Little Kasai Konro Grill review: small grill, BIG flavour

Welcome to T3’s review of the Little Kasai Konro Grill, a compact table-top BBQ that brings the precision and charm of traditional Japanese grilling to the patio, balcony and campsite. Inspired by the centuries-old art of shichirin barbecuing, this beautifully built grill offers intense, focused heat in a stylish, space-saving design that makes it a shoo-in for use both home and away. Small wonder it featured in the recent series of Great British Menu.

I recently gave this aesthetically pleasing and extremely efficient grill a whirl on the patio and the simplicity of its hands-on cooking method proved a world away from the current trend towards smart app-enabled grills that do everything you. This is barbecue grilling in its most basic form and I loved every minute of using it, so let’s take a closer look.

Little Kasai Konro Grill review: price and availability

The Little Kasai Konro Grill is widely available in the UK and retails at around £399. If this grill or any other in the range tickle your fancy, head to Kasai Grills where the Little Kasai Konro retails at the full price of £399. Alternatively try John Lewis & Partners (£399), Sous Vide Tools (£399) or Griggs, where it’s selling for a reduced £347.98.

If you live in the USA, try JB Prince where the Little Kasia retails at $475. Otherwise send UK-based Kasai Grills an email and they’ll put you in touch with your nearest US stockist.

Little Kasai Konro Grill review: what is a konro grill?

The Japanese konro grill (or hibachi as it’s sometimes known) is a compact, rectangular charcoal grill that delivers intense, even heat while using very little fuel. Traditionally made from naturally heat-resistant diatomaceous earth or vermiculite (as in the case of the Kasai model I'm reviewing here), the Konro maintains extremely high cooking temperatures, making it ideal for searing dishes like yakitori, Greek-style kebabs and sous vide, as well as standard fare like chicken wings, drumsticks, sausages, seafood, vegetables and steaks, while keeping flare-ups and smoke to a bare minimum.

This highly-portable style of barbecue is just as suited to a quiet weeknight dinner as it is to a relaxed table-top cooking experience with guests. If you’re looking for a different type of grilling experience that will inspire you to experiment a bit more with your outdoor cooking, a konro grill will do just that.

Little Kasai Konro Grill review: design and features

I’m a stickler for smart barbecues like the Weber Searwood and Char-Broil Evolve mostly because I love a bit of tech and they do all the hard work of maintaining cooking temperatures so I can spend more time doing, er, nothing. But sometimes I just want to get back to the basic principals of hands-on cooking over a searingly hot open charcoal fire with no lid to slow the process down, and the Little Kasai Konro is a perfect cooking tool for that.

Designed and manufactured in Britain, the Little Kasai Konro is one of six sterling table-top grills in the Kasai range – Medium Wide, Medium Long, Long, XL, Nano and the Little model we have here – and they range in price from £339 to £799. While admittedly not cheap to buy, you certainly get what you pay for with this grill because the quality of materials used and the expert fit-and-finish are very much in the premium range of portable barbecues.

Measuring 21cm in height, 40.5cm in width and 26.5cm in depth, the Little Kasai Konro is constructed using tiles made from vermiculite – a clay-like material known for its ability to withstand high temperatures up to 1,200°C – and encased in a brushed stainless frame that adds excellent rigidity and a decent level of robustness.

Mind, it has to be said that this is not the type of BBQ to just throw on the table lest a crack appears in one of the vermiculite tiles. Also, since the material is porous and therefore not weather proof, this is one barbecue that must be stored away after use and never used during inclement weather. At 11 kilos, the Little Kasai Konro is definitely not the lightest of portable barbecues, but it’s perfectly manageable to haul from shed to table or car to camping spot, especially since it has a sturdy steel handle on each end.

Although this model arrived replete with a stainless steel wire mesh grill measuring 37 x 21cm, there’s a host of optional extras available, including a Searing Grate (£79) with heavy-duty 6mm stainless steel bars and, for safer tabletop use, a Heat Mat (£49) that’s also made from vermiculite for insulation against excessive heat penetration. The Heat Mat is an especially important accessory if cooking on a wooden table but it might not provide enough insulation on plastic so I wouldn’t go down that route if I were you.

Heading to the sides of the unit, both the back and front have offset ventilation hatches operated by sliding a pair of stainless steel doors. These ventilation ports are paramount for regulating cooking temperatures which can reach sky-high temperatures if you’re not careful. Nevertheless, I found that temperature regulation was a bit easier on the Little Kasai Konro than the otherwise excellent Kamado Joe Jr I reviewed recently.

And that’s basically all you need to know about this cracking little barbecue. Like the most basic of barbecues comprising a grilling grate and a pile of bricks, it grills food with that unmissable charcoal flavour in record time. But unlike a brick-style BBQ, it retains its heat for a few hours which makes relay grilling a very real possibility.

Little Kasai Konro Grill review: performance

I love this back-to-basics method of hard-and-fast barbecuing and think that the Little Kasai Konro is an ideal table-top grill for couples or those seeking a viable social outdoor grilling session where guests around a table cook the food themselves using small amounts of ingredients like fillet steak squares and mini kebabs.

Kasai Grills sent a 10kg box of authentic Japanese Sumi Bincho Charcoal (£28) for my test and it’s as premium a charcoal as it’s possible to get. Sumi Bincho is tube shaped and hollow, and it produces a long odourless burn time that imparts virtually no flavour of its own. However, it’s also the hardest charcoal to ignite as I soon discovered.

In fact it took 45 minutes for it to reach cooking temperature – and that was after using my powerful desktop dust blower till the battery ran out. Professional chefs recommend a chimney starter for this type of charcoal so I would heed their advice or you might have to wait far longer than expected. I used just eight pieces of Sumi Bincho and it was more than enough for the task.

For my test I’m embarrassed to say that I stuck to unadventurous chicken wings, but this was mostly to see how well the Little Kasai Konro seared the skins and how succulent the internal flesh remained. Once the charcoal took on its tell-tale white appearance, I slapped on the wings with a reassuring sizzle and noticed some decent charring within a couple of minutes. I then kept turning them periodically for about 25 minutes until my temperature probe recorded the prerequisite 74˚C.

Needless to say it produced a banging set of wings with excellent crisp and, more importantly, a level of succulence I rarely achieve on a barbecue. I also noticed that the grill was still hot enough for another cooking session an hour later and that’s pretty impressive for an open-top brazier-style barbecue of this size.

I found the grill surprisingly easy to clean. I simply waited for it to cool, grabbed the two finger holes on the raised stainless steel charcoal base and very carefully lifted it out. I then emptied the pile of ash onto the compost heap.

Little Kasai Konro Grill review: verdict

Whether you're charring yakitori-style skewers, searing seafood, steak or vegetables, or preparing a classy sous vide dish, the Little Kasai Konro delivers authentic flavour and total control with very few flareups and surprisingly little smoke. If you hanker for a small-bodied two-person charcoal barbecue that turns an everyday barbecue session into something a little more extraordinary, definitely give this little titan serious consideration. It's a winner in my book.