Shibata Carbon Steel Skillet

Great skillet. Very happy with my purchase. Shibata’s pan competes with a best quality French, European, Argentinian carbon steel products. Pros: (1) Well designed cooking surface. Generous cooking surface area for cooking anything you need to: burgers, crepes, omelettes, flatbread, searing meat, you name it. (2) Seasons beautifully both in the oven (see my attached photos of unboxing and after seasoning) and on the stovetop. Develops a lovely graphite color / glow when seasoned in the oven. (3) The surface is a mix of smooth and rough designed to avoid any food sticking to it. Burnt food bits easily detach with either a quick paper towel wiper or some flowing warm water and a chainmail dishcloth. Upon drying and reseasoning, it looks like new again. Very high quality product. (4) Handle is small so placing in the oven is easy without a long handle protruding out. (5) Robust and well-constructed without any rivets so will last a lifetime. (6) Pan was delivered very quickly after ordering, considering it was shipping from Japan to California. The cons: (1) The concave hollow handle is not comfortable to hold especially when hot, but works fine with a kitchen towel thrown on top of the handle. (2) The shape of the outer edge (lip of the pan is an narrow edge) inhibits cooking anything that may cause splatter, like large chicken thighs.

Excellent piece!

Beautiful skillet, seasoned well and sears beautifully.

Excelente material, sitio seguro, entrega rápida. La recomiendo

It’s a beautiful pan. It takes seasoning well, and feels very sturdy (no idea why I saw a review of someone saying the handle seems weak, I put a decent amount of pressure on it and had zero flex). Is the cooking surface any better than any other carbon steel pan? Doubt it. But this thing is a work of art, and IMO it’s worth splurging on something that’ll last your whole life, which this pan will if you learn how to use and take care of carbon steel. This photo is freshly recovered from an oil fire and it’s back in perfect working order after some scrubbing and a few rounds of re-seasoning in the oven. Handle does get hot like a cast iron skillet, I plan to find a leather sleeve on Etsy or something, but for now I use a towel like the pros do or oven gloves if I wanna make life easy. With that said, if you love the pan but are unsure because of the cost, think about this; this pan will cost, what, $3-4 per year of use? That’s not something that’ll affect your long term financial plan lol. On the flip side, carbon steel takes some work to learn how to use and maintain and it’s not much maintenance once you actually learn how to use it, but it will take trial and error and be a lot of work up front, and I can tell you from experience, you will be WAY more motivated to actually do it if it’s a pan you love. Don’t waste $60 on a utilitarian pan you’ll give/throw away. Splurge on a work of art you’ll love the rest of your life.

Really great Skillet! I love the integrated handle, and seasons pretty well

Good weight, smooth surface, and holds a great seasoning. Love the integrated handle so there are no rivets to worry about

Great size and weight on this skillet. Seasons nicely, has a good balance and feel in the hand and can go between the range and oven with no issues.