We Spent 28 Hours Testing Portable Charcoal Grills—Here are the Best Ones

Best Overall

Masterbuilt Portable Charcoal Grill and Smoker with Cart

$330 at Amazon $330 at Wayfair $330 at Home Depot

This Masterbuilt hits all of our portable grill requirements—easy to transport, easy to fill, the ability to control airflow and heat, and produces a great sear. Unlike the portable charcoal grills you’re used to, this one functions almost like a smoker. You fill a 1.5-pound hopper on the right side of the grate and adjust the back damper for airflow. An electrical fan then blows the heat and smoke from the coals to the grill, with the fan being powered by a plug or batteries. 

This clever layout thoroughly impressed us while testing it out. Even though the coals are off to the side, this grill can, and does, get hot—just be sure to add enough coals. While monitoring the warm-up, we also greatly appreciated the very accurate built-in thermometer. We didn’t like the porcelain-coated grate as much since it was more like a broiler pan than a grill grate.

It’s also a very sturdy grill; you won’t have to worry about a strong gust or runaway soccer ball knocking it over. And even though it’s heavier, transporting it around is simple. Lock the lid tight, collapse it down, extend the handle, and you’re good to go over any terrain. Plus, the whole grill can detach from the cart to be carried.

While any DIY skill level can put this together, we’ll warn that it takes about a half hour since there are a few tricky parts. We also suggest picking up its compatible grill cover to keep this investment safe during storage.

Dimensions: 36 x 45 x 19 inches | Weight: 52 pounds | Cooking Area: 200 square inches

Best for the Beach

Everdure Cube Portable Grill

$141 at Amazon $160 at Food52 View on Bbqguys.com

If you’re a big fan of barbecuing at the beach or in the park, you’ve probably noticed the relatively new and very stylish Everdure CUBE. And we can tell you that it’s definitely worth it.  

The Cube’s cooler-turned-grill design means everything fits nicely into a box that’s small and light enough to carry to your spot with ease. Unlock the lid, which doubles as the bamboo prep tray, add your charcoal, replace the grate, and you’re ready to start grilling. We observed high heat temperatures on the grates after a few minutes of fire, enough to get great grill marks on our food including a nice char on our corn. 

Since it’s on the smaller side, you don’t need to bring a lot of charcoal along—one layer sufficed during testing. How much you add will determine your amount of heat since there’s no lid and no air vents. It’s important to note that this is not for feeding a crowd. While we were testing, the most we could fit on the grate were two burger patties, two bratwursts, and two corn on the cob. On the plus side, it’s ready to go out of the box with no assembly required.

Dimensions: 13.7 x 16.7 x 9.1 inches | Weight: 15.4 pounds | Cooking Area: 115 square inches

Best for Tailgating

PK Grills PKGo Grill Grilling System

$338 at Walmart $400 at Home Depot View on Pkgrills.com

Frequent car campers or tailgaters know they need a grill that’s built to last and can easily handle a few extra servings for just-met friends. The PK Grills PKGO can do both, plus get hot enough for a satisfying sizzle. 

The PKGO may look underwhelming, but this all cast-iron portable grill was one of our best performers during testing. After adding a chimney full of coals, we reached temperatures of over 600 degrees Fahrenheit. This led to that sizzle when we placed bratwursts on for grilling, and everything came off the cast-iron grate with picturesque grill marks. Despite not having a built-in thermometer, controlling the temperature was simple thanks to the two dampers and two vents. 

The two vents double as dampers when you need some extra cooking space since the lid itself can work as a second grill. When it comes to that, we suggest having an extra-large cast-iron skillet on hand to use as a makeshift lid. 

Being fully made from cast iron not only contributes to the grill’s weight—we don’t suggest carrying this for long distances—but also to its heat retention. It’s a great thing for the actual grilling, but it means everything gets hot and stays hot for a while. We needed gloves and tongs to take off the lid and move the grates, and the exterior can be hot to the touch.

Dimensions: 15.3 x 20.9 x 13 inches | Weight: 39.5 pounds | Cooking Area: 204 square inches (plus 204 square inches for separate lid grill)

Best Budget

Expert Grill Portable Charcoal Grill

$128 at Amazon $74 at Walmart

The enameled fire bowl and porcelain-coated cast-iron grates are just two aspects we liked when testing this inexpensive portable grill. It also had enough cooking space for a few servings, with easily enough room to flip burgers, and is even large enough under the lid to have its own warming rack—not something you see a lot of when it comes to portables.

Another nice-to-have is the fairly accurate built-in thermometer. After placing in hot coals, we got readings of over 500 degrees Fahrenheit on an infrared thermometer and the built-in recorded similar temperatures. Getting that hot gave us a nice char on our corn, but the grates weren’t hot enough for sear marks. And even though the internal temperature was high, it was still easy enough to maneuver the vent and damper to control the airflow.

After grilling was done, it was easier to turn the grill over to dump the ashes rather than pushing them into the ash pan. While doing so, one of the legs did fall off, which was not unexpected. The entire time we tested it, the legs felt a little wobbly, even though we double-checked all the connections during the somewhat tedious build. It's also somewhat difficult to disassemble, once put together.

Dimensions: 24.5 x 17 x 17.5 inches | Weight: 18.5 pounds | Cooking Area: 262 square inches

Best for Camping

Weber Go-Anywhere Grill

$71 at Amazon $71 at Wayfair $71 at Walmart

Whether we were cooking on the charcoal Go-Anywhere or the gas version, we admire the performance of these very portable Webers. Even though it’s only a little larger than a Caboodle or toolbox, we were able to fit enough food for two and only needed a single chimney of coals to cook the entire meal. 

After dumping in the hot coals and replacing the steel cooking grate, we noticed temperatures a little higher than 550 degrees Fahrenheit throughout our cooking. Since Weber designed this to be lightweight and very portable, there’s only enough room for one layer of charcoal inside—there’s only about 2 inches of space between the charcoal grate and the cooking grate—and you have to do without a (better at searing) cast-iron grate. 

The smaller space can translate to some heating unevenness—you’ll want to rotate food into the hot spots while you’re grilling. Most of our food was fully cooked, but we recommend bringing along an instant-read thermometer and testing this out at home before bringing it into the great outdoors. If you plan on grilling at night, a grill light is good to have on hand. Additionally, you’ll want to bring along gloves since the metal vents get hot to the touch.

Dimensions: 19.5 x 11.5 x 15 inches | Weight: 13.5 pounds | Cooking Area: 160 square inches

Best Kettle-Style

Weber Smokey Joe Charcoal Grill

$46 at Amazon $46 at Wayfair $46 at Walmart

A miniature version of the classic kettle-style charcoal grill is probably what you thought of as a portable charcoal grill, and that’s exactly what this Weber is. Even though the design makes them a bit unwieldy when it comes to portability, they’re still good grills and very beginner-friendly.

Getting one of these grills set up and started is as easy as pie, just be sure to set it up on a solid surface where it can’t get knocked over since the grates don’t lock into place. We only used a single layer of charcoal when testing and suggest you try to get a few more coals in—the steel grates struggled to get to a high enough temperature for grill marks or searing. And with the bottom dampers in an awkward position, it wasn’t as easy to control the airflow as some others. 

That all said, this was very easy to use, with any cleaning or maintenance easy to handle. A beginner might need a few rounds to perfect their burger, but it’s definitely possible. If you think you need a lid lock for transport, look into the premium model. 

Dimensions: 14.5 x 14.2 x 17 inches | Weight: 9.4 pounds | Cooking Area: 147 square inches

Best Tabletop

Dyna-Glo Portable Tabletop Charcoal Grill

$86 at Amazon $91 at Wayfair $71 at Walmart

This large tabletop grill is a great solution for cabin camping, tailgating, or simply wanting a very small backyard grill. It might take a buddy to get into place, but once you do, this steel-bodied grill will surprise you with its performance. 

Being made of heavy-gauge steel gives this a heat advantage. Much like cast iron, thick steel gets hot and stays hot, which allows it to moderate the temperature inside this grill. Ten minutes after placing hot coals inside, we observed temperatures almost to 550 degrees Fahrenheit, with it dipping down a bit after cooking. 

While that might be too low of a temperature for searing with flimsier plated steel, here, we were able to get a great sear and beautiful grill marks from the thicker steel grates, which sit flush and don’t move. One of our only issues came from the grates when our food stuck a little bit too much to the porcelain coating, so a wipe of oil beforehand is advised.

We also didn’t like not having a built-in thermometer, so you’ll need an instant-read or infrared on hand for cooking. If you have a Dyna-Glo Signature series offset smoker, this can attach to that bigger grill as a smoker box.

Dimensions: 24.2 x 18.4 x 21 inches | Weight: 44.1  pounds | Cooking Area: 287 square inches