Yahoo Finance The new Campingaz attitude 2go is a portable powerhouse – but can it BBQ food to perfection?
The non-stick, easy-clean surface boasts a five-year warranty
(iStock/The Independent )Campingaz is a brand known for its gas barbecues, but it’s one that manufacturers a much wider range of products than most people realise – everything from air beds and ice boxes to portable toilets and weed-incinerating blowtorches.
However, cooking equipment is its forte, whether it’s tiny travel stoves or huge gas-powered barbecues which are designed to cook everything from pizza to paella.
And now there’s something that offers the best of both worlds: a portable, powerful gas barbecue packed with the type of features commonly seen on much larger models.
Its launch is incredibly timely. In a year that looks set to be a summer of staycations and picnics, Campingaz – like other barbecue brands – appears, at least on paper, to have created a tabletop barbecue that ticks all the boxes.
It aims to prioritise portability – with legs that double as handles – and an added grill that doesn’t only look big enough to feed your nearest and dearest with ease, but can (apparently) be fired up in record time and easily cleaned once the last sausage has been scoffed.
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With a stated weight of 13kg, there’s no denying it errs on the heavy side, which is why we were keen to discover whether this extra weight translated into features that would turn our chicken wings, burgers, sausages and sweetcorn into grilled, gourmet perfection.
And can it do it without requiring us to ditch the blow-up bed/tent/dog? A compact design is crucial, too.
Manoeuvrability is also vital factor. Now more than ever, barbecues don’t just need to be compact, they also must be easy to set up and shift into position, as it’s highly likely we’ll all be doing plenty of outdoor entertaining this summer. This could be in a wide range of settings: campsites, gardens or at the growing number of picnic spots that allow barbecues.
So is Campingaz’s new attitude 2go a worthy replacement for the trusty camping barbecue you’ve relied on for years, and does the £189 price tag equate to value for money when other barbecues cost much less? Read on to find out.
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Campingaz attitude 2go tabletop gas barbecue
Weight: 13kg
Cooking surface: 1200cm²
Number of burners: One
Fuel source: CV470 gas cartridge
Output: 2.4KW
Design
This is a slick, stylish gas barbecue that will certainly appeal to glampers keen to splash out on the latest camping kit. It’s heavier than the average camping barbecue, weighing in at 13kg, but it’s been built with portability in mind – hand holes in the supporting legs make it easy to move, and its compact design means there’s no chance of lids swinging open or legs accidentally unfolding when it’s in transit.
Ease of use is a common theme with this bad boy – take the super-sized thermometer on the front, which makes it easy to check the temperature even when the lid is closed, and the minimal assembly time (no screwdriver required).
There’s also handy added extras, our favourite of which being the stylish gas canister holder that slots into the rear of the barbecue which means you can shift the grill’s position without worrying about the canister dislodging.
Even the canister is a breeze to attach – a hose (for extra length) is provided, and the CV470 gas cartridge slots in using Campingaz’s so-called easy clic plus system. Instead of screwing it in, we simply pushed the canister against the regulator and rotated it 45 degrees to attach it.
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We also appreciated the thick, carefully-positioned handle on the barbecue’s lid, which allowed us to raise and lower it without risking singed skin.
We loved this barbecue’s sturdiness, too. Its support comes not from four separate legs, but extended sidewalls, which provide a much firmer base.
There’s plenty of rubber cushioning too, on both the bottom of the sidewalls and on the lid, eliminating the risk of an ear-deafening clang if it’s slammed shut with too much force (a faux pas which could quickly turn you into enemy number one on a peaceful, rural campsite).
It’s also incredibly easy to maintain. The front-loading grease tray slides out quickly and smoothly, and the non-stick grill (which provides a generous 1,200cm² cooking surface) comes in two jigsaw-like pieces, meaning it will easily fit into dishwashers and campsite sinks or – if you’re really roughing it – buckets of soapy water.
Lengthy warranties – 10 years on the die-cast aluminium lid and five on the cooking grill – also provide additional reassurance that this is a barbecue built to last.
Cooking performance
In our experience, cooking with gas is always a little easier than charcoal, and this barbecue is a case in point thanks to its slick, matchless ignition and ability to maintain a consistent temperature throughout cooking. Gas is less messy too, as red-hot embers won’t fire into the air with the force of a ballistic missile, or tumble over the sides to permanently brand previously pristine patches of grass.
That said, there are plenty of gas barbecues we wouldn’t touch with a barge (or should that be tent?) pole, and the aspects we loved most about Campingaz’s new attitude 2go relate to areas where manufacturers often get it horribly wrong. Take the grill – even the best bangers will fail the taste test if they’re cooked on a grill covered in burned-on food which a blowtorch would struggle to remove.
Not so with this non-stick grill, which is made up of two pieces that slot together like a jigsaw. This made them incredibly easy to clean – the two halves slotted effortlessly into our dishwasher, as well as our campsite-friendly washing-up tub. It also meant that, after a melted cheese-related incident, we were able to simply remove one half of the grill for a quick spruce-up, while still using the other side.
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We’ve been referred to as connoisseurs of campfire cuisine, but we’re still prone to disaster when it comes to items that need a little more care, often because barbecues rarely distribute heat evenly. This is precisely why the Campingaz’s new attitude 2go is such a game changer. The powerful stainless steel burner gave an even temperature, and the combination of a chunky dial and large exterior thermometer made it easy to tweak it by tiny increments.
And we’re speaking from experience. Determined to give the barbecue a thorough testing, we cooked a huge selection of items ranging from burgers and lamb skewers to halloumi chunks, sweetcorn and plain chicken breasts for a guest with a gluten allergy. We managed to cook them all to perfection, far exceeding our own expectations and rustling up a feast for six people in record time.
The downsides? In all honesty, there aren’t any. A handful of (picky) campfire cooks might bemoan the fact that it’s not possible to raise or move the grill so that certain items can cool while others continue to cook. That said, this isn’t a feature we missed, perhaps because the sturdiness of the grill allowed us to slice into a sausage to check how well it had been cooked without having to remove it from the heat source.
The verdict
On paper, the features that set this barbecue apart might not appear to be anything out of the ordinary. But from the moment you fire up the barbecue, it’s clear this is something special, whether it’s the ergonomic design that allows the barbecue to be moved – with the gas canister still attached – or the solid, cast iron grill, which divides into two pieces for easy cleaning.
But it was the heat distribution that really blew us away, and the combination of a clear temperature dial and user-friendly controls meant we could alter the temperature by the tiniest of increments in a nano-second.
Buy now £189.99, Outdoorworlddirect.co.uk
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