With its rectangular shape and easy-carry handle, the Cuisinart Venture looks a bit like an insulated cooler, but it does the exact opposite. Its base conceals storage for a propane tank, the wooden top becomes a cutting board/serving tray, and the middle section is the grill itself, with a 9,000-BTU burner and a 154-square-inch nonstick grate. It’s a small grill and doesn’t have a heck of a lot of power, but it’s also extremely compact and easy to carry down to the beach or toss into your backpack.
If you have the space, you’ll probably be happier with one of our full-size gas or charcoal picks. Camryn Rabideau has been a professional product tester for more than six years, and she has firsthand experience testing dozens of grills, including portable gas models like the Weber Q2200. Portable gas grills can vary significantly in price, costing anywhere from $100 to $500 or more, and you’ll want to keep your budget in mind as you shop.
In our tests, the Jumbo Joe charcoal grill made the best seared burgers, barbecued chicken, and grilled bratwurst. Plus, cooking with charcoal gives your food that smoky flavor that you can’t get from a gas flame. Weber’s warranty covers most of the hardware—including the lid, firebox, burners, cooking grates, and plastic components—for five years.
Although the heat is adjustable, we would describe the settings as “High” to “Extremely High.” Furthermore, the only purpose of the lid is portability; you cannot close it while cooking. While it prepares steaks very, very nicely, other foods are nearly impossible to cook well. The grill, which only took me 7 minutes to assemble, is appealing to car campers, tailgaters, parkgoers, condo owners, and apartment dwellers alike. It ignites instantly and offers grillers a generously spacious 320 square inches of cooking space — enough for 15 burgers.
The Weber Q1200 Gas Grill and Weber Q2200 Gas Grill were right behind it, both with scores of 4.8. Camryn Rabideau is a freelance writer and product reviewer specializing in home, kitchen, and pet products. In her 6+ years of experience as a product tester, she’s reviewed hundreds of items firsthand, and her work weber portable grill appears in publications such as PEOPLE, The Spruce, Homes & Gardens, and more. If you’re planning a beach BBQ, there are a few factors you’ll want to consider when choosing a grill. First, it will be difficult to wheel or drag a grill through sand, so opt for a compact model that’s light enough to carry.
For charcoal, electric, and pellet options that cannot be measured the same way, we drew upon evidence from testing and an infrared thermometer to measure internal grill temperatures. We also factored in the number of burners of each product, how well the grill body insulated heat and the volume of the coal bed. For the fans of pit-cooking out there, we offer up the Weber Go-Anywhere Charcoal Grill. This well-built barbeque is weber kettle bbq an innovative take on the manufacturer’s classic design, incorporating their enameled, cast-iron construction into a convenient, compact package. The rectangular basin can hold a coal bed that is both deep and evenly spread. A plated steel top grate settles securely into place thanks to deep-seated insets cast into the grill frame, so you can easily adjust heat zones without fear of dropping your whole meal into the coals.
We are proud of the work we’ve done to hash out all the options and are honored to be a small part of your transient culinary journey. On the charcoal side, insulation plays a much more important role in output power and efficiency. The Cuisinart Portable Charcoal and Weber Go-Anywhere are very similar in terms of coal bed volume, but the Go-Anywhere scores much higher thanks to its cast iron construction. We’ve tested hundreds of products in our camping kitchen reviews, including the best camping tables and the top camping coffee makers for your outdoor forays.
When we cooked fish and steak on this grill, the food developed beautiful golden brown sear marks, and the fat rendered out nicely, as well. Neither food stuck to the grill’s porcelain-enameled cast iron grates, and the drip tray underneath the grill body made clean-up easy. However, we did notice that the grill’s instructions are quite sparse, and while compact, the unit is bulky to carry around due to its heavier weight.
The detachable cutting board (which doubles as a lid during transport) is especially helpful for campers looking to streamline their packing list. Once you have attached the liquid propane tank correctly to the grill unit, most portable gas grills feature a “click and turn” button for igniting the grill. Some of the grills we tested featured just one knob, used for both igniting the grill and controlling the strength of the flame.
The result is top-notch control coupled with incredibly even heat distribution. The Roadtrip 285’s instructions are clearly written and all tools required for assembly are included, making this model a breeze to put together. It’s easy to convert between travel and cooking mode, and the large wheels and long handle make it our favorite wheeled model to move around. Very easy to fold up and move whether on the wheels or just by lifting the whole thing, folded or not; all the parts lock in place.