Hot stuff: Top picks of gas barbecues and portable grills
The Weber Traveller, from €399.
Portable barbecues offer a hot take on days out, with real meals set at unusual and lovely locations. What works for a picnic or camper van could be equally useful for a small garden, combining firepower, or in the limited space of a balcony situation. If you’re serious about cooking under the sun and stars, an extra BBQ on standby also offers versatility to meet the moment.
The word portable is nebulous, as an estate car, an SUV boot and some larger roof boxes could ingest just about any legged BBQ if you could disassemble it and cram the parts home. What we want is something with sufficient cooking space that’s easy to move, load, set up, ignite, and clean.
Charcoal takes time to get to temp and to cool down, making it better suited to long-term camping and summer-house stays. Let’s take a taste of four gas units and an electric star from the size of a carry-on luggage to BBQs that slide neatly together to service a small outdoor kitchen at home and away.
A doddle to erect, lifting into position on its stand with one hand, the Traveller folds up at the push of a button to drop onto a strut that lets it land gently. The automatic lid lock ensures nothing is rattling or any gunk is leaking.
Balanced over two all-terrain wheels, the entire rig can be pulled straight back to the boot or shed like a golf trolley, even over rough grass or sand. I would pay the extra for the 100cm Traveller (€499), which can handle 12 burgers or 15 sausages, meaning the cook can sear, heat and cook everything in one ta-dah, missing none of the banter.
What the Traveller does not gift is a high-domed lid or zoned cooking — it’s one surface temperature, but is well powered with even that compact version offering 3.8kW of cooking muscle. The package includes a side table and side rails. For a quality tabletop kettle, explore Weber’s Smokey Joe family of charcoal BBQs from €99.
- When buying small units that are largely intended for 400g gas cans rather than 13kg LPG patio cylinders, there’s often the option of a regulator hose. A 400g bottle will last around three-to-four hours. An extra little fold-out table for drinks, condiments and dishes can be picked up for as little as €15. Try Home Store + More.
The firebox is in cast aluminium with a stainless-steel grate, and it handles like a robust toolbox with latches to the front. Like all good hybrids, there’s electric push-button operation to get the party started, and I really love the lid-mounted temperature gauge as I’m not a good guesser.
One of the real pluses is the TRU-Infrared cooking system with the 2.7kW burners. Barbequing is hit or miss. The last thing we need, already sheltering from buffeting breezes behind the lid, are startling flare-ups under the grub.
I’ve found it perfect for searing steaks, vegetables and foil-wrapped fish with even and reliable results. It’s perfect for when I want to get out of my camper, cooling down quickly when I’m ready to roam.
The Grill2Go is not the lightest portable at 9.7kg without a stand. It’s easy to get apart and clean off easily — the trick is to clean it every trip. Like the Weber Traveller, it carries a comforting five-year warranty against major defects, and comes with a nifty bag with easy carry handles.
- Always let your portable BBQ completely cool down before touching it and packing it back up. The safety protocol with young kids should be exactly as it would be at home.
It’s a super-cute aluminium body in several colours with heat-protective rubber handles that grip nicely in the hand even when wet.
The top of the unit, before lighting, doubles as a chopping board. It’s self-contained, lightweight, and perfect for adult use at festivals and beach swims (where allowed).
When operating without a stand, you need to be creative siting any real flame unit, and I really love the four stout little legs on the Grill2Go Mini. The portable gas canister fits snugly into the unit. Ensure the BBQ is stable, level, avoid dry grass and be highly aware of where the unit is if placed low to the ground (no unit should be less than 0.5m off the ground).
- Look for designated areas to cook at the beach, and don’t use once-off BBQs, which are high polluters, and dangerous when discarded or worse still, buried. Disposable barbecues are not permitted in any OPW National Heritage sites, Parks or Gardens or National Parks and real flame heating and cooking is severely limited, leavenotraceireland.org.
- Take off the grill, and you have a conventional one-ring gas burner (brilliant for anything in a pan, and delivering tea during power cuts in November).
This one has fixed plates, but there are other models of Foreman grills with detachable, fully immersible plates for swift clean-ups. I have three BBQs, and this is my go-to for picking up the slack when you have more than six guests loitering on the limestone.
- Fast, clean and with zero emissions at the point of use, if you have a Jackery, an electric RCD-protected hookup at your camper park or Airbnb, an electric grill is great value, simple to operate and the most sustainable choice for outdoor cooking adventures, bar none.
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