After Testing 11 Portable Gas Grills, We Recommend These 7 for Easy Grilling on the Go

Best Overall

Weber Q 2200 Gas Grill

$406 at Amazon $329 at Wayfair

If you’re searching for a gas grill you can bring on all your adventures that also performs well enough to be used at home, look no further than the Weber Q 2200. This portable grill has everything you need to cook up delicious meals, including 280 square inches of cooking space and two folding work tables to make food prep quick and easy. We tried it out at home and on the road to grill hot dogs, steaks, and veggies and were impressed with the final results each time.

The sturdy Weber Q 2200 has a number of high-end features usually reserved for full-size grills, such as a built-in lid thermometer, electronic ignition, and infinite control burner valve. When it comes to the gas grill’s performance, it gets hot quickly, cooks food evenly, and is easy to clean when you’re done. The unit has a cast aluminum body and ergonomic side handles to make it easy to move from one place to another. It's a bit heavy for a portable option, weighing in at over 43 pounds, but most of the weight is actually its cast-iron grates, which can be carried separately for easy transport.

One downside during assembly was the drip pan didn't fit properly, which necessitated a small trim to get it to slide in. Out of the box, this can be powered by 1-pound gas canisters, but Weber does sell an attachment if you want to use 20-pound tanks. We also tested and recommend the Q 1200, which has 189 square inches of cooking space and an 8,500-BTU burner.

Dimensions: 15.5 x 51.4 x 19.5 inches | Cooking Area: 280 square inches | Power: 12,000 BTUs/hour | Weight: 43.5 pounds

Most Versatile

Weber Traveler Portable Gas Grill

$449 at Amazon $350 at Walmart $400 at Target

This may be one of the most expensive portable grills available, but you’re paying for quality, both in terms of performance and design. The Weber Traveler managed to heat up to 660 degrees Fahrenheit in our testing, hot enough to sear steaks or even make pizza, while the non-stick coating on its cast-iron grate still kept delicate fish filets intact after cooking. We even found the built-in thermometer to be pretty accurate, something that’s rare in grills of all kinds.

It’s a fairly heavy grill, but the Traveler’s design means you won’t really ever have to lift it. The wheeled cart the grill is mounted in folds down flat, slowly and easily lowering into place after you step on the folding lever in the base. Adding to its versatility is the fact that it can use either a 1-pound propane cylinder meant for camping or the 20-pound full-size version. (You’ll need an adapter hose to use the larger tank, but it’s included.)

Two main complaints we have about this grill are that it heats somewhat unevenly when the lid is open and that it’s tough to clean. The first issue can be solved pretty easily by just leaving the lid closed while you’re cooking, especially at high temperatures, but the second one is kind of annoying. You’re not supposed to remove the grate to clean it, and its small holes catch a lot of food bits, so there’s a lot of scrubbing involved.

Dimensions: 42.7 x 43.6 x 37.2 inches | Cooking Area: 320 square inches | Power: 13,000 BTU/hour | Weight: 49 pounds

Best Budget

Weber Go-Anywhere Gas Grill

$89 at Amazon $89 at Home Depot View on Weber.com

For a great portable grill that won’t break your budget or your back, the Weber Go-Anywhere Gas Grill should be at the top of your list. This affordable grill comes from one of the most well-known brands in grilling, and it has all the features you need to cook up delicious meals on the go. It features 160 square inches of cooking space over a single burner. Even though it only produces 6,500 BTUs of power, it was able to heat up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit fairly efficiently. We got good results with both delicate fish and medium-rare steak, though the stainless-steel grate doesn’t hold heat quite as well as the cast iron most similar models use. We got some pretty wild swings in temperature when opening the lid and adding food.

The Weber Go-Anywhere is appropriately named, as it’s very compact and surprisingly lightweight. One of the grill’s coolest features is its plated steel legs, which can be pivoted up to lock the lid in place during transportation. However, we didn’t love the way this unit is laid out: The propane tank attaches at an angle that hangs down below the bottom of the grill, so you have to set it up on the edge of a table or other flat surface to make room. The control knob is also positioned right next to the gas tank attachment, which makes adjusting it a little awkward. With that said, the compact form and low price make this an excellent choice for rustic camping, or for riverside or lakeside cooking of the fish you just caught.

Dimensions: 14.5 x 21 x 12.2 inches | Cooking Area: 160 square inches | Power: 6,500 BTUs/hour | Weight: 13.5 pounds

Best for Camping

Cuisinart Venture Gas Grill

Orig. $170 $150 at Amazon View on Walmart $150 at Target

Whether it’s hiking, kayaking, or cross-country skiing, the Cuisinart Venture is perfect for any adventure. With its large carrying and rectangular shape, the compact unit looks like a picnic basket, until you disassemble it to reveal the propane tank hidden in the bottom section and the nonstick-coated cast-iron grate with 9,000-BTU burner in the middle. It’s not the biggest or most powerful grill in the world, but it’s small enough to carry easily or put in your pack, and it managed to reach searing temperatures in our Lab testing. During high-temperature cooking, neither delicate fish nor strip steak stuck to the grate, and we also didn’t get any flare-ups despite the grate sitting quite close to the burner.

The main issue with the Venture is its lack of a lid. There’s a wooden cutting board/serving tray that sits on top of the grate when the grill’s not in use, but it’s completely open to the elements while cooking. Most grills have a domed lid that helps distribute the heat from the burner, and without that, we got uneven temperatures—enough that one end of the steak started to burn before the other was sufficiently seared. It might interfere with perfect-looking grill marks, but we’d recommend rotating and moving larger items around during cooking to achieve even doneness.

Dimensions: 13 x 16.3 x 10.8 inches | Cooking Area: 154 square inches | Power: 9,000 BTU/hour | Weight: 20.6 pounds

Best Tabletop

Coleman Portable Propane Grill

Orig. $210 $155 at Amazon Orig. $210 $209 at Walmart $155 at Home Depot

The RoadTrip 225, unsurprisingly, offers 225 square inches of cooking space and is great for a road trip. The grill is compact and lightweight but has two separate burners that put out 11,000 BTUs of heat. It got to seriously high temperatures in our testing—650 degrees Fahrenheit created a beautiful sear and crust on a steak—but the temperature dropped precipitously and became uneven from one side to the other after adding food and leaving the lid open for a few minutes.

That said, the nonstick grate didn’t stick, even to delicate fish filets, and was able to brown and crisp the skin nicely. The grill is simple to assemble and fire up, making it easy to attach a 1-pound propane tank; this was notably difficult with some of the other models we tested. Plus, we figured out the drip tray can be used as a water basin for steaming and could add a herbaceous quality by simply adding herbs or foraged greenery.

But we also didn’t love the construction of the RoadTrip 225; it feels a little cheaply built, and the lid doesn’t have a lock to hold it in place when you’re moving the grill around. Make sure you have a stable tabletop to put this on and don’t try to move it until it’s fully cooled.

Dimensions: 21.8 x 18.3 x 10.6 inches | Cooking Area: 225 square inches | Power: 11,000 BTU/hour | Weight: 25.6 pounds

Best for Groups

Napoleon TravelQ Portable Gas Grill

Orig. $499 $429 at Amazon View on Napoleon.com

Throwing a beach party for all your friends? The Napoleon Travelq is the full-featured grill-on-a-cart you need to wheel out onto the sand. Its dual-sided cast-iron grates can hold up to 18 burgers at a time, with its nearly 14,000 BTUs of power split between separately controlled left and right burners. That means you can, say grill chicken at lower heat on one side while you char asparagus on high on the other, or leave one side off completely for successful indirect grilling.

In testing, we were most impressed with the cast-iron grate, which didn't stick at all to fish or steak, and features a unique wave shape to keep items from falling through the gaps. With the lid shut, it was able to reach well over 600 degrees Fahrenhiet (albeit with 10 minutes of preheating), and the control dials are actually effective and reasonably accurate at adjusting the flames. However, we found that the temperature dropped quickly when we opened the lid to put food on or move it around; the steak wound up underdone in the same amount of time other grills got it to a perfect medium-rare.

The Travelq really does pack a lot of useful space into a small package. There are 285 square inches of cooking space, plus a pair of prep tables on the sides that fold into a dolly configuration when you collapse the cart. (The instructions on how to do this are helpfully printed on one of the prep tables so you'll always have them at hand.) The wheels and locking lid setup make it very easy to move the grill around, but it's fairly heavy and not the best choice for lugging a long distance down a rugged trail.

Dimensions: 20.3 x 44.3 x 39.8 inches | Cooking Area: 285 square inches | Power: 13,990 BTU/hour | Weight: 50.5 pounds

Best Design

nomadiQ Portable Propane Gas Grill

Orig. $400 $300 at Amazon $300 at Lowe's

After using it for yourself, you will be able to tell the NOMADIQ Propane Gas Grill was designed with portability in mind. It weighs just 12 pounds, and its unique design features two spacious grates that fold up when not in use, creating a sleek, compact form with a built-in handle.

The NOMADIQ Grill offers 226 square inches of cooking space across its two nonstick grates, which are heated by individually controlled stainless steel burners that deliver 9,200 BTUs per hour. (This amount of power isn't the lowest amount for grills on our list but isn't the highest either.) This means you can only turn on one burner if you are cooking for a smaller crowd or you can cook burgers on one side and warm up the buns on the other. We did see some flare-ups, though, when testing this grill for the second time, and also experienced some uneven heat distribution.

This portable grill comes with two drip trays, a gas hose/regulator, and a carrying strap, and the brand claims it can be set up in as little as 45 seconds (we got it ready to cook within 3 minutes). It boasts an electronic ignition system for quick and easy start-up, and the grates are even dishwasher-safe, but we did still find this grill difficult to clean.

All in all, we think this one would be great for anyone living in an urban environment because of its size, but don't think it is the best option if you're looking for precise evenness while grilling.

Dimensions: 25.6 x 16 x 7.5 inches | Cooking Area: 226 square inches | Power: 9,200/hour | Weight: 12 pounds