Artesa Hot Stone Grill

Tried steak cooked on hot stones in a London restaurant and it was fun as well as tasty, so looked online for a home use version. Some of the sets available were mega-expensive, and as this was something my wife and I were only likely to use as a treat from time to time, this set looked like a decent way to have steak cooked in a fun way at home, without breaking the bank. If the set turned out to be hopeless, at least we never wasted a fortune. Happy to report, it’s been far from hopeless. Is it as good-looking or posh as some of the sets available? No. Is it great for a couple like us to enjoy really nice steak and a glass of red wine in a different and fun way? Absolutely.When purchasing the set, we also purchased a pack of gel burners, and a pair of silicone oven gloves. We were using crappy old cloth oven gloves anyway, so investing in a set of silicone ones has on its own been a great buy. We never found it difficult to buy the gels on Amazon either. Anyone who has eaten in establishments like we did in London, who use steak stones, know that you get a small dish of butter, and a small dish of salt, so we followed that, and our meal was absolutely delicious. Here’s how we used the set, can recommend anyone purchasing this set to give this a go...Clearly, you need to heat the stone up in the oven, so what we did is to also use this time to oven cook two large baked potatoes to have with the steak. One-and-a-half hours at 200 degrees did the trick. Pre-heat the oven to 200, rub olive oil on the stone, sprinkle a little salt on it and put it on the top shelf of the heated oven and cook the potatoes on a rack below. Put some rock salt or sea salt crystals in a small dish, some garlic or plain butter in another. We like mushrooms and onion with steak, so just before serving, we place uncooked mushroom slices and some sliced raw onion on plates ready for action. This is our biggest tip - just before the one-and-a-half hours is up, take your steak (we use quality sirloin), and briefly sear it on both sides on a hot frying pan. A mere 30 seconds per side, place the steaks on side plates and set up beside your salt, butter, mushrooms and onions. Then, light up the gels, use your silicone mitts and get that hot stone in place. Sit down with a nice glass of your favourite red, melt some of the butter on the plate, a wee sprinkle of salt, throw on a bit of raw onion and mushroom. Cut a couple of slices of your steak and add onto the stone. Turn around with your steak knife and fork as the steak, onion, mushroom, salt and butter cooks to the level you like best. Transfer onto the dinner plate beside your big baked potato, and wire in.... we had peppercorn sauce on the go too. A mouthful of fluffy baked potato, sizzled steak, onion and mushroom... bloody good.While eating your first couple of slices, you will obviously have your second lot on the go - they will therefore be as hot and fresh as the first one. Great fun, tossing the steak and onions and mushrooms around. Turned a normal dinner into a wee bit of an event. We are very happy with our purchase and have also used it to sizzle salmon to have with a BBQ glaze.I know this is a long review, but hopefully if you are reading this it means you are contemplating buying this product in the first place, and you may find it helpful. Thanks for reading!

We bought this for our wedding anniversary dinner, as we couldn't go out for a meal. It was absolutely spectacular, and perfect for the occasion. We heated it up for an hour at 200°c and it was just right.The only negative I can see is that the stone is quite hard to slot onto the stand when it's hot, so it took us a couple of attempts, which could have been quite dangerous as it's very, very hot when it comes out. Both me and my husband put oven gloves on, and between us managed to slot it in.I read reviews about needing silicone oven gloves which are 500°c resistant. I listened, and was glad i did. There's no way I would have been able to hold it with my usual oven gloves.All in all though, thoroughly recommend it. We've only used it once, so not sure how it'll hold up over time, but we plan to save it for special occasions so hopefully it'll last for a few years yet!

Good buy works well but one does have to buy the small chafing gel refills which are more expensive and it takes a long time to heat up in the oven. Bit fiddly the rack but good value compared to many models. Not terribly easy to clean as one is advised not to us washing up liquid which probably makes sense

The media could not be loaded. We were very very happy with the purchase as it is such an interactive dining experience especially when you have guests over. But unfortunately the stone cracked within the first use. We were very careful but not quite sure what went wrong. Such a shame! Amazon were kind enough to give us a full refund. If it wasn’t for the crack it is definitely worth the money.I attached some of the pictures we took when we hosted a dinner party for 4 and our guests completely loved it!

Product is fine but last time I got a similar stone it was fuelled by meths burners, here we are told to use "chafing fuel gel cartridges", never heard of them , eventually got some I saw were "often bought" with this stone, but they were too big. It would be good to know the "spec" for the fuel cans/cartridges, &/or where to get them.

We had reasonably high expectations of what we wanted and this in no way disappoints. In our experience though, the 180 degrees instructions are not adequate. Go for the 200 for the same time. Also, the stone works better when using a burner gel. Our existing gel burners were too high so the flame didn't actually heat the stone properly, despite being closer to it. Once we changed to the gel .. type .. "flamos" .. Ethanol Chafing Fuel canisters .. from Costco .. the whole experience noticeably improved. Pro Tip: When serving steaks to friends & family .. we "sear" them first and I now carve the steak into strips .. this allows your guests to spend more time enjoying the fun of "cooking" their pieces of steak to their own personal perfection.

After having a local restaurant that serves hot lava stone steak, bought this not a patch on the more expensive products on market. I wasn't expecting to have the same heat transfer with cooking but for the value thought I'd give it a try....not worth it and go that extra spend in money to buy a better product. Steak didn't caramelise on outside and ended up with a soggy steak, the saving grace having bought expensive fillets of steak at least tender. I also put king prawns on plate and they took about 10 mins to cook!!! I used an infrared thermometer and with the heating gels in burner temperature was dropping significantly, and steaks were brought up to room temperature prior to cooking, so it wasn't as though the steaks should have reduced stone temperature that quickly. Not sure if I'll even go to the hassle again of using product.

The media could not be loaded. Product is really appealing, used it once as per the instructions and it cooked our steaks amazingly as well as other foods. However, after one use I noticed the stone had already begun to crack on both sides. Unfortunately couldn’t use it again.