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 charcoal grill 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.
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.
Whether you’re working with a small outdoor space or patio at home, heading out on a camping adventure, or in charge of the food at the next tailgate, you need a portable grill. The selection of portable style grills at BJ’s Wholesale Club has just what you need for all your on-the-go grilling. Check out designs from big names like George Foreman and other top brands, all priced low exclusively for Club Members.
However, if you want to smoke, grill, and bake outdoors, this ceramic cooker is a strong choice. I haven’t used the fancier models, but this basic four-serving one served me well weber genesis 2 for years. You can pull the grills out for easy cleaning, there’s a drip pan to catch all the grease, and if you’re not in the grilling mood, it doubles as a Panini press.
All of the portable grills on this list are charcoal, and if you’re wondering how to start a charcoal grill, read our guide for help. In a world where the Nomad didn’t exist, the Oklahoma Joe’s Rambler would be the top charcoal choice here. This grill feels like Oklahoma Joe’s just hit one of their full-size grills with a shrink ray.
While slow-cooking on the Takibi would be challenging, you can at least adjust the grill height to control temperature. No thermometer is included, and Weber does not make a storage cover for the Jumbo Joe. If you want to do any indirect-heat cooking, you’ll want to buy the hinged grill grate for $35 so you can feed in fresh fuel weber charcoal grill without removing the top grill, and the $23 charcoal basket is also useful. The KettlePizza add-on kit ($250) is fun, but way more expensive than the grill itself; there’s a cheaper basic version, but it’s currently out of stock. Do yourself a favor, throw away your lighter fluid and get a charcoal chimney starter ($27).