It won't rain forever. Get ready for the Irish summer with the best BBQs for 2024

In the market for the hottest new products in the barbecue range? We get to grips with the grilling outdoor options

Cook up your outdoor kitchen dreams with the IKEA Grillskar.

Looking for a hot, reliable investment that won’t cool off after the first year’s use? Build quality and solid features are the dish of the day. Here are my picks of the less-expected BBQ winners for summer 2024.

Moving and grooving

The Weber Traveller is a full family gas grill that can go where you do. Erects with one hand. €530, various suppliers.

Compact and travelling BBQs are warming up this year. Apart from slinging them into the car for camping, motor homes and days out, they are a great choice for renters with a balcony, and anyone with a small garden or a pinched urban yard. Leaving a BBQ out to be hammered by the winter weather, or cramming into a tiny shed? What a hassle. Add a trolley with wheels to the mix for ultimate versatility, and preferably one of the new generation of collapsable trolleys. A scorching pick, the Weber Traveller is designed to fit in the boot of most mid-sized cars and offers a large BBQ area of 2065sq cm to bring the whole meal over the line at once (15 burgers/20 sausages).

With the build quality and precision of a topflight porcelain enamel gas grill, the Traveller has a fluid operation through low to high temperatures perking up even a delicate breakfast pancake. Handling one instore, I especially like the oversized SUV wheels (it handles like a typical carry-on suitcase), and the one-hand set up and fold down — ideal for even someone with physical challenges. Once collapsed, the lid automatically locks in place. €530 all Weber suppliers.

Budget BBQ alternative: Boss Grill Deluxe Portable, €315, buyitdirect.ie. The iconic Smokey Joe table-top charcoal BBQs start from €99 for a 37cm model, various suppliers.

Full kitchen deal

Cook up your outdoor kitchen dreams with the IKEA Grillskar. Combinations from €850 - €1290, ikea.com/ie

In a year when an outdoor kitchen could cost up to €10,000, Ikea has a superb offer on a full outdoor 3m Grillskar kitchen, perfect for overhung patio areas where you can cover and leave the whole rig out year-round. Just hook up your garden hose for water on tap to the integrated stainless/steel sink or plumb it up properly if you fancy hot water. An Ikea Kallsjon mixer tap comes as standard. There’s a 172cm run of 61cm counter, made up of two independent elements, one housing the sink, with two deep shelves and a large storage box which you can place either side.

The Grillskar includes a pretty good S/S BBQ with four independently controlled burners with low to high temperature settings, and enough room to carry home a family meal (3,332 sq cm). Combinations from €850-€1290, ikea.com/ie (available for home delivery).

Budget BBQ alternative: Keep your current BBQ and make use of a double or single Grillskar table with integrated sink, from €250 (fantastic for a utility room with the additional storage back-panel just €20 extra), ikea.ie. Bushbeck masonry BBQs offer not simply a real flame fire to grill on, but a statuesque year-round feature in the garden. Prices are extremely competitive, started at €629.95 for the Alicante (203cm high); outdoorfurniture.ie.

Handsome hybrids

Heston Blumenthal embraces the new age of hybrid grills, here shown in the Everdure fusion which offers gas/charcoal cooking with electric (cable) ignition. €899, everdurestore.com

If you like Tesla cars and Dyson vacuums, you’ll doubtless be drawn to the streamlined, aesthetic chic and culinary talents of the Everdure range designed in partnership with chef Heston Blumenthal. Generally termed hybrid grills, they offer the speed and efficiencies of grilling with gas with an extra basket to offer the charred characteristics of charcoal. 

The Fusion is a gas/charcoal model with electric (cable) fast-flame ignition that’s ready to cook with coals in just 10 minutes. I love the quirky box-on-stalk design, so completely different from the four-legged ponies we’re used to out on the patio. 

With that touch of power on hand, it includes a rotisserie which pops up out of the chassis of the BBQ. This can hold and rotate up to 15kg of meat or poultry for a succulent bit of BBQ theatre. 

Prices start at €899 for the 2024 Fusion model rising to €1,698 for a larger 3321cm2 hybrid Hub BBQ set on a double-door cupboard. everdurestore.com.

Budget BBQ alternative: The Rockwell (double-sided) Hybrid BBQ with 135cm wide storage cupboards and warming rack, €366, B&Q/diy.ie.

Pizza pleasers

Ooni Karu multi-fuel pizza oven. 12î models from €429, ooni.eu.com

Pizza ovens are far from faddy, but they can be extremely pricey depending on the branding. Ooni boasts some of the most advanced models for the garden in gas, wood and charcoal, but I’m licking my lips for their latest multi-fuel choices. 

The Ooni Karu 12G is new to the market, is a seriously lovely little oven with a borosilicate glass door to keep an eye on your pizza without releasing that 500C of heat, an integral flue and the ability to choose your fuel type. The oven contains a 15mm thick cordierite baking stone and integrated thermometer to deliver 12” pizzas, meat, fish and vegetables. 

When the weather changes or the campsite calls, just fold up the legs, lob it into its dedicated carrying bag and it can go with you in the car. I was impressed with the cool grab handles, and ClearView technology that keeps the glass nice and clean to take a peek at the pizza in the process. €429. 

Explore the 16” range for larger models and wood pellet varieties from €349. You can convert any Ooni multi-fuel oven to cook with gas by installing their optional gas burner attachment (€99 to €119). Branded pizza peels from €50; ooni.com.

Budget BBQ alternatives: Add a dedicated pizza oven to your model of standard BBQ. For example, the Buschbeck Pizza Oven comes in at €148 from buschbeck.ie (also suited to bread and cakes).

Electrified feast

Electric grills are challenging the market. Adding curls of hardwood provides some of that smoky flavour but donít expect the caramelisation of charcoal cooking. Charbroil Smart-E, from €599, various suppliers

Electric grills either outdoors on a fine day, or used as a back-up indoors are a handy bit of kit. Free of the hassles of solid fuel or the need to replace bottles of gas, power is always on hand, easily trimmed during cooking and delivers predictable, precise performance if not real-flame flavour. 

Charbroil, known for the standard BBQs has introduced a new, family-focused, all-electric model, the Smart-E. It features infrared technology, an emitter plate to distribute heat evenly, and its stainless-steel grate remains uniformly hot achieving 370C in 12 minutes. 

Trimmed to the recipe, the 2400w of power is relatively energy efficient, it includes pyrolytic cleaning, and you can add curls of hardwood for a hint of smokiness. The fuss-free Smart-E comes in at €599, the price of a budget cooker in a real kitchen. 

The Weber Lumin breaches the €600 mark. As these products represent a new sector that won’t reach the typical high temperatures and caramelisation of a charcoal BBQ (1000C), I’d suggest sticking to what you have and using an indoor/outdoor electric grill placed close to the main BBQ.

Budget BBQ Alternatives: My choice would be any of the George Forman kettle BBQs, priced from just €99, or a versatile appliance like the Ninja Woodfire which works as a grill, a charring BBQ and 1.5kg air-fryer; €420, various suppliers (always use an RCD plug).