If your backyard ain’t so big (maybe it’s a balcony) or you plan to do some cooking on the go this summer, you might be looking for the best portable grill or small grill for your summer escapades. There are some truly excellent portable grills available in 2022 with models to fit every type of griller at nearly weber genesis 2 any budget. Whether it’s a small charcoal grill or an ultraportable gas grill to take on hikes, to music festivals and evening beach hangs, we’ve tested over a dozen to find the best in class. For the size and price, it may be tough to find a compact grill more powerful than the Cuisinart Grillster.
British chef Heston Blumenthal was on a mission to create the modern grill—and we’d say he’s done it with Everdure’s impressive lineup. Backed by a team of designers and engineers, they’re paving the way for a new kind of barbecuing experience. We’re especially taken with their portable grill, which lets us serve up burgers on the beach. We rarely recommend products we haven’t tested and we never recommend products that we don’t love.
The new design, the Lodge Cast Iron Sportsman’s Pro Grill, maintains the all-cast-iron build, but it features a new manual sliding ventilation mechanism. We haven’t tested this new version, but in her experience with the previous Lodge, Lesley found that the hibachi-style grill excelled at high-heat searing, making it ideal for steaks. Since the whole grill was cast iron, it held an intense amount of heat. But the lidless design limited its ability to tackle slow-cooking tasks. At 20 pounds, the Char-Broil Grill2Go is 10 pounds lighter than the Weber Q 1200, even though it has a larger, 17¼-by-11¾-inch grilling grate. We put all nine portable grills, gas and charcoal, through the same tests.
Two spacious tables provide extra space for prepping and serving, while the ergonomic side handles ensure easy transport. Because the grill has cast-iron grates, our tester did think it was a bit heavy, weighing over 43 pounds, but it’s a small sacrifice if you want a grill that’s extremely reliable and simple to operate. But, crucially, the GoBQ also performed quite well during the cooking tests.
I checked the grill every 20 minutes and was able to keep it at that temperature on less than a full chimney of charcoal. Is there a portable grill that works as well as a full-size one? That said, most of the time when I hit the road I grab Weber’s Connect Smart Hub ($100).
Both Weber gas grills I tested were effective and easy to cook on, but the nod goes to the Traveler here for its passionate embrace of portability. When folded up, the legs become a handle that you can pull behind you as if you’re walking with a nice roller bag. The legs on one side of the grill become a sort of handle when the grill is folded up; you can walk with it, kind of as if you’re pulling a nice roller bag.
Think of portable gas grills as small, outdoor, propane-powered ovens. The push-button ignition and the temperature-control dial should be easily accessible and clearly marked so you can quickly start the grill and adjust the heat without fumbling. A great portable grill offers consistent heat, minimal flare-ups, a generous cooking area, and an easily totable design. We think the ideal capacity on a portable grill is enough to accommodate a full meal for two or a main course for a small crowd.
In our tests, burgers from the Q 1200 had the most seared surface area of all the burgers we grilled, and more browning means better flavor. This superior grate is one of the big differences between the Q 1200 and our runner-up pick, the Char-Broil Grill2Go, whose perforated stainless-steel grate produced mostly lackluster browning. Of all the portable propane grills we tested, the Weber Q 1200 grilled foods the most consistently. Char-Broil’s Grill2Go x200 is a super-portable, fun little sizzler made of heavy, rust-proof cast aluminum. Char-Broil’s TRU-Infrared design produces searing heat while reducing fuel consumption. A 16 ounce LP gas canister is enough to keep you flipping burgers for hours.