The best portable grill has to cook batches of burgers for a crowd. It must fit in a car without taking up an entire row of seats. In a perfect world, it also cuts down on cleanup so you can hit the road whenever the barbecue or tailgate ends.
That’s a long list of requirements, and after testing nine portable grills, I realized it’s hard to find a cooker that meets each one. Because no matter how you prefer to fire things up — with liquid propane, charcoal briquettes or wood pellets — shrinking a grill’s footprint in the name of cooking anywhere is going to come with tradeoffs. Three options, though, stood out as the best grills for how they delivered patio-level performance well beyond the backyard.
Weber Q 2800N+ Gas Grill
Best portable propane grill
The Q 2800N+ has huge grilling capabilities for something so small. It has enough cooking space for 12 burgers but fits in the trunk of a compact sedan, and its quality rivals permanent setups that cost twice as much.
