Best small portable barbecues 2019

Sometime, somehow, the UK fell in love with BBQ.

These days, we grill outdoors more than any other nation in Europe. Brits held over 135 million barbecues in 2017, from after-work gatherings to full-blown garden parties.

Part of what’s making the British barbecue craze sizzle is the improved quality of portable barbecues. These smaller, totable barbecues can be taken to campsites, beauty spots, and just about anywhere else you won’t get told off for cooking a sausage with great deftness and passion.

Many portable BBQs run on gas fuel canisters, which are usually small and light enough to slip into a rucksack. Gas barbecues tend to be easy to ignite and relatively easy to clean – perfect for users who don’t want their meal to make a meal of their cookware.

Some would say a barbecue is only really a barbecue if it uses solid fuel that gives off smoke. After all, the English word ‘barbecue’ is taken from the Taíno word ‘barbacoa’, which referred to wooden structures that were used to smoke food by an indigenous people in the Caribbean.

Thankfully for those who prize the smoky flavour solid fuel imparts, there are plenty of charcoal-fuelled portable barbecues – and they tend to come cheaper than their gas-burning counterparts.

To help you decide which portable BBQ to buy, ES Best has cooked up a storm with eight of the best gas and charcoal portable barbecues on the market. Please note the fuel types listed at the start of our reviews, as you’ll need to buy compatible fuel to go with your barbecue.

Primus – Kuchoma

Fuel: Standard screw-top gas cartridges

Weight: 4.5kg

This chic and characterful barbecue from legendary Swedish stove-maker Primus is our favourite portable option on the market.

The Kuchoma has a good amount of cooking capacity considering its neat size, with a rectangular grill grate cooking surface that works well with all sorts of BBQ staples. We’ve used it to cook satisfying rows of burgers, corn cobettes, pepper strips, sausages and chicken drummers (keep the gas relatively low for the latter, to avoid excessive charring).

In terms of portability, the Kuchoma scores pretty well. It’s not as heavy as it looks – something we would consider an asset in any portable barbecue. With the legs folded away, it could just about be slipped into a sack and carried in a backpack.

£195 | Cotswold Outdoor | Buy it now

Campingaz – Party Grill 600

Fuel: Campingaz butane or propane cylinder (R904 or R907)
Weight: 10.72kg

The Campingaz Party Grill 600 is a bit more than a barbecue. With a choice of four cooking surfaces – stove top, grill, griddle and plancha – it provides scope to cook in a diverse range of styles.

Using the Party Grill 600 proves pleasingly simple. The appliance is easy to assemble, and power and ignition are controlled via the same knob. We found the gas regulator hose (sold separately) needed to supply gas to the grill to be quite a tight fit – but this was nothing a little soapy water couldn’t solve.

The Party Grill 600 is at the upper limit of what we’d class as a “portable” barbecue. Getting it from A to B is possible via car or van, but we can’t see many people taking it on public transport. On the plus side, its relatively large size makes it a far better fit than most other portable barbecues for cooking for big groups at home, with a large cooking area that’ll make great use of your fuel.

£179.99 | CampingWorld.co.uk | Buy it now

Campingaz Party Grill 400 CV

Fuel: Campingaz CV300+ or CV470+ gas cartridge
Weight: 4.92kg

It may look a lot like its larger sibling, but the Campingaz Party Grill 400 CV turns out to be quite a different proposition. Rather than attaching via hose and regulator, the gas canister simply clicks into its underside, and the height difference between the two barbecues is considerable.

One key similarity with the Party Grill 600 is the Party Grill CV’s wide range of cooking options. The smaller appliance has all the same modes as the larger – plus, you can use the lid as a wok!

Barbecue purists, of course, will only really care about the grill mode – and the Party Grill 400 CV does this particularly well.

We used it to cook up some beef burgers, lathered in delicious South Carolina BBQ Spice Rub by the Smokey Carter (which you can buy as part of their American Road Trip BBQ Rub Tube). The patties came out tender and evenly cooked.

Highly effective and genuinely portable, the Party Grill 400CV is one of the handiest barbies around.

£84.99 | Leisure Outlet | Buy it now

Outwell – Calvados Grill

Fuel: Solid
Weight: 3.33kg

Sophisticated-looking, reasonably priced and highly effective once its up to heat, the Outwell Calvados is one of our favourite charcoal-burning portable barbecues.

This barbecue does involve a little more assembly than some similarly-sized alternatives, such as the Campingaz Party Grill 400CV. This shouldn’t be a problem if you intend to keep the barbecue in one piece once you’ve set it up. If, on the other hand, you want a barbecue you can pack down before and after each use, look to a simpler alternative like the Robens Kings Canyon Grill, which we will review next.

On a cool April evening, it took a fair while trying to get the Calvados lit – but then again, the same was also true of the other charcoal options we tested. Once we had gotten the embers white-hot, the Calvados provided strong, steady heat and a lovely, smoky scent.

£50 | Cotswold Outdoor | Buy it now

Robens – Kings Canyon Grill

Fuel: Solid
Weight: 1.452kg

When you first take it out of its packaging, the Kings Canyon Grill looks fabulously shiny, and bears more than a passing resemblance to the tanning reflectors people bronzed themselves with in the 1950s.

This state of glamour burns out pretty quickly, as the first use of the barbecue leaves the metal permanently scorched.

The Kings Canyon Grill is easily the most portable of all the barbecues we’ve tested. Thanks to a clever, foldable, fastening-free design, it can be packed away into a tiny carry case in a matter of seconds.

Fold it out again, and you’ll have a decent-sized cooking area, suitable for feeding a few people at a time. We fit a full seabass on its grill with plenty of room to spare.

£22.95 | outdoorgear | Buy it now

Mountain Warehouse – Portable BBQ

Fuel: solid
Weight: 850g

Here’s an absolute bargain from Mountain Warehouse. The aptly named ‘Portable BBQ’ is the lightest barbecue we’ve tested. It packs down into a tiny zip-up case that could comfortably fit inside a daypack. There’s a little vent on the side, allowing you to control the flow of air to your coals. It has discovered a cure for the common cold.

Most of the above statements are true, and there’s more to recommend Mountain Warehouse’s BBQ besides. Aided by its compact design, it got up to cooking temperature faster than the other solid-fuel barbecues we tested, and its enamelled fire bowl was easy to clean. The only downside is that there’s only enough room on its grill to feed a few people.

£16.99 | Mountain Warehouse | Buy it now

Char-broil – X200 Grill2Go

Fuel: Standard screw-top gas cartridges
Weight: 9.70kg

The X200 Grill2Go has the look and feel of a small armoured vehicle, what with its chunky build and hard metal shell.

It certainly has serious cooking power to match its hardcore looks, but we were pleased to find this barbecue’s tough appearance belies a relatively tender touch. It cooks a little more gently cooked than many of its competitors, leaving food griddle-marked but ultimately unburnt. We were impressed.

Another highlight is the drip tray accessory which catches juices from cooking food, thus lowering the chance of your lawn getting turned into a scorched wasteland.

We also enjoyed monitoring the heat levels in the barbecue using the temperature gauge built into its lid. Not only is this a genuinely useful feature; it also proves how quickly the X200 Grill2Go gets up to cooking temperature.

£129.99 | Amazon | Buy it now

Outwell – Campfire Tripod Deluxe Grill

Fuel: solid
Weight: 5.2kg

Our leftfield pick of the portable barbecues is without a doubt this intriguing campfire tripod grill from Outwell.

Uniquely among the barbecues featured in this article, the Campfire Tripod Deluxe Grill allows you to adjust the height of its grill over the heat source, which adds scope for a little extra finesse in your cooking. This is done using the chain link that suspends the barbecues grill from its three enamel-coated legs.

Once you’re done cooking, you can move the legs out of the way and use the barbecue as a firepit.

£48 | Ultimate Outdoors | Buy it now

Verdict:

After extensive, cholesterol-rich testing, we’ve concluded that the Primus Kuchoma is the best portable barbecue of the bunch. It’s superbly easy to use, cooks food beautifully, and is sufficiently light and neat to be transported with relative ease.

It’s also worth emphasising that the Kuchoma is a beautiful and wholesome looking thing – the kind of barbecue you’d take home to meet your mother. And we recommend you use it for something just like that.