==Overview==

Despite owning a gas BBQ, we still prefer a good old charcoal BBQ once in a while; not enough to give up the gas BBQ, but enough to have several disposable BBQ's on hand for the great British summertime. We have had the BBQs from a number of places (namely Wilkinson's and Poundland) but found Sainsbury's to be better than other two.

==What you get==

For your money (around £4 I think from memory), you get a fairly large tin foil container, similar to those you might get your chinese takeaway delivered in, but much bigger, smaller than A3 but slightly bigger than A4 to give a rough size. The depth of the tray is around 5 inches. In the tray you get lumps of charcoal which will provide the heat for your BBQ, typically I find the charcoal doesn't go all the way to the edges which means you end up having to cook in the middle whilst the food on the outside doesn't cook as quickly. On top of the charcoal is flammable card/paper which will help the BBQ to ignite. On top of that is a wire mesh (easy to scrape yourself on if there are any rough edges) which you will cook the food on. You put a match to the card/paper and that should light quickly, followed by the charcoal.

Tip: don't leave your disposable BBQ's in the shed or anywhere where they could potentially get damp. Lighting them is an absolute swine if the charcoal gets damp. This may sound obvious but we occasionally have these in the shed in case we decided to go camping and found out the hard way that sheds are damp (luckily I like my steak cooked blue!).

Wait for the charcoal to go grey and the flames to die down before you start cooking otherwise you will cook the food too quickly and give yourselves and your friends/relatives food poisoning. Grey is the optimum colour and temperature for cooking.

After you have finished cooking, make sure the coals are cold before disposing of the BBQ safely.

==What I like==

I like that it lights in minutes with minimum fuss and is ready to cook in about 20 minutes without any dirty hands from the coal. I like that I don't have to do much tidying up after I've finished cooking the food. I like that it stays warm enough for me to toast marshmallows on it after I've finished with the food. I like that it is fairly cheap, I know you can do better than this if you bought a bag of coal, but I've tried the bucket BBQs and they aren't as good as these, they don't seem to keep the heat as well. Often Sainsbury's do deals such as 2 for £5 or 2 for £6 which makes them quite economical.

They are ideal and portable for taking camping without all of the fuss of a camping stove etc. We love cooking our meat on the BBQ, tastes really good from the coals too.
==What I don't like==

The tray is seriously shallow so you have to cook it on a floor rather than a table as the foil container tends to get quite hot, so if you don't want to burn your table/bench, use this on the floor. I get fed up of bending down and crouching to check that the food is OK; particularly annoying if the weather isn't so great when camping. Wet & a bad back = miserable start.

The tray is also not very big to cook food on though you can probably get about 3 "sittings" of meat on the coals before they go too cold. However this means you have to eat one bit of meat, then the next bit so there is a lot of waiting between meats! On a bigger BBQ typically you would put it all on at the same time and it would finish at different times so some waiting but not having to start from scratch.

Thin items like bacon tend to stick to the grill easily and the bacon isn't much fun to peel off - don't have this problem with thick pieces of meat. Bacon is probably a non-starter depending on your patience levels.

I also don't like that they are bad for the environment. I feel guilty every time I use one as they are disposable and will likely end up in landfill somewhere. 4 stars for not being more recyclable.

==Overall==

Compared to other brands this is one of my favourite disposable BBQs out there. I wish they made a slightly larger version (although this is bigger than the Poundland BBQ) but on the whole, the heat is good, the BBQ is portable and useful for camping or just in the garden.