Different Types of BBQs: Which Grill is Right For You?

Choosing a BBQ is exciting. It’s the promise of better food, longer evenings outdoors, and more time spent cooking and eating together.

In this guide, we compare the most popular types of grills, including:

• Gas BBQs

• Traditional charcoal BBQs

• Ceramic kamado-style grills

• Hibachi-style tabletop grills (like Kasai Japanese Grills)
  
  

To help you choose the right one, we’ll break down each option based on the things that matter most when you’re actually cooking outdoors, such as:

• Heat-up time and heat control

• Flavour and smokiness

• Cooking pace (quick grilling vs slower sessions)

• Ease of use and clean-up

• Space, portability, and hosting style
  
  

Here, we break down the main BBQ types and explore what each is best suited for. No hype. No pressure to pick a side. Just clear, practical guidance to help you choose a grill that fits your cooking style and your space.

The main types of BBQs: Explained

At their core, all BBQs do the same thing: they cook food over heat. The difference lies in how that heat is created, how much control you have, and the experience of cooking itself.

Broadly speaking, most BBQs fall into a few categories:

• Ceramic kamado-style grills – versatile grilling, roasting, and low-and-slow cooking with excellent heat retention

• Konro / hibachi-style tabletop charcoal grills (Kasai Grills) – intense, direct heat for fast cooking and highly social tabletop grilling

• Yakitori-style skewer grilling – skewer-focused cooking using a konro-style setup for small bites, meat, and vegetables

• Robata-style grilling – multi-level grilling that lets you cook at different heights and manage heat more precisely

• Asado-style live-fire grilling – open-fire style cooking using Kasai’s Asado Grill Top system for flame-led searing

• Plancha-style flat-top cooking – cooking on a solid hot plate for smash-style searing, seafood, and vegetables
  
  

Each one brings a different approach to outdoor cooking, from convenience and speed to flavour, theatre, and hands-on involvement.

Konro/hibachi-style charcoal grills

A konro grill (often called a hibachi-style tabletop grill) is a compact charcoal grill designed for high-heat cooking over close-set coals. It’s the style of grill most people picture when they think of Japanese tabletop grilling: fast, precise, and incredibly flavourful.

Why do people choose konro/hibachi-style grills?

• They cook incredibly hot and fast – perfect for quick searing and caramelisation

• Charcoal adds natural depth of flavour – especially with clean-burning charcoal like binchotan

• They turn cooking into part of the evening – tabletop grilling keeps things social and interactive

Konro grills shine when you’re cooking smaller cuts and ingredients that benefit from high heat: steak strips, prawns, sliced veg, scallops, skewers, and more. They’re a brilliant choice for food lovers who want restaurant-style results at home, without needing a large garden setup.

Kasai grills that fit this category:

• Kasai Konro Grill range – the core Kasai tabletop charcoal grills, available in sizes for everything from 1–2 people up to larger groups

Yakitori-style skewer grilling

Yakitori is a Japanese style of cooking where meat and vegetables are threaded onto skewers and grilled over charcoal. It’s simple, satisfying, and one of the easiest ways to cook a variety of flavours quickly, with minimal equipment.

Why do people choose yakitori-style grilling?

• Perfect for sharing food as you cook – skewers are made for grazing and passing around

• Easy to cook evenly – turning skewers gives great control over colour and doneness

• Big flavour from minimal ingredients – charcoal and seasoning do most of the work
  
  

Yakitori-style grilling is ideal for chicken thighs, spring onions, mushrooms, peppers, halloumi, prawns, and bite-sized cuts of meat. It suits hosts who love relaxed, small-plate entertaining or the kind of BBQ where food comes off the grill in waves rather than all at once.

Kasai grills that fit this category:

• Kasai Hibachi Bar & Skewer Set – an accessory setup that helps you grill skewers cleanly and consistently on a Kasai Konro base

Robata-style grilling

Robata (or robatayaki) is a Japanese grilling style that uses different cooking heights over charcoal. Instead of placing food directly over the hottest part of the fire, you can raise it for gentler cooking or lower it for intense heat.

Why do people choose robata-style grilling?

• More control without complexity – change height rather than constantly adjusting the fire

• Cook different ingredients at different intensities – ideal for mixed grills and varied timings
  Great for thicker cuts and slower cooking – without losing the charcoal flavour

Robata-style setups are brilliant when you want flexibility: crisp vegetables, juicy chicken, and a properly seared steak can all happen in the same session. It’s a great fit for confident home cooks who enjoy cooking a range of dishes rather than sticking to the usual BBQ staples.

Kasai grills that fit this category:

• Kasai Robata Edition – combines a Kasai Konro grill with a robata rack system for multi-level grilling and better heat management

Asado-style live-fire grilling

Asado is a traditional South American style of grilling over live fire and glowing embers. With Kasai, this style is achieved with an Asado Grill Top, which opens the cooking surface and creates a more flame-focused grilling experience.

Why do people choose asado-style grilling?

• It’s a true live-fire experience – more open, more atmospheric, more hands-on

• Ideal for larger cuts and centrepiece cooking – steaks, whole chickens, sharing platters

• Adds theatre to hosting – it feels like an event

Asado-style grilling suits slower weekends, bigger gatherings, and cooks who enjoy the ritual of building a fire and cooking over embers. It’s also great when you want more space to grill larger items that don’t fit on a skewer or a compact grate.

Kasai grills that fit this category:

• Kasai Asado Grill Top – an accessory that converts a Kasai Konro Grill into an open-fire asado-style setup

• Kasai Konro Grill Asado Grill Top Edition – a bundle that includes the grill plus the Asado Grill Top

Plancha-style flat-top cooking

A plancha is a flat metal cooking plate that sits over a heat source, like an outdoor griddle. Rather than grilling through open bars, you cook directly on the hot surface, which is ideal for delicate ingredients and foods that need full contact to sear properly.

Why do people choose plancha-style cooking?

• Better for delicate foods – nothing falls through, and cooking is more controlled

• Even browning and caramelisation – full contact helps create great texture
  More variety beyond “BBQ food” – opens up seafood, veg, smash-style cooking, and more

Plancha cooking is brilliant for prawns, scallops, asparagus, sliced courgette, mushrooms, smash burgers, and even breakfast-style grilling outdoors. It’s a great choice for people who like versatility or who want a more refined style of outdoor cooking.

Kasai grills that fit this category:

• Kasai 50/50 Plancha – a split surface combining half grill grate and half plancha

• Kasai Solid Plancha – a full flat-top plate for maximum cooking surface and even heat

Searing-focused grilling

Searing-focused grilling is exactly what it sounds like: cooking at extremely high heat to develop a deep, caramelised crust quickly. Kasai offers searing-led setups designed to intensify heat and deliver that “steakhouse finish” at home.

Why do people choose searing-focused grilling?

• Fast cooking with serious colour – ideal for crust, char and bold flavour

• Better texture on premium ingredients – crisp outside, juicy centre

• Simple, high-impact grilling – less fuss, more results

Searing setups are perfect for steaks, lamb chops, tuna, scallops, and other ingredients where texture and timing matter. It’s best suited to confident cooks (or anyone who wants to cook like one) and works especially well when you’re grilling smaller quantities of high-quality food.

Kasai grills that fit this category:

• Kasai Searing Edition – a Kasai bundle designed around high-heat searing performance

Why Kasai Grills suits modern outdoor cooking

Kasai Grills are designed for people who care about food quality, simplicity, and shared experiences.

Their compact construction makes them easy to use in gardens, on terraces, in restaurants, or even indoors with proper ventilation. The open grill design allows fat to drip away from the food, resulting in cleaner flavours and better texture.

What makes Kasai Grills different?

• Built for binchotan charcoal, delivering intense, even heat

• Minimal flare-ups and reduced smoke

• Modular design for easy cleaning and maintenance

• Suitable for home cooks and professional chefs

Because food cooks so quickly, you’re not standing over a grill for hours. Instead, you cook in short bursts, share dishes as you go, and keep everyone involved.

Choosing the right Kasai grill for you

Kasai grills are all built around high-performance charcoal cooking — but the best setup for you depends less on the grill itself and more on how you like to cook outdoors.

To make choosing easier, it helps to think in terms of three main styles of outdoor cooking: quick, social grilling; varied cooking with more control; or live-fire centrepiece cooking.

1. Quick, social tabletop grilling (fast cooking, lots of sharing)

If your ideal BBQ is relaxed, interactive, and full of small plates, with food coming off the grill in batches and everyone getting involved, a konro/hibachi-style setup is the best match.

It’s designed for intense heat and quick cooking, making it perfect for skewers, seafood, sliced veggies, and smaller cuts of meat. And because it sits at the centre of the table, it naturally suits sociable hosting.

Best match:

• Kasai Konro Grill range – Kasai’s core tabletop charcoal grills, built for fast, high-heat cooking and effortless sharing
  

2. More variety and heat control (different ingredients, different cooking speeds)

If you like cooking a mix of dishes, perhaps searing meat while gently grilling vegetables, or managing different timings without stress, a robata-style setup gives you more flexibility.

The key advantage is the multi-level cooking approach: you can move food closer to the heat for more intense cooking or raise it higher for gentler cooking. That makes it ideal for more ambitious outdoor meals.

Best match:

• Kasai Robata Edition – a Konro grill with a robata rack system that helps you cook multiple ingredients with better heat control

3. Live-fire centrepiece cooking (slower pace, bigger cuts, more theatre)

For some people, BBQ is about the fire as much as the food. If you love the ritual of building the heat, cooking over embers, and serving big, dramatic dishes, then asado-style grilling is the way to go.

It’s ideal for larger cuts like steaks and whole chickens, as well as for sharing platters, and it creates that unmistakable live-fire atmosphere that turns cooking into an event.

Best match:

• Kasai Asado Grill Top – converts a Kasai Konro base into an open-fire asado-style setup for ember-led, centrepiece cooking
  

Ultimately, there’s no wrong choice, just the grill that suits your pace. Whether you want fast, social grilling, more controlled multi-dish cooking, or live-fire weekends with real theatre, Kasai has a setup designed around that exact experience.

Bringing people together around the grill

The best BBQ isn’t just about heat or fuel. It’s about how you like to cook, eat, and spend time with people. Kasai Grills are built around that idea with fast, high-heat cooking that encourages conversation, sharing, and great food served as it’s ready.

If you’re exploring different BBQ styles and want something that feels more social, more precise, and more connected, a hibachi-style grill could be the perfect fit. Explore the full Kasai Grills range of Japanese grills to find the BBQ type that suits your space, your food, and the way you like to cook.