Best Outdoor Grills of 2026

Two dampers and a hooked lid are the entire control system, and that turns out to be enough. The bowl and lid are porcelain-enameled steel, the grate is plated steel, and the grill weighs a little over thirty pounds, light enough to drag into the shade and heavy enough to stay where you park it. After a few cooks you steer temperature by how the coals look and sound, not just by the lid thermometer.

That control is why this is our top pick. Nothing else here is as forgiving for someone moving from gas to live fire: close both dampers and the fire settles, open them and it climbs, and a two-zone setup with coals banked to one side is a job for a pair of tongs. Ash is the chore people dread, and the One-Touch vanes sweep it into a catcher underneath, so cleanup takes half a minute the next morning.

Capacity is honest at 22 inches: about a dozen burgers, a spatchcocked chicken, or two racks of ribs with a little rearranging. The limitation is the fuel itself. There's a lighting window before dinner, and a windy evening eats into the coal bed. A chimney starter handles the first part, a sheltered corner the second.

What we kept coming back to is how little fuel it takes. One chimney of briquettes runs a two-zone dinner for four, and the bag outlasts what we expected. That's the quiet argument for a kettle over a big cart: you're not heating a party-sized grate to cook six burgers.

Two burners, 275 square inches, and 22 pounds: this is the grill for a balcony, a tailgate, or the corner of a patio where a full cart won't fit. The legs fold, the lid locks, and it carries by a handle like a suitcase, which is why it's the one we grab for a day out.

We like it for that job and not much past it. It heats fast and sears properly, and the stainless grates put a crust on a burger without complaint, but holding a genuinely low temperature is the hard part. The workaround is running one burner and parking the food on the cold side, which works fine once you've done it twice.

Size is the other honest limit. Two hundred and seventy-five square inches is about a dozen burgers, enough for four people with a little juggling and tight at eight. Where it earns its keep is storage and travel: it takes less shelf space than a cooler, and the folding legs let it live in a closet between weekends.

Four main burners, 525 square inches, and side shelves that fold flat: on paper the Mesa II reads like a gas grill that should cost noticeably more than it does. What settled it for us is how little it asks in return. It lights on the first click, the heat spreads evenly enough that a full grate of chicken thighs browns at the same rate, and the folded shelves leave a narrow patio walkable.

Gas earns its keep on a weeknight. No chimney, no ash, no waiting: turn two burners on, close the lid, and you're cooking. The 525 square inches is more room than the kettle or either tabletop grill here, enough for a family of four with a little left over, and the warming rack keeps finished food out of the way while the rest catches up.

The compromises are materials and coverage. The cart and firebox use thinner steel than the premium gas grills in this group, so a cover is part of the purchase rather than an accessory, and the warranty runs two years, with eight on the burners. At this price that's a reasonable set of trade-offs, and the parts most likely to need replacing are the ones covered longest.

Eight hundred and thirty-five square inches isn't a number most backyards need. It's more than three times the grate on a tabletop grill, and it's rated for thirty-nine burgers at once. What that buys is a party where everything comes off the fire together instead of in waves.

The hardware is there for it: five main burners, a 14,000 BTU sear burner, and a 10,000 BTU side burner, each with its own igniter, so you can run two burners for a Tuesday dinner and all of them for a crowd. The cabinet underneath swallows trays and foil, and the locking casters keep it from wandering across the patio.

We rate it as the capacity pick, not the everything pick. The painted cabinet is the part that ages outdoors, so it wants a cover and a sheltered spot, and the whole cart is happiest when it stays put for the season. Host twice a month and that's a fair trade. Grill for two and you're heating a lot of steel for six burgers.

The 10,000 BTU side burner is what separates this cart from the other mid-priced gas grills here. It gives you somewhere to boil corn or finish a sauce while the main grate works, and the whole grill comes in well under the big Royal Gourmet.

The main grate measures 358.95 square inches, with a warming rack that brings the total to 489.17, enough for four people with room to shuffle things and not enough for a block party. Three 8,000 BTU burners plus the side burner total 34,000 BTU, the lid and body are stainless, and the grates are cast iron. Cast iron at this price is more than we expected.

Heat is the open question. The grill can run hotter toward the front of the box and cooler at the back, so rotate food rather than trusting the knobs, and treat the first cook as a test: burgers and a thermometer rather than a ribeye you care about. Assembly is quick, the locking casters roll well, and the whole thing looks more expensive than it is.

Gas on one side, charcoal in the middle, an offset smoker hanging off the end: one cart, three ways to cook, and 1,020 square inches to do it on. Nothing else here covers gas and live fire together, which is the whole reason to look at it.

The flexibility is real. Two 12,000 BTU gas burners plus a 10,000 BTU side burner handle quick weeknight cooking, the charcoal pan adjusts through three heights so you can sear or slow-cook over the coals, and the smoker box takes wood chunks for a long Sunday brisket while the gas side does the sides.

The catch is upkeep. Three fuels mean three kinds of maintenance: propane to refill, charcoal and wood to keep dry, and an ash pan to empty. It's more to manage than a single-fuel grill, and the payoff only shows up if you actually use the smoker. A household that never lights the offset is paying for hardware it won't use.

We treat it as a second grill or a way to try smoking without buying a dedicated smoker. It does three jobs competently and none of them to the standard of the single-purpose picks above; what it offers is options on one cart, in one footprint, for less than a premium gas grill alone.