The 7 Best Portable Grills, According to Our Tests

Best Charcoal Splurge

Nomad Grill & Smoker

View On Nomadgrills.com View On Bespokepost.com View On Publiclands.com

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)

Best Gas Tabletop

Weber Portable Gas Grill

$259 At Amazon $259 At Target $259 At Wayfair

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)

Best Gas Standing

Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill

$399 At Amazon $400 At Target $386 At Walmart

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)

Best Gas Value

Cuisinart Venture Gas Grill

$170 At Amazon $177 At Target $200 At Williams-Sonoma

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

Best Charcoal Value

Everdure Cube Portable Grill

$160 At Amazon $160 At Food52 $149 At Wayfair

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)

Best Charcoal Tabletop

PK Grills PKGo Grill Grilling System

$338 At Walmart View On Pkgrills.com $338 At Home Depot

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)

Best Charcoal Standing

Masterbuilt Portable Charcoal Grill and Smoker with Cart

$330 At Amazon $330 At Wayfair $330 At Home Depot

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)