It’s pretty faff free and you can’t control its temperature, so it’s just a case of lighting it and waiting for it to be ready for your food. Though it is the most expensive grill on our list, you can often find it on sale around the $250 to $300 mark, FYI. I’m Annie and I’ve tested all three of these portable grills in this guide. I live just outside the city (London!) and I have a tiny amount of patio space where I reviewed these grills. I’ve ranked each one based on how well I think it performed and its features. I used these grills to cook everything from burgers to corn and joints of meat, too.
It had the same solid construction, the same easy-to-work-with grates, and it even had a chimney vent on top that provided excellent temperature control. The charcoal basket was on adjustable hooks, so I could bring it closer or further from the grates depending on how hot I wanted them. It performed just as well in the indirect cooking test as the Nomad. But the things that made the Rambler a great grill are also the things that made it harder to move. Carrying it two blocks was not impossible (and considering the quality of the grill, it may be an effort worth undertaking) but it required more exertion than any of the other charcoal grills.
This is the grill that I still have and use time after time, mostly because it looks so cute on my kitchen shelf when not in use, and it is so convenient. It gets full points from me for portability, and even more for its stylish design and colorways. To put it simply, it makes grilling a total breeze, whether you’re at home or in the mountains. I managed to squeeze up to six small burgers on this grill. In review
I was very impressed with the cooking ability of this small yet mighty grill as we used it to cook everything from burgers to a Tomahawk steak plus kebabs and more.
Its cooking space is circular which gives the grill a bowl shape meaning that you can’t use it to indirectly cook foods, but no biggie. It was ready to cook within just 15–20 minutes and it stays hot for a good while, so I used it to batch cook for an entire party of people. I loved how the lid can be used while you’re cooking or it can sit on the hinge and guard the grill against wind. If you put charcoal in it for a day trip, I am almost positive it would spill out in your car. Cuisinart’s Venture portable gas grill looks like something Apple would make, if Apple got into grills.
The Weber Q 2400 Electric grill raises the bar on flavor expectations and performance of an electric grill. Sear burgers, steaks and chops; grill chicken, fish, vegetables and fruit on the porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates. If it’s hard to move, it isn’t actually a portable grill; it’s just a grill that’s smaller than you’d like it to be. After cooking for a little more than an hour, I noticed fraying in the piece of fabric immediately below the charcoal basket where I had used a firestarter. If food drips on to the coals, causing a flare-up, I’d also expect some fraying.
The removable snap-on tray and storage container are nice features. It’s easy to handle the grill even when lit because of the cool-touch handles. Ultimately, I found food fell in between the bars of the grate too easily and the grill itself was too small to be useful. The Weber Smokey Joe portable grill is a bargain at under $70. If price is your number one consideration, you may want to think about it.
(There is a smaller version, the Q1200, which I did not test, but has a similar design) The Traveler’s design is much smarter for someone who needs to take their grill on the go. This would be a good grill for someone who had a smaller outdoor space and needed something stationary, but smaller than a typical home gas grill. Like the Traveler, the Weber Q2200 can also accommodate a full-size propane cylinder with an adapter. The push-button ignition is battery powered, which I actually found slightly easier to use. The Everdure Cube by Heston Blumenthal is a cute little charcoal grill that’s easy to carry and comes in a number of color options.
Camping trips, road trips, tailgates, closet-size outdoor spaces—there are a lot of scenarios that call for a portable grill. But unfortunately, many of the factors that make a grill portable can also keep it from working well. For more details on how we tested and what we looked for, scroll down to the bottom.
The best time to buy a portable grill is right now while summer is starting to heat up. Whether you’re hosting a Fourth of July party at home or picnicking in a park, you can fire up a delicious feast from anywhere with a portable grill. Even if you just have an apartment balcony to work with, portable grills take up minimal space and can often be compactly weber genesis 2 stowed away after use. Despite being light and very portable, the Venture features a heavy-duty cast iron grilling surface that cooks evenly and sears well. In fact, I rarely turned this one up past medium, because it gets plenty hot on low. Conversely, don’t plan on cooking slow and low with this; it’s a “sear things and be done” sort of grill.