Char-Broil TRU-Infrared Patio Bistro Gas Grill

hello from alabama. the char-broil patio bistro grill arrived yesterday – on time – with all the pieces and nothing was broken. putting it together was not very difficult at all. if your spouse has difficulties putting this grill together, then perhaps you should consider adopting rather than having children of your own. it is small and fits nicely in the corner of my deck. we wiped the grilling surface down with vegetable oil and heated it and let it cool and then repeated the cycle a couple of times. we cooked rib eye steaks and they were perfect. we enjoyed them greatly. i have this grill on a screened in porch, under a roof, and i ordered the cover to go with it. hopefully it will last a few years. for the money i am pleased so far. my dog hootie likes it too.
meanwhile, a few days later, i just grilled some chicken for lunch and apparently the thing didn’t light the first time. i noticed the temp wasn’t rising, so i pressed the ignition key and Houston, we had lift-off! the dang lid went BLAM! and blew up, belched fire, and then the lid slammed down hitting my hand in the process. i’m a heart patient on coumadin – it nearly scared me to death and there will be bruising. there is a notice on gillette foamy. there’s a notice on coffee at mcdonald’s. there should have been a notice on this. i have had lots of grills…this one is the smallest and it never occurred to me something like that would happen.
One other addition – it has been several weeks and i have used the grill a lot. the grate gets bbq sauce, etc, gunked up in it’s little V shaped valleys. removing the grate is not an easy task and the thing requires constant cleaning with a brass bristled brush. I usually heat it to a high heat to turn the sauces to charcoal and then brush them out.
Another addition a few months later: a) the thing is impossible to keep clean. b) today with the lid open, i turned on the gas and pressed the ignition button. i saw fire but it went out and i pressed the button again and the thing went up in fire and singed all the hair off my chest.

I love this grill. Fast even heat. Big heat for what looks like a little grill but deceptively has lots of room. It’s large rear wheels make it easy to move. Great retro look too.

My larger and older infrared was literally starting to fall apart. I didn’t want to spend the $150 on parts that the manufacture wanted… so I started looking at alternatives. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money… yet I wanted an infrared grill. After using infrared you will never want to go back. This little sucker fit my needs pretty well. The assembly was a little more than I’d like… but I loathe assembling stuff.

In the end, its a great little infrared grill that does not use up too much propane. The grilling comes out nice and even. It will heat up real high to get a nice char. I removed that little upper resting grill thingy because it took up too much real estate on the already limited space grill. I do wish it was a bit bigger… but that’s my fault for buying one that I knew was this small. I’d buy it again if I was in need.

Nice size & looks good but only used it a couple of times & the starter quit. Now have to light by hand. Not impressed!

This is a great grill for 1 – 4 people. I live alone and had a large Weber that I never used because it took so long to prep it and get it to grilling for one person. I gave it away and bought this little guy and glad I did. Took me a hour or to put it together, seasoned the grill grate with vegetable oil, fired it up (it lit the first time) and let it go as instructed until it stopped smoking. Turned it off. The next day, I went out there with some real nice fresh polish sausages, it lit up the first time, let it heat up for a few minutes, and grilled the sausages. No sticking and the sausages grilled to perfection. nice and juicy. A couple days later I took and nice 3/4 in New York Strip. It fired up[ the first time, I let it heat up a bit, and put the steak on it. Grilled each side about 5 minutes, nice grill marks, and let it rest for about 5 minutes. I also sliced a nice spud in half, and rubbed olive oiled on it and cooked on the warming rack, it cam out great. Then I cut into the steak, talk about juicy!!! This grill is a savior, I am grilling again and loving it. If you are having second thought about buying this baby, do it. I am having fun grilling again. I’ve done pork chops, on it as well. I also made a Rueben sandwich on it and it was great. Patio Bistro is the proper description for it. The uses are endless. It’s not just for brats, dogs, or burgers. I also have the char broil smoker deluxe that I smoke ribs and stuff in. this is a great buy.