The Best Portable Grills for Beach and Balcony

Gas, charcoal or electric?

Gas is the easy all-rounder: a cartridge or small cylinder, a press of the ignition and you cook. Charcoal grills are cheaper to buy, taste of fire and need no gas, but you wait for the coals and you take the ash away. Electric is clean and calm, and on many balconies it is the only kind of grill a building allows – but it needs an outlet, so it stays home when you go to the beach.

Check the rules first: beaches, parks and balconies

Before the grill comes the rule book. Many beaches ban charcoal and open fires or allow grills only in marked areas; some allow gas but not charcoal, some allow neither. Parks and campsites have their own rules, and they can tighten when the fire risk rises in a dry summer. Look up the local authority's beach or park rules before you go, or ask the lifeguards.

On balconies, fire codes in many US cities restrict charcoal and gas grills on apartment buildings, and in the UK and Germany leases and house rules often do the same. Electric grills are usually the exception – but not always, so read your lease or ask the building management first. Wherever you grill, think of the neighbors: smoke drifting into an open window is the quickest way to an argument.

What matters in the wind

Wind steals heat and can blow out a small flame. A grill with a deep lid and heavy cast-iron grates, like the Q models, keeps cooking when the breeze picks up, and a kettle's dampers let you tune the fire. Set up in a sheltered spot where the smoke drifts away from people – but never behind something that burns, such as a beach tent or a fabric windbreak – and keep the lid closed as much as you can. On charcoal, a chimney starter lights the coals faster and more evenly in the wind than lighter fluid.

Grilling fish on a small grill

Small grills are better at fish than their size suggests, because fish cooks fast. Keep the grate clean and well oiled, cook sardines and small whole fish directly over the heat and leave them alone until they release; for fillets, a cedar plank or a fish basket ends the sticking. Our whole fish, espeto style recipe works on every grill here, and a sharp fillet knife makes the prep quicker. If pizza is the bigger draw, read our outdoor pizza oven guide.

How we chose

We sorted the grills by where you will use them – beach, balcony, campsite – and set the criteria first: weight, cooking area, fuel, how well the lid holds heat in the wind, and whether fuel and parts are easy to find. Then we compared the manufacturers' specifications and checked which models the Amazon stores of the US, the UK and Germany sell; a grill your store does not sell is hidden on your version of this page. Weber takes most of the places because its small grills cover gas, charcoal and electric, and most of them are sold in all three countries. Cuisinart lists its Petite Gourmet tabletop grill as discontinued, so the Smokey Joe Premium takes the budget spot. In the UK and Europe, Weber now sells the updated Q 1200N in place of the Q 1200; in the US, the Q 1200 is still current. We have not used these grills ourselves; we earn a commission on purchases through our links, and it does not change what we recommend.