To me anything that actually vents to the outside must be decent. This house had a recirculating hood with a mesh filter and it would just blow grease across the room. When we redid the kitchen in 05 we installed a vented hood, and planned to add a duct to the roof at some point later. So we currently have no ventilation at all. At times I've thought about putting a little box fan in front of the window next to the stove to blow out the air when cooking things particularly odorous. Things like fried fish smell good when cooking but now when the smell lingers for 2 or 3 days.
Those through the wall fans worked very well I recall, I've never used the ceiling type so I can't say. I don't see how they would capture the smoke or smell as well as a hood, but I can't say either way.
The crazy thing is local codes require vented bathroom fans but no vented in the kitchen. Hence so many houses with unvented microwave hoods that just blow it around.
NuTone still makes those round exhaust fans you used to see but with a plastic grille. But they are not rated for kitchen use any more I don't think. Blah. Probably liability concerning grease buildup. You can still get the round aluminum filters for them last time I checked though.
