The exterior hood and body are painted porcelain-enameled steel with stainless steel accents around the lid. The lid’s handle is also stainless steel as is the burner inside the grill. Weighing in at 47 lbs, Weber designed the grill to be light for portability. The frame which consists of the legs, tool hooks, shelf, and igniter are all plastic, but the material is thick and meant to be durable to withstand the rigors of traveling.
The stand is easy to operate, with clear indicators for raising and lowering it. Since the base is included, you won’t need to hunt for a safe cooking surface or crouch down to flip weber bbq burgers, but it requires a little more storage space and room in your trunk. We were impressed with the high-heat grilling performance of the Weber Go Anywhere Charcoal Grill.
And since the spacious firebox fits a full chimney starter’s worth of coals, you can get two or three rounds of grilling per load. To get the most out of the Grill2Go, be sure to clean it properly and store it somewhere out of the elements (or at least covered). The carrying case (sold separately) isn’t weatherproof, but you can use a heavy-duty contractor-style garbage bag or a tarp for protection. Be sure to clean your grill thoroughly to keep it working as long as possible. If you use the grill only occasionally, you may need to wipe down the burner tubes to make sure they light effectively.
Some of the grills we tested featured just one knob, used for both igniting the grill and controlling the strength of the flame. (Of course, to properly ignite any gas grill, you must ensure the propane tank is open). The stainless steel grates take a little more work to clean than cast iron, but not a herculean effort by any means. The firebox pops out for easy emptying, but the handle bolts make removing it without tipping a little difficult. The grill has no lid for cooking, as the top consists of a storage compartment and cutting board. As such, you’re grilling with direct heat and should keep that in mind when meal planning.
The Cuisinart Venture, with its picnic basket appearance, is a good entry-level grill for the uninitiated and a value model for more experienced grillers. It’s a model intended for direct-heat cooking, as there’s no lid to control humidity for “low and slow” cooking. The burner packs 9,000 BTUs under enameled cast iron, providing adequate heat for small-group cooking. The grill comes to temperature quickly, but there is some variation in hot spots, especially towards the outside edges of the grill, which charred more than the center, where foods cooked slower. Senior staff writers Tim Heffernan and Lesley Stockton spent 16 hours testing portable grills for this guide.