Char broiler or Flat Grill, Which One Is the Better Kitchen Equipment

When you are going to start up a road food business, or a small restaurant, what commercial kitchen equipment will you think is most needed?

Fryer, of course, is essential, you can fry potato, chicken, shrimp etc in it and no one could resist fried food. But comes to char broiler or flat grill, you may only choose one of them, unless you have more than enough budget. So today, we are going to discuss which one is the better kitchen equipment, char broiler or flat grill.

Let’s talk about char broiler first. Char broiler, also called lava rock grill, it’s made of #304 stainless steel body frame and with black cast iron grilling plate, also equipped with grease collector drawer and splash back. The char broiler can create a special burning effect on meats, buns and vegetables. But the only disadvantage is, the char broiler generates lots of smoke during cooking, which on one hand gives dishes burning flavor, on the other hand, gas consumption is huge, especially in winter. You may need to add up an exhaust system to vent out the smoke. Therefore, if your restaurant features smoking burned food, char broiler is your first choice because flat grill can’t offer such effect. But do take gas bill into account.

Flat grill, aka griddle, is a commercial cooking equipment made of stainless steel body frame and griddle plate (all flat, 1/2ribbed, 1/3 ribbed). The flat grill can heat up not only meat and buns, but also eggs, which char broiler is not able to cook a sunny side up. Some of the griddle plate consists of 1/2 ribbed or 1/3 ribbed, so it can also generate the darken color burning line effect on beef & steaks, except without the strong char flavor compared with char broiler. However, flat grill consumes less energy than lava rock grill, and for a food business starter, a flat grill will satisfy most of your grilling needs.

After the comparison, do you decide which grilling equipment will you buy. Only the one that fits with your restaurant, is the better one for you. Don’t you think so.