The Charmate Hibachi Grill provides the experience of Japanese style charcoal grilling at home. A little rough around the edges but solid overall and at it’s price point, hard not to buy it for a little weekend fun.
- Positive
- Side handles remain cool
- Comes with extra cooking grill
- 12 month manufacturer warranty
- Negative
- Sharp air vents
- Some sharp metal edges
No doubt about it, there’s nothing quite like the taste and smell of charcoal grilled food. Maybe it’s something left over in our DNA from our ancestors that makes cooking a piece of meat over an open flame so enjoyable.
What’s in the box
Besides the Charmate Hibachi grill and chrome wire stand, this particular model (CM155-020) came with;
2 x Stainless steel charcoal grates
1 x extra cooking grill
1 x hand crank fire starter
1 x pair of tongs for handling food
Weight and Dimensions
Overall height with chrome wire stand is 160 mm. The grill rack itself measures 400mm (L) x 250mm (W). The net weight is 8.5kg.
Quality
The clay firebox is solid and well made, with no signs of deformities or cracks. The black metal work that is found on the edges, air vents, feet and logo plate are a little sharp in areas (especially the air vent handles). The metal work is fastened with a type of staple which are coming loose in certain spots, especially on the logo plate.
The charcoal grates and cooking grills look of uniform quality with no signs of rust straight out of the box and feel sturdy enough to use frequently.
Included with this model is a fire starter (that actually works) and some food tongs which are also pretty good.
The biggest gripe are the air vents can be tough to open and close and as mention, sharp on the little handles.
Setting Up
The small size and portability of the hibachi grill is very freeing, you can pretty much set it up anywhere and start grilling. Setting up is easy too, you just position it on a level, non flammable surface in a well ventilated area and you’re done.
Using the Hibachi Grill
We used lump wood charcoal and to start place enough charcoal to cover the grates in both sides of the firebox, you don’t need a lot to go along way. Once the charcoal is lit, wait until the flames die down and the charcoal ashes over. At this point you can start grilling, you can control the heat with the air vents and by using some left over ash to cover the coals.
You need to be monitoring the grill during cooking as things happen fast, especially when grilling thin cuts of meat. The outer edge of the grill is cooler than the middle so you can move things off the centre when things are cooking too quickly.
You do need to be careful with foods that can roll as the cooking grill doesn’t have sides so things can roll straight off.
What Can You Cook On A Hibachi Grill
The possibilities are almost endless. We used pork and beef balls, cuts of pork belly, cuts of beef belly and fish cakes in our trial run. We will be trying teriyaki chicken skewers as soon as we can. But you could also do steaks, burgers, shish kebab, squid and even vegetables. It might take a few tries to get the hang of grilling on it, but it’s definitely worth it.
Can You Use it Indoors?
As the manufacturer states this hibachi grill is for outdoor use only. When using charcoal it produces carbon monoxide which is deadly, so keep it outdoors in a well ventilated area.
The Term 'Hibachi Grill'
As a side note this review ends with a bit of trivia, evidently we have all been using the term ‘hibachi grill’ all wrong. The fact is the word hibachi translates to fire bowl and is basically an open top portable room heater that burns charcoal. These hibachi are thought to have been used way back in the Heian period from 794 to 1185. The name for a small charcoal grill is a shichirin or a kanteki as known by in the Kansai region. Why the shichirin grill became widely known within the western world under the misnomer of ‘hibachi grill’, is likely due to when they were introduced to North America under the wrong name.
