to have an eye-level gas grill if I want one?

[MimiSam]

We need a new kitchen, as the old one is on its last legs. Have had a few kitchen designers and quotes and they all say a) gas ovens are basically a thing of the past, everyone has electric ovens these days (gas hobs still OK though) and b) no one makes separate eye-level grills now - they are all combination grill and microwaves or you use the top of the oven as a grill. Do these make good toast? I love my grill and use it everyday.
Is it true? Am I living in the dark ages and need to move with the times? Or can I get what I want if I look hard enough?

They're a pain in the arse. You have to fit a guard to protect the knobs from melting each time you use it.

You may have to hunt for the type of cooker you want so maybe leave a gap for it but you can get gas ovens if you want them.

No, there are crap. I hate my electric oven and grill combo.

I would love an old fashioned gas cooker with an eye level grill again. It does make the best toast and bacon IMO

You can certainly get what you want, sounds like the kitchen designers are putting trends as universal wants which is obviously nonsense.

I saw a few like that about in several places when we were looking for a new cooker a month or so ago and my in-laws have one. We were seriously considering one for the reasons you outlined, but found a gas cooker with two gas ovens where the top one can be a grill which fit our needs better.

I too have a 25 year old kitchen in the house we just bought, and have an electric (inductance) hob, and a gas oven and grill - it's built in, so oven is at waist height, and grill is at eye height, and all one unit, so the grill looks like a second, small, top oven but it's actually a normal gas grill but with a door.

I agree it is way, way better than any electric grill (I'd forgotten how good gas grills were). Can't say that it seems different to any of the cooker-style grills that I've used, and the door means I can keep chair-climbing little ones out of it (and that bits can't fall out the sides and back)

I just googled 'Gas oven with eye level grill' and loads came up (starting at £250 from the looks of it) so if that's what you want then you can easily have one.

Oh and I just re-read - do not get a combi microwave/grill. Totally pointless, the grill takes forever and who roasts chickens in the microwave anyhow! Plus the one time you do use the grill you'll melt something, burn yourself, and smoke out the kitchen, and the insides of the microwave will look like something exploded then burnt.

"I'm delighted about our new eye level grill.
It means that without my having to bend down
The hot fat can spurt straight into my eye!"
-Flanders and Swann, design for living.

You can still get them in loads of places. I think they are fab, my mum used to cook chops and roast potatoes and all sorts under her eye level grill.

I think they'll come back into fashion sometime soon.

It's probably that more people have built in these days. I have a built in electric oven and the grill bit is crap even though it was expensive.

It appears that 'everyone' has extractors these days as well, which I imagine you couldn't have if you had an eye level grill.

I've got the oven cleaners in right now and when I made the booking, he couldn't get his head round the fact that we don't have an extractor . I would like one but we just have very old kitchen that we haven't got round to updating.

I bought a freestanding gas stove with a double oven. The top oven was allegedly also a grill, but it only has one setting which ends up drying out the bread instead of toasting it. And you have to bend down to see what's happening.

I ended up having to buy a Cuisinart grill/griddle for grilling and use a toaster for toast. But still haven't found a way of doing cheese on toast. I really miss it. Suppose I could toast bread first and then melt cheese in the oven, but too much of a faff.

Eye level grills make the best toast. Do not compromise! We ripped out the fitted electric cooker and installed a gas cooker with an eye level grill. Toast heaven . V. Important as toast is my first and favourite choice.

I hate my iven as it's a grill also and I used to have seperate grill. You can't cook nice pork loin and put chips on at same time unless you fry the pork which isn't as good :(

I got mine from Argos a few years ago.

I couldn't have one when I last had a rented unfurnished house, as there were regulations about how far the grill needed to be from kitchen units, and obviously I couldn't change those. When I update my current kitchen, I am bloody well having an eye level grill. And I don't even eat that much toast. YANBU.

Purpleflamingoes: We ripped out the fitted electric cooker and installed a gas cooker with an eye level grill. Toast heaven . V. Important as toast is my first and favourite choice.

What gas cooker did you get? I love toast too, but hate it from a toaster!

We bought ours from currys I think. Around £250 do not expensive ( not to DH as I was eyeing up a range online too).

I don't understand how whether a grill is at eye level or lower down could affect how well it makes toast.

Personally I hate the eye level ones as we often grill sausages and spitting fat at eye level does not appeal. If you only use yours for toast, probably not an issue.

I'm looking for one at the minute for my Mum, she's 78 so she's finding bending over to keep an eye on her bacon a bit of a pain in the arse now. The best 2 I've seen so far are a Flavel and a New World, both in Currys (though I'm hoping AO have them in). From prior experience I'll be avoding Beko ones though, they seem to do a few eye level and they are cheap but my experience with the brand as a whole hasn't been great.

ao.com/product/NW50THLG-Newworld-Gas-Cooker-White-20938.aspx
ao.com/product/NW55THLG-Newworld-Gas-Cooker-White-21147.aspx
ao.com/product/NW55THLG-Newworld-Gas-Cooker-Black-21148.aspx

Oooh I really want one too. When we were looking - several years ago we found that only the very cheapest had eye level grills which would be fine except they were too low. You couldn't fit a steamer under it. I want a good old fashioned one.
I agree on how much better they are and still miss one.

They free up space in the oven - so you can have a decent sized oven with a baking tray cupboard underneath. You can keep a proper eye on the toast. It doesn't get in the way of other cooking and you can have a proper grill pan with a handle. Lots of reasons. I'm going to start looking again.

You are so NBU.

I couldn't wait to get rid of my gas grill, it never seemed to distribute to the edge of the grill pan so I was forever moving stuff about. Love my electric one though.

Our old cooker got condemned a couple of years ago because it was trying to kill us and I refused to have anything other than an eye-level grill. It's so much easier to keep a watch on it while you are getting on with other things elsewhere in the kitchen (makes it sound like I've got a massive kitchen but I mean when I'm chopping or whatever at the worktop I can still see what's under the grill iyswim). I also think they are safer if you have children.

We had to get the cheapest we could find because we hadn't budgeted for emergency cooker purchases so we ended up with a Beko, which isn't terrible but the oven is much smaller than our old one so it makes me grumpy. We did see others advertised at the time though so they are around.

Oh I would love an eye-level gas grill! I grew up with one. They make the absolute best one-sided toast. I hate toast done in the electric grill in our oven. And to toast bread using a microwave you have to start doing it about 3 days before you want to eat it!

I'm off to google and drool over eye-level gas grills.

We've got one of these and I wouldn't have anything else, I absolutely love ours. You know exactly where you are with it. When this one eventually conks out, I shall be replacing it with another exactly the same.

Tell them that the cooker is non negotiable. If they want the job, they can work around it.