamped sheet metal. First the good stuff i've found so far: A lot of people complained that the grate is different then what is pictured and is very unstable, falls off and what not. Well they resolved the issue (with mine at least) and the grill has little tabs on the sides that press down on the sides of the grill so it's actually REALLY secure. The metal basket that the grill sits in is pretty cool too, it has a bucket like wire handle to carry it around with and it also sits the ceramic up off the surface you have the grill on. It also feels pretty sturdy. As for how the grill functions, it's very straight forward and simple, one baffle, a coal grate, and a small ash bin/plenum area. Possible issues: First thing I noticed that could be a potential issue is that the ceramic is an unfired slip style ceramic, kinda like those ceramic chiminea's you find at the home improvement stores. Now I have one of those too (which incidentally I also cook on :p)and the only issue I've ever had from that one is that there have been a couple nights where I had stuffed it with wood and had 10' flames shooting out the top of it which resulted in the chiminea cracking a bit. So concidering I won't ever be able to get 10' flames to shoot out the top of the yakatori I don't think it will be an issue. As for cooking with it I have yet to fire it up (tonight prob). People were complaining about how the cook surface is small, well it's a yakatori, it's meant for cooking little kabobs, single strips of meat and generally little asian stuff. No you probably won't be able to bbq 20 burgers for the neighbors and their savage little children that are busy destroying your yard on it but then again it's not meant for that. If thats what you want, spend another $40, buy yourself a weber, go to wal-mart buy the $15 tube-o-beef, slice off some patties and call it good. Only thing else I can think of is yes, if you drop it, it will break, so don't be dumb and handle it with care. I'll put up another review post cooking experiments. I'll be using mesquite lump coal as no one sells the crazy 1800 degree japanese stuff around here. I will be making kabobs, and attempting to stir fry with my wok on it too.

- original review written in 2016: This is a fantastic yakatori grill, I love it. This is not styrofoam painted with fireproof paint its cast diatom cement which is classic construction for a small yakatori grill like this. (Big would be restaurant size). This is a nice large size for a table top BBQ, Don't mistake this for a hibachi, yakatori is a different style of cooking and this is a different kind of grill. The body of of the BBQ is very thick and solid, it's designed for very hot burning binchotan or other hardwood charcoal and to hold in the heat. But I did knock off a star because the metal doors and trim is flimsy and just tacked on but even if they broke off or rusted out you would still have the functional core. It could last forever but I could imagine it would crack if you dropped it. ****** Update May 2022****** I did love this BBQ, I wanted to try to be authentic to yakatori BBQ by buying this BBQ and bichotan charcoal and it was delicious. But his BBQ has a serious flaw. It says this made out of clay but when you think of clay as mud that has been kiln fired. This is more like mud and fine wood particles or some such material. The reason I know this is because I accidentally left this BBQ out in the rain overnight and it fell apart, the water seeped in and it broke up and crumbled, it literally fell apart in my hands when I picked it up. I had used it for a couple of years and it is definitely heat proof but unfortunately its not fully waterproof. There are other yakatori grills made from more durable material like cast iron.

Auf dem Artikel sind mehrere Warhinweise, dass darin Krebserregende Stoffe enthalten sind. Das verunsichert doch erheblich! Das Tonmaterial ist im Boden und an den Wänden nach einmaligen Gebrauch gerissen.

Really compact and cool !!

I received a damaged product. When I’m paying such a high price for a product I expect it to reach me in perfect condition.

Es un asador pequeño pero con el carbón en briquetas puedes cocinar durante horas conserva bien el calor. si se usa adecuadamente el calor es uniforme y no es tan complicado de limpiar y almacenar. Solo que definitivamente se requiere un espacio muy abierto ya que hace humo como cualquier asador de carbón recomiendo leer el instructivo.