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Feb 19, 2025

The 8 Best Portable Grills, Tested and Reviewed

We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Gas and charcoal, tabletop and standing, these portable grills came out ahead in

We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.

Gas and charcoal, tabletop and standing, these portable grills came out ahead in our outdoor lab tests.

In This Article

Food & Wine

A far cry from the open-fire, thin metal tabletop models we grew up with, modern portable grills are designed to perform just like full-sized grills in terms of heating, retention, capacity, and ease of use. The best portable grills are also designed to be super lightweight, easy to move, simple to use, and easy to clean on top of that performance. Plus, they're more affordable.

We've spent years testing grills across all categories — 98 grill models across six categories, to be exact — from the best smokers and kamado grills to charcoal grills and gas grills. Along the way, we've pinpointed a few of the best portable grills designed to travel. Whether you’re looking for a gas or charcoal grill, a tabletop model, or one with a stand and wheels, we tested dozens of portable grills to find the best options for grillers who travel.

The Weber Q 1200 provides the quick and even heat of larger grills with a small enough footprint to fit in most car trunks with space to spare.

It’s somewhat heavy, and we had to fiddle with the gas bottle, which raised some concerns.

The Weber Q 1200 remains at the top of our list of tabletop gas grills because it packs the performance of larger grills into a portable gas grill footprint. Assembly is simple thanks to the manual providing pictogram-style instructions, and the whole task took just 12 minutes for us to be ready to cook. Attaching the gas bottle took a little finagling that sparked safety concerns but ultimately resolved once connected. After the easy task of lighting the grill with the pushbutton ignition, the grill grates came to cooking temperature in just eight and a half minutes — a tough task for most portable grill competitors.

You might expect hot and cool zones in a smaller, portable grill. However, the circular, 8,500-BTU tube burner provides even heat across the enamel-coated cast iron grates, and all of the food we tested cooked evenly, with no excessive charring or lack thereof. The grill runs hotter with the lid down than the temperature indicated on the built-in thermometer, and there were minimal flare-ups in cooking. Cleanup is easy; using a grill brush on the grates and wiping down the inside of the lid to prevent grease buildup did the job. This is a reliable compact grill, and it's a workhorse that can be used indoors or outdoors.

Dimensions: 16 x 41 x 17 inches | Weight: 31 pounds | Cooking Area: 189 square inches (about four burger patties at a time)

It’s built solidly, heats quickly, and distributes heat evenly.

It’s heavy, and some hinges for the cast iron cooking grates would be helpful.

The PKGO scored top marks in our testing, with good reason. First, assembly is a non-issue, as it consists of lining up the grates after taking the grill out of the box, and it took longer to unpack than to make it ready to cook. The cast aluminum body, top, and cast iron grates are built to last, and the included Flipkit turns the two-piece top and bottom into two hibachi grills that double your cooking area.

One of the only problems we encountered was correctly positioning the grates. Still, we found it heated quickly and was ready to cook in 10 minutes after adding lit charcoal from a chimney, while side vents gave us greater control over lower-temperature cooking. Cooking tests showed good caramelization and even cooking of meats and grilled vegetables, with the heat concentrated at the center of the grill.

Cleanup was easy, as dumping the spent ash was a simple task. We followed this with a quick wipe-down with soapy water to remove remnants. Finally, we should note that, at 40 pounds, this grill is more suited to car camping or picnicking, where it’s only a short walk to where you’ll be cooking. It would also fare well as a supplemental grill when cooking for a crowd in your backyard.

Dimensions: 15 x 21 x 13 inches | Weight: 40 pounds | Cooking Area: 204 square inches per side (about five burger patties each)

The NOMAD is a compact, stylish design with excellent heat control and retention.

The dampers could provide a bit more heat control, and the domed grill grates are good but slightly shift the cooking temperature in the center of the grill.

The NOMAD portable grill sports a modern design, folding together like a briefcase for carrying, with heat dissipation in mind to keep the exterior cool while cooking. Like the PKGO, the NOMAD can function as a closed grill, or you can use each side independently as a hibachi-style cooker, doubling the cooking space. The magnetic grates stay in place during transport. They are slightly domed for strength and can invert for use as a vegetable cooker basket.

The NOMAD is sleek but has few frills and is all about functionality. It's designed to be generally safer to use, as it retains and dissipates heat to the exterior. It also has side dampers to adjust airflow and regulate the temperature when it's closed. The built-in thermometer skewed about 30 degrees lower than our test probes, but the heat retention was good overall. Read our full in-depth NOMAD grill review for more testing insights.

Dimensions: 20 x 14 x 10 inches | Weight: 28 pounds | Cooking Area: 212 square inches per side (about 10 total burger patties)

The CUBE is highly portable and has a good capacity for one to two people.

The CUBE doesn’t have a lid, so it’s limited in functionality to direct heat cooking, and the firebox could be easier to empty.

Portable charcoal grills have special considerations. Everdure designs premium grills in collaboration with chef Heston Blumenthal, so you can’t expect a run-of-the-mill design. The grill has nicely sized handles for carrying and setting up this grill is foolproof. Place your pieces in position, and it’s ready to go. The grill grate real estate is ideal for serving two people. Our test load of two burgers, two brats, and two ears of corn consumed most of the acreage but still left enough room that the food wasn’t touching and the grill wasn’t overloaded.

The stainless steel grates take more work to clean than cast iron, but this was manageable. The firebox pops out for easy emptying, but the handle bolts make removing it without tipping a little difficult. The grill has no lid for cooking, as the top consists of a storage compartment and cutting board. As such, you’re grilling with direct heat and should keep that in mind when meal planning.

Dimensions: 14 x 17 x 9 inches | Weight: 15 pounds | Cooking Area: 104 square inches (about three burger patties at a time)

The Venture is an easy model to transport, set up, and cook with, and results are fairly consistent.

There are hot spots around the edges, and detaching the top can be troublesome.

The Cuisinart Venture, with its picnic basket appearance, is a good entry-level grill for the uninitiated and a value model or nice gift for grillers. It’s a model intended for direct-heat cooking, as there’s no lid to control humidity for “low and slow” cooking. But, in that, it performed very well in our cooking tests. The burner packs 9,000 BTUs under enameled cast iron, providing adequate heat for small-group cooking. The grill comes to temperature quickly, but there is some variation in hot spots, especially towards the outside edges of the grill, which charred more than the center, where foods cooked slower.

In our tests, foods cooked fairly evenly and sported aesthetically pleasing grill marks. Heat regulation is easy, with one knob to control everything. We found that one person can set it up in under five minutes. And with generally good cooking results, it's an easy model for someone to get started with gas grilling.

Dimensions: 13 x 16 x 11 inches | Weight: 21 pounds | Cooking Area: 154 square inches (closer to three or four burger patties at a time

The Traveler has the added benefit of wheels and performs at a level expected of larger grills, with quick, even heating and no hot spots.

The grates are slightly difficult to clean, and brushing them requires you to hold onto the grill as it shakes in the process.

We found the Weber Traveler intuitive and approachable — it's a dream to assemble, light, and use. With a similar burner and grate design to the Q 1200 but a larger cooking area and an upgrade to 13,000 BTUs, the Traveler is better suited to family-size groups. The stand is easy to operate, with clear indicators for raising and lowering it. Since the base is included, you won't need to hunt for a safe cooking surface or crouch down to flip burgers, but it requires a little more storage space and room in your trunk.

Performance-wise, it cooks consistently across the grates without hot or cool spots. While it is one of the heavier grills we tested, the wheels simplify moving the grill around. Cleanup is easy using a top-down approach of wiping the inside of the lid with soapy water, cleaning the grates with a grill brush, and emptying the grease collector.

Dimensions: 23 x 44 x 37 inches | Weight: 47 pounds | Cooking Area: 320 square inches (about six burger patties at a time)

The hopper and fan arrangement give excellent heat control, and the grill is very easy to move for its size. Plus, cupholders!

Setup requires a degree of time and thought to complete successfully, and the sear on food could be deeper for the temperature.

Unlike other charcoal models we've tested, the Masterbuilt features a charcoal hopper and fan to regulate its temperature, similar to a pellet grill. While it’s 52 pounds, it’s easily movable thanks to its stand and wheels. Our tests showed it to be relatively consistent in its temperature, and while it didn’t give the best caramelization, the foods we cooked did have a satisfying crunch to their texture and good grill marks.

The setup took less than 20 minutes, but instructions are very detailed and require close attention to succeed on the first try. The shelves provided the biggest challenge, with little clearance for your hands to attach them easily. The components fit snugly and stay put when transporting, and the grill is a good size for cooking for three or four people. The fact that it pulls double duty as a smoker is a bonus.

Dimensions: 19 x 45 x 36 inches | Weight: 52 pounds | Cooking Area: 200 square inches (about five burger patties will fit)

It's as good as the Kamado Joe Classic in quality and performance, at a size that doesn't limit you to cooking at home.

It's heavier than the other grills on this list. Wheels would make it easier to move.

The Joe Jr. earned a perfect score in our kamado grill tests, rivaling full-size kamados in performance, ease of cleaning, user-friendliness, and overall design. It arrived assembled, and we only needed to attach the grill to the cast iron stand with a few screws. At 77 pounds, it's heavy for one person to move, but handles on the stand help with carrying it. The weight comes from a solid ceramic construction, which helps it retain heat well.

In our tests, the Joe Jr. left steak and chicken wings impressively juicy and smoky. The steak seared better on one side and a few wings turned out lighter on the bottom, but we didn't count this against the grill. At 13.5 inches, the diameter falls on the small end of the range, but we were able to fit 16 wings on the grate without overcrowding. Though the two-tier exhaust damper may take getting used to, we found the Joe Jr. beginner-friendly.

Dimensions: 20 x 27.5 inches | Weight: 77 pounds | Cooking Area: 150 square inches (about three burger patties will fit)

For tabletop models, we like the Weber Q 1200 for its ease of use and heat management, which make it equally effective for cooking a burger or vegetables as it is for cooking more delicate items, like fish. For standing models, we recommend the Masterbuilt Portable Charcoal Grill and Smoker. It has great overall temperature control and excellent portability.

We tested portable gas, charcoal, and kamado grills separately to tailor the criteria to the type of grill. We looked for nearly the same qualities, however, and followed the same basic steps to assess and compare across categories.

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When you’re looking for a portable grill, materials count. Look for construction that will stand up to the elements, especially if it will live outside when not in use. Sturdiness is a big factor for safety and sanity when considering a tabletop or pop-up model. A grill that rocks and wobbles will provide significant challenges when you attempt to cook on it. As a rule of thumb, a grill with thicker construction will retain and spread heat better than one with thin walls and bottoms, with some exceptions. The Everdure CUBE, for example, has a thinner construction but is specifically designed to distribute heat evenly.

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Consider the size of the group you’ll regularly be cooking for. Smaller grills in the 100- to 150-square-inch range are suitable for one or two people, maybe three as a stretch. Larger grills are better suited for three or four people. While you won’t conveniently feed a large crowd on a portable grill, a larger model will minimize your cooking time for more people, but by the same token, it may be larger than you need if it’s just going to be you and someone else.

Consider the prep area, too. Grills with side table attachments, stands, and other prep areas ranked higher in our tests, as we rated grills for their overall design. When cooking outside, a clean, workable surface makes prepping convenient and efficient.

This depends. Some portable grills have an adapter available for 20-pound tanks, but not all do, so we’ll consider a one-pound tank. Burner BTUs vary, so their fuel consumption does, as well. Given that, a one-pound tank usually lasts an hour for higher BTU ratings and an hour and a half for lower ratings.

Some portable grills come with non-heat-conductive feet and have designs intended to disperse the heat before it reaches the grill's exterior. With that, some consider them to be plastic-table safe. It’s better to err on the side of caution, however, than ruin a table or, worse, have the grill fall when the table melts.

Dyna-Glo Signature Series Portable Tabletop Charcoal Grill ($119 at Amazon)The Dyna-Glo scored highly for performance but was edged out for Best Value by its weight (40 pounds) and a more complicated assembly process that could require a second person to accomplish easily.

Expert Grill Premium Portable Charcoal Grill ($74 at Walmart)This could be a good starter grill for someone who wants to try grilling but doesn’t want to make a large commitment to the endeavor. Its biggest drawbacks are wobbly legs, even when ensuring that the attachment hardware is fully tightened, and visible air gaps in the lid that limit the ability to control the temperature.

SnS Slow ‘N Sear Travel Kettle Grill ($200 at SnS Grills)The Travel Kettle suffered in a couple of areas. First, the setup was challenging as the legs were difficult to install properly. Next, the heat distribution was uneven, where a uniform layer of coals still resulted in a hot spot in the center.

We tested many grills, and not all of them could be winners. While it’s hard to always be awesome, some of the grills didn’t perform at the level expected of their brand’s reputation. Some had portability problems like the lids and grates falling off when moving them. For example, without a lid lock handle, the Weber Smokey Joe 14-Inch Charcoal Grill ($52 at Amazon) isn’t an ideal portable option. Despite Weber’s gas grills performing exceptionally well, the Smokey Joe and its Go-Anywhere Charcoal Grill ($71 at Amazon) left food unappealing. We found that the heat didn’t transfer to the grate, or the grill didn’t recover its temperature after opening it to put the food on.

Other grills, like the Napoleon 14-Inch Portable Charcoal Kettle Grill ($59 at Lowe's), radiated heat towards the center of the grate, which left the edges too cool to cook effectively and food not cooking evenly. Others couldn’t accommodate all the food from our tests without overcrowding. The portable Broil King Keg 5000 ($788 at Amazon) had airflow issues that made low-temperature cooking challenging because it was difficult to maintain a cool enough temperature for the test. The Char-Griller Akorn Jr. Kamado Grill ($198 at Amazon) had similar issues with reaching a temperature low enough for smoking.