We’re big fans of the best gas BBQs and best air fryers at T3 so how could we turn down an offer to review a gas barbecue that also air-fries chips and other goodies? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new Landmann Fryton, the world’s first gas barbecue with a built-in air fryer. And no, I didn’t make that up.
Now, I should add that I’m not a fan of barbecues that do other things apart from grilling. Hence, I can’t stand side burners for saucepans and the like because, well, why not just use the indoor oven hob? After all, the hob can’t be more than 20 metres away from where you are grilling and chances are that someone else is in the kitchen helping with salads and other side dishes, so they may as well boil the new potatoes while they’re at it.
My same complaint could also quite easily apply to this barbecue which not only comes with a side burner for boiling stuff but also an air fryer for frying things like chips and anything else that air fryers are really good at. However, this has generated a bit of a conundrum for me because I’ve reviewed a few air fryers in the past and, aside from chips, the one thing they’re especially brilliant at doing is frying chicken drumsticks. And I mean top level drumsticks with the crispiest skin you’ve ever seen and a centre that is as moist as a wet sponge while being perfectly cooked to avoid our old friend Sal Monella.
For me, the problem is that this is first and foremost a barbecue and barbecues excel at grilling everything, including drumsticks. So does that mean I need to either stick to just doing chips in the air fryer or will I be tempted to do the drum sticks in the air fryer instead of grilling them on the barbecue. In which case I may as well just get an indoor air fryer and forget the barbecue malarky.
As it turns out, there are quite a few things other than chicken and chips you can do in an air fryer and I learned this by reading Duncan Bell’s bloody handy guide to the best foods to cook in an air fryer. I suggest you read it, too.
Without adding more guff to an already terribly confusing intro, let’s get down to using the Fryton and just go with the flow.
Landmann Fryton: price and availability
The Landmann Fryton is available in the UK direct from Landmann, priced £749.99. However, T3 readers can take advantage of a very sizeable discount by adding the discount code FRYTON20 at checkout.
At the time of writing, the Landmann Fryton isn't available in the USA or Australia.
Landmann Fryton review: assembly
Despite one annoying anomaly, the Fryton was a breeze to assemble
I’ve assembled numerous barbecues in the past and gas models are usually my pet hate, especially those equipped with a side burner. As it turns out, this model was one of the easiest I’ve ever assembled because it mostly required just one size of screw for everything. Yes, there are a lot of screws in the pop-out card they give you but since the vast majority of them are the same size, I didn’t have to study each illustration with a fine tooth comb.
All went exceedingly well until I got to one connecting strut that required me taking a drill to it to make one hole a tiny bit larger. It wasn’t the end of the world but it was still frustrating nonetheless. Thankfully, the air fryer section arrives fully assembled so it was just a case of dropping it onto its plinth and inserting a few screws. In a stroke of extreme pleasure, I’m pleased to say that the side burner installation process didn’t give me the usual headache. In fact it was a cinch.
At a cost of around £750, I wasn’t expecting Napoleon, Broil King or Weber levels of build quality but given that it includes an air fryer, the quality of the materials are pretty good and certainly robust enough for the barbecue to survive quite a few winters if under cover. And a cover is something I highly recommend, if only to protect the air fryer's electrics from moisture.
Landmann Fryton review: design and features
I haven't seen any other barbecue with a built-in air fryer so the Fryton must surely be a first. The air fryer itself has a capacity of 3.5 litres so it’s a decent size for several (smallish) portions of chips, five chicken drumsticks, a ton of chicken nuggets, a large cut of fillet steak (which Duncan Bell says is incredible) or a couple of portions of salmon. Naturally, the air fryer runs on electricity so this is one barbecue you will have to plug in.
The Landmann Fryton is one of the better looking gas barbies on the market
Right, let’s take a look at the main nuts and bolts of this barbecue which, in the pantheon of gas barbies, is a very decent looker. The Landmann Fryton has four main gas burners and one of the most attractive looking cast iron grill grates I’ve ever seen. At 65 x 40cm, this grate provides more than enough space for six to eight hungry gannets and way more if grilling smaller items like wings, drumsticks and sausages. The Modulus grate’s centre section can also be removed and replaced with a wok or pizza stone.
The Fryton does have some cupboard space below but it’s not big enough to accommodate even a small Patio Gas canister so you will need to have that positioned under the side burner, which is where the gas pipe happens to exit. And speaking of side burners, this one comes with a 3kW one so it will boil water and prepare sauces pretty darn quickly.
Landmann Fryton review: performance
Cor blimey, this thing makes awesome air-fried chicken legs. But only up to six at a time
I confess I didn’t push the boat out and grill some exotic al fresco nosh up. I simply lit all four burners, threw some chicken wings and sausages on the grate and checked for cool spots. I’m happy to report that the temperatures across the grill grate were pretty uniform and certainly consistent enough to create a tasty banquet for six to eight. I should add that, while the cast iron grate is of very high quality, the gaps between each slat are quite wide so you’d need to be careful if grilling halloumi and any other slim ingredients lest they fall through the gaps. I also gave the side burner a test and, as expected, it boiled some water in a pot in about average time. As already stated, side burners are not my cup of tea but each to their own.
And so to the pièce de résistance, namely the air fryer. At 3.5 litres, it isn’t as big as most stand-alone indoor models. In fact, its capacity is marginally smaller than even the compact Ninja AF100UK which we rate quite highly.
The air fryer unit features a brightly-lit interface that’s fairly simple to negotiate. It comes with six presets – chips, vegetables, nuggets, defrost, rosemary potatoes and, er, cake. Aside from the chips, vegetables and defrost, the other settings seem to be bizarrely named. I mean, why rosemary potatoes and not just potatoes? But I digress.
Being a fan of air-fried drumsticks I simply had to give them a go and glad I did because, like the Ninja Foodi 11-in-1 SmartLid Multi-Cooker OL550UK I reviewed sometime back, the Fryton produced an equally amazing quartet of drumsticks. Mind, six drumsticks is about all the fryer accommodates so it’s not going to feed many mouths. But hey, that’s what the grill’s for, innit?
I would say you could get about four decent-sized portions of chips out of the fryer which isn’t that great considering that the grill is easily capable of cooking for six. Hence, I would stick to doing side vegetables like potatoes and broccoli in the air fryer so the portions can go a bit further.
Want the best air fryer chips recipe, ever? Check out Duncan Bell’s guide to making the best air-fried chips on Earth
Landmann Fryton review: verdict
Truth is you may use this barbecue's air fryer only occasionally, in which case you could plump for one of Landmann’s Triton gas barbecues instead and simply use an indoor air fryer as and when. But if you think you will use the Fryton’s air fryer on a fairly regular basis and you’d rather do everything outdoors, including the salads and all side dishes, I can think of no better multi-tasking gas barbecue for the job.
Want something smaller? Check out our guide to the best portable barbecues
