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Bells and whistles may not be necessary for grilling a steak, but a life without bells and whistles entirely would be eerily — and boringly — quiet. Hell, technically speaking, charcoal isn’t necessary either, but anyone who has tasted a Tomahawk grilled over embers or a binchotan-licked chicken yakitori would argue the opposite.
A grill isn’t simply a mechanism for cooking, but an object for living. Why not choose one that combines style, functionality, and performance? For someone like me, who has problematically linked the ability to start a fire with self-worth, I love that each of these grills make the starting of them easier, some through electric ignition (rare for a charcoal grill) and some through ingenious design. Even for the chefs who we’ve asked, the convenience — whether through their portability or their connectivity — is clutch. According to Tom Colicchio, “I don’t have the time or the patience to stand in front of a smoker all day, monitoring and adjusting the heat.”
Finally, these aren’t the cheapest grills out there. (Nor are they the most expensive.) But we’ve asked some of the world’s foremost chefs (and, well, me, who has spent months grilling, smoking, and barbecuing my way to hypercholesterolemia) to select the grills that boast best-in-class value, durability, and style for however you use yours.
What we’re looking for
Size
Grills range in size from cute to monstrous. There is no right size. It’s just a matter of whether they fit your lifestyle. Too big a grill can become a Mike Mulligan’s steam shovel; too small a grill means burgers in batches and can ruin a party. Below, we’ve noted the cooking surface area of each grill as listed on each manufacturer’s website.
Material
These grills aren’t cheap and you’ll not want to replace them anytime soon. Whether it is powder-coated stainless steel or diatomaceous ceramics, we’ve chosen grills made of material that will last. Each is listed below.
Geegaws
At its most basic, a grill is just a rack of fire. Yet these bristle with add-ons that make one’s (grilling) life easier and, well, just better. From apps to ignitions to ergonomics, we’ve listed a few of the best perks.
Best charcoal grill overall
Size: 924 square inches of cooking space (in a 199-pound body) | Material: A double insulated body made of powder-coated steel | Geegaws: The Traeger app, connected to the Bluetooth-enabled grill, allows you to control temperature remotely and includes hundreds of easily searchable recipes
Like the best contraltos, the holy grail of grills is one that combines range and consistency. It can hit high notes. It can hit low notes. And it can sustain. Traeger’s Ironwood XL is, therefore, like the Marian Anderson of grills. Combining the flavor of charcoal with the convenience of a propane tank, the Traeger Ironwood XL relies on compressed wood pellets, fed in through an auger, to imbue its cargo with a smoky flavor. Aside from the enormous cooking surface — enough for four pork butts, four chickens, or eight rib racks — what really endears the thing to chefs like Tom Colicchio, who relied on one to slow smoke $1,000 of beef ribs for his Fourth of July celebration, is that the electric auger allows the temperature to remain constant with little oversight. “It’s the best ‘set it and forget it’ grill I’ve used,” said Colicchio. Tennessee-based chef Alex Belew loves the range too. “The temperature can get low enough for cold smoking and hot enough for grilling and searing while not having to worry about flare-ups since it’s indirect heat.” Another convenience: If you should want to adjust the heat, the Traeger app allows you to increase or decrease temperature even when you’re not in front of the grill, and it comes with scores of recipes.
Best (less expensive) charcoal grill overall
Size: 363 square inches of cooking space (in a 91-pound body) | Material: Steel coated with porcelain enamel | Geegaws: A built-in thermometer, a touch-and-go ignition, and an ash-catcher
Like an apartment in a fancy building, this grill is a standard no-frills setup surrounded by a lot of amenities. In this case, the 22-inch kettle is nestled into a wheelable table that includes an ignition switch, expanded work space, an LCD timer, an ash catcher (which the original model also has) and a compartment to dispose coals. “I just use it as a trash can, but it’s great,” says Bret Lunsford. Formerly the executive chef at New York’s Blue Smoke, Lunsford grew up grilling with Webers (albeit simpler models) and now uses the Performer Deluxe at home. “It just has a lot of little improvements that make life a lot easier,” he says. He also notes that, like all things Weberian, this grill is sturdy. “You can kick it around a little bit. You shouldn’t, but it’ll be all right.”
Best travel charcoal grill
Size: 424 square inches (in a 28-pound body) | Material: An anodized aluminum body with stainless steel grates | Geegaws: A built-in thermometer, ergonomic handles, very handsome
For the long history of man and fire, travel grills have sacrificed durability for the sake of portability. The impermanence of the classic Smokey Joe Weber, though an affordable picnic staple, is manifest at the end of the summer, as the discarded and broken kettles pile up like horseshoe crab shells by the trash cans of public parks. The Nomad grill, which looks like a very serious suitcase, is both a sturdy and moveable feast. Launched in 2020, the Nomad combines smart design (a baby-blue handle, a brushed-aluminum case), technology (rare earth magnets! Heatsinks!) and functionality (424 square inches of cooking in a 28-pound package). It’s also astonishingly versatile. According to Boston-based chef Ken Oringer, “It’s super-easy to operate as it doubles as a charcoal grill, an oven, and a smoker all in one. It’s my top pick for summer barbecues or when you go camping for a fun and reliable grill.”
Best binchotan grill
Size: 108 square inches of cooking surface (in a 14-pound body) | Material: The body is handmade of diatomaceous clay, the cooking net from steel | Geegaws: Minimal, though I’d recommend purchasing the optional charcoal starter (from $12)
Binchotan charcoal comes from Japanese ubame oak, burns hotter and more consistently than its international counterparts, and imbues an ineffable and delicate smoky flavor to the protein its heat touches. The smokeless charcoal also happens to be very expensive. That’s one reason chefs tend to use small table-top grills called konro, yakitori, or hibachi grills when they use it. And they use it often. Chefs like Dominique Roy of Eleven Madison Park, Sam Clonts of 63 Clinton, and Diego Oka of La Mar are die-hard fans of konro grills made by Korin, better known as a manufacturer of Japanese knives. What sets the Korin konro grill apart is that it is made entirely by hand, of carved diatomaceous earth bricks, a method which allows the grill to withstand and retain heat. (The more insulation means the less charcoal needed, important when a five-pound bag costs $70 dollars). The results are worth it. Alex Raij, chef of Txikito, for instance, who uses her Korin for mar y montaña dishes like secreto iberico with squid and local peas, lauds the effect. “It’s smoky but clean,” she says. “It doesn’t taste like the inside of an ashtray.”
Best modular travel grill
Size: 315 square inches of cooking space (in a 32-pound lay-flat body) | Material: The body is made with stainless steel; the grill itself is chrome-coated steel | Geegaws: Heavy-duty canvas carrying case, many available add-ons (from a charcoal tray to an entire table)
Rather than a stand-alone grill, the Snow Peak Takibi is the center of a modular grilling system. “You can literally customize it and build a table system that spans coast to coast,” says Mike Nicholas of the Brooklyn Caribbean vegan restaurant Aunts et Uncles. When Nicholas brought eight of his friends to St. Lucia last February, he brought along his Takibi, too. He turned local mushrooms, okra, asparagus, broccolini, and more into flavorful beachside feasts. The Fireplace Coal Bed brings the charcoal (or firewood) to a high even surface underneath the grill; the Jikaro table, the larger modular system of which the Takibi is a part, meanwhile, turns the Takibi into a centerpiece of a table. Lightweight and durable, the Takibi works as well on a Brooklyn rooftop as at Reduit beach at sunset.
Best parrilla-style grill
Size: 400 square inches of cooking space, 125 pounds, 44” high | Material: All components of Grillworks grills are build with heavy-duty 304 stainless steel | Geegaws: Crank wheel, V-shaped channels, a long rod (called the Persuader) that helps clean the channels
If you don’t just have briquettes to burn but money, too, the near-mythic Grillworks 20 parrilla grill is the ultimate backyard flex. The origins of the grill read like fan fiction for a certain type of mid-century man. In 1973, Charles Eisendrath, a foreign correspondent for Time magazine, moved his family to Buenos Aires to cover the return of Perón to Argentina. While there, he fell in love with open-flame grilling culture — the famous Sunday asados. Upon landing a faculty position at the University of Michigan when things got too hairy in South America, Eisendrath relentlessly experimented to create the perfect grill of his own to re-create the Argentinian asados. In 1978, the original Grillworks 20, originally called the Grillery, was introduced. It looked like some sort of Mad Max–meets–Jean Tinguely contraption. But it worked.
The 20 has a generous 20-inch-by-20-inch grilling surface. A handsome crank wheel raises and lowers the meat as effortlessly as an endless scroll. Then, as now, it is fabricated by hand with high-quality stainless steel, and boasts unique V-shaped bars that channel dripping fat to reduce flare-ups. This reserved fat can be collected and used for basting or stored for later.
Grillworks-loving gourmand Adam Sachs, director of Sea & Land Taste experiences for Silverseas Cruises, and former editor-in-chief of Saveur, has had his grill for a decade. “I like to use lump charcoal as a base and layer wood on top of that, so you get a nice mix of steady heat and can control the amount of smoke (sometimes you want a lot, sometimes none at all). There’s nothing wrong with a big rib eye, but there are so many things beyond a hunk of red meat that really benefit from time over a wood fire. I love grilling whole fish, roasting peppers slowly, cooking eggplant and onions directly in the coals,” he says. In terms of cleanup, Sachs scoops the ashes every few uses and says “Cleaning the surface generally just involves burning off whatever may have stuck to it from the last cook.”
Best kamado-style grill
Size: 450 square inches of cooking space | Material: Teak handles, ceramic bodies, stainless-steel metal components; comes in black, indigo, and taupe | Geegaws: Airflow dial, a patent-pending ash bucket, zone dividers for cooking with indirect and direct heat simultaneously
Kamado grills, in which the heat whorls from all sides, rely on airflow and heat retention. The straight-angled sides of the New Age kamado, along with a precision airflow aperture on its top, allow for optimal control while the sloped sides help collect and intensify the heat convection. Behzad Jamshidi, the chef of Moosh NYC who specializes in Persian food, uses his New Age Platinum kamado grill “rain or shine — it’s running four or five times a week.” The grill sits discreetly on the back patio of his Bushwick home, looking a bit like a half-buried tagine. “I love it for its concentrated and focused cooking,” says Jamshidi. “A lot of barbecues aren’t as efficient as they should be. But thanks to the range of heat diffusers and compartments, this makes everything from pizza to flatbreads.”
Our experts
• Alex Belew, chef and winner of Hell’s Kitchen
• Tom Colicchio, chef and owner, Crafted Hospitality
• Behzad Jamshidi, chef, Moosh NYC
• Bret Lunsford, executive chef, Blue Smoke
• Mike Nicholas, chef, Aunts et Uncles
• Ken Oringer, chef and restaurateur, Uni, Toro, and others
• Alex Raij, chef and co-owner of Txikito, La Vara, and St. Juilivert
• Adam Sachs, Silverseas Cruises, director of Sea & Land Taste experiences
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