The word “grilling” is a bit of a catch-all phrase. When cooking food outside, we have been trained to use the word “grill.”Grilling is also generally reserved for dinner foods, a.k.a. Meats. But, for the average population, there are three other meals during the day. What will we do with breakfast and lunch to cook outside? That’s where the Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle comes in.
Unlike traditional grills, an outdoor griddle can be useful in preparing certain foods that might otherwise fall through the grates, including smaller vegetables (like the fajita veggies I made during my testing). The uniform heat distribution, thanks to a dense, flat iron surface, helps to ensure that the entire flat top maintains a constant temperature with little fluctuation. Also, the flat surface allows for multiple items to be prepared simultaneously. A grill's versatility and adaptability make it a great outdoor cooking mate to any of the best gas grills.
I had been extremely curious about outdoor grills. I had heard about their cooking versatility and affordability. The broad, flat surface is ideal for cooking diverse food. I made breakfast sandwiches, fajitas, and grilled chicken for my testing, but I will discuss more in later sections. Would it end up supplanting my gas grill? Is a flat-top griddle the only outdoor cooking tool you need? We tackle all those tough questions below.
Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle: Key specs
Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle: Price & availability
The Char Griller 3-Burner Flat Iron Gas Griddle is available on the company website for $299 at the time of this writing. You can also find it on Amazon for $463.73.
Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle: Setup and first impressions
The Char-Griller 3-Burner Flat Iron Gas Griddle has three temperature zones you can set on the grill. After the grill has been preheated for 15 minutes, you can adjust the zones for your cooking food. You light these three burners with the handy instant ignition button. I only had to turn off the grill once because the ignitor wouldn’t get all the burners going. Other than that, it lit up the grill quickly. I would say that is par for the course with most grills.
Many gas griddles out in the wild don’t have a lid. This one does, and I can say it’s nice to have for various reasons. It protects the flat iron surface and keeps the inside of your cover (if you purchase a cover for your grill) from getting grease on the inside (if you are seasoning your griddle after use). Speaking of protection, the sides of the grill have wind guards to protect the flame from going out and to maintain even heat distribution on particularly breezy days.
Also mentioned above, the foldout selfing on the left side of the grill can be handy for placing utensils or plates. I usually place food there before putting it on the grill. And if you don’t need it, you can easily fold it down. There is also an extra shelf between the legs below the cooking surface. This is a great place to store additional utensils, like a water bottle for cleaning tools for the grill.
Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle: Design
Putting the grill together was an easy endeavor. My gas grill came completely disassembled, whereas with the Char Griller 3-Burner Flat Iron Gas Griddle, you’re pretty much tasked with installing the legs, handles, and shelves. The whole thing only took about an hour to install.
I don’t necessarily like how and where the propane connects to the gas grill. It leaves the bottom of the tank quite low to the ground. Numerous times when I’ve gone to wheel the grill back to the shaded spot on my back patio where I store the griddle, I’ve hit the propane tank on the ground. It’s a minor inconvenience but something worth noting.
The flat iron surface provides 520 square inches of cooking area (518 of the cooking area if you minus the hole to drain the oil). What’s nice about the flat iron surface is you have more versatility in cooking. Not only the type of foods you can cook, which we’ll get to in a moment but how you orient the food on the surface. Since you don’t have to worry about food falling through grates, You can cook bacon going north and south, have a pile of hash browns next to it, and have breakfast sausages going east and west. This allows you to maximize the grilling surface area to fit your needs.
I mentioned the hole on the cooking surface for the grease trap below. The slide-out grease drawer is convenient and easily accessible. You can quickly slide it out, dump drippings and ash, and return it to ensure the trap doesn’t get all nasty.
For a little extra surface area, there is also a folding side shelf and bottom shelf for added prep and storage space.
Score: 4 out of 5
Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle: Performance
Now for the good stuff. So, how does this thing cook food? I was worried that you’d lose that oh-so-great charred flavor cooking on a flat iron compared to the open fire of a grill. So, let's start with meat. I cooked several pounds of chicken on the grill. The first attempt was for fajitas, while the next few times were for simply seared chicken. And I can say I was impressed with the evenness of which the chicken cooked. I consistently got a great browned sear across the chicken breast every time I cooked it.
My gas grill has areas where flames reach higher than other places, so I have to maneuver food around accordingly to get an even cook. With the grill, I was pleasantly surprised by the even and consistent cooking surface and temperature.
I also cooked heavily seasoned onions and bell peppers next to the chicken for the fajitas. The peppers were also cooked amazingly with good char. It was nice to have both items cooking right next to one another so I could monitor the progress of each on the same grill without needing additional foil or pan.
Making breakfast on the grill was the real game changer. I made breakfast sandwiches with hashbrowns, bacon, and eggs on bagels. Generally, I would have a pan out for the bacon, an additional pan for the hashies, and another for the egg. Here, I could cook everything simultaneously on the same surface, and it came out glorious. The bacon was evenly cooked, and the grease slowly flowed towards the drain hole on the surface.
When it comes to eggs, it is a good idea to invest in some additional equipment, such as egg rings, for cooking eggs on the grill. They keep the eggs in a nice condensed circle. I tried to do the same thing with a small bowl, and the egg spread further than I had liked.
Finally, when it came time for my wife and me to enjoy the fruits of my labor, my wife mentioned how the breakfast sandwich—a staple on weekends in our household—tasted like it came off a restaurant grill. She loved the flavor, thanks to the seasoning of the flat iron. She said that’s just how the breakfast sandwiches have to be made from now on, and honestly, I’m good with it, too.
Score: 5 out of 5
Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle: Care & maintenance
Regarding care and maintenance, I prefer a gas grill over a griddle. Before you begin using the grill, wash it off, make sure it is completely dry, and season it with cooking oil (I used vegetable oil). After every use, you clean the grill; while it is still warm, you season it with oil. This is crucial to prevent rust and maintain a non-stick coating. It can also be time-consuming.
After making the fajitas, much of the seasoning was burned onto the flat iron. You can’t just scrape it to death like I would with a grill. Instead, you need to try combinations of using water to loosen the burned-on mess and scrub the surface with salt to remove the excess burned-on stuff. It took several rounds of cleaning before I could season the grill again. I told my wife I spent more time cleaning the grill than cooking. Of course, this only happened with the heavily seasoned fajitas.
When it came to cooking breakfast and chicken, cleaning was far more basic. It included lightly scraping any excess into the grease trap, then removing the trap and emptying it in the trash. Regardless, you must wait until the flat iron cools to reseason it, again taking more time than just turning the grill off and walking away.
There is a small discrepancy. Online YouTube videos suggest seasoning the grill six times before use. The manual says to do it before the first use and after every use for the next 12 times you use the griddle. I suppose both ways of doing it are fine—one takes more time upfront while the other takes time in the long run.
Overall, I do find the maintenance to be a little bit of a pain, and I prefer the ease of turning on my gas grill, scraping the grates off with a brush while it heats up, and I’m good to go (of course, with a big clean at least once a year).
Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle: User reviews
On Amazon, the Char Griller 3-Burner Flat Iron Gas Griddle has 4.6 out of five stars, with 91% of reviews being four or five stars. One user mentioned that he loves the fact that the grease trap is located in the front and not the rear, so it is easy to clean. The same user also mentioned that he had seen zero rust on the flat top, which was an issue with another flat-top griddle.
Another user mentioned that he loved how portable the grill was. It is easy to break down the legs and take it camping. This user and many others also raved about the ease of assembly.
Many reviews also mentioned the Char-Griller's affordability compared to other griddles. The combination of performance—from both my experience and other user reviews—and price definitely makes this griddle worth pursuing.
Should you buy the Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle?
As I mentioned in the opening, I was curious to see if the flat iron griddle craze was worthy of the hype. I know many people around me who have added it to their cooking arsenal, and let me tell you, it is a smart thing to do. This griddle is versatile and affordable. If you like cooking outdoors and want the versatility to cook everything from breakfast to dinner, this is a must-have on the back patio.
Buy it if
Don't buy it if
How does the Char-Griller 3 Burner Griddle compare?
The Weber 3-Burner Propane Outdoor Griddle has two flat shelf areas on each side, while the Char-Griller only has one to the left. Both also have extra storage under the cooking area. The Weber griddle has a grease trap that is accessible from the front, but it is $150 more expensive overall.
The Blackstone 4-Burner Propane Griddle has a hardcover and a large 36-inch cooking surface with four temperature zones compared to the Char Griller’s three. It almost gets double the BTUs, and it is also the more affordable unit.
The Charbroil Performance Series 28-inch three 3-burner flat Top is about the same price as the Char-Griller. It has a slightly larger cooking area, with 550 square inches of cooking surface. There is also additional space on both the right and left sides to place items. The BTUs are the same on both grills.
