No home is complete without a grill in the backyard, and an outdoor kitchen cannot possibly be considered well-equipped without a flat-top griddle. But what if you want the conveniences of both in the same unit?
This is where grill and griddle combos come into play. Part grill, part griddle, these propane appliances are more portable than their regular counterparts, so you can take them camping or tailgating and turn the great outdoors into your kitchen.
If you want a good grill and griddle but you’re not sure where to start, read on below.
Best Grill and Griddle Combos
- The best: Royal Gourmet GD401
- Most portable: Coleman RoadTrip 285
- Legless: Royal Gourmet GD4002TB
This 4-burner gas grill and griddle with folding legs is an outdoor kitchen on wheels with 48,000 BTUs of cooking power. The materials used are of high quality and the construction is sturdy, so it's also made to last.
There’s more than one reason why the Royal Gourmet GD401 is at the top of our gas grill and griddle combo list.
For starters, this unit has 4 burners with a total power of 48,000 BTUs, evenly distributed between the griddle on the left side and the grill grates on the right side. The griddle offers 292 sq. in. of cooking space and the grate 314 sq. in., and the two side tables hold your seasonings and condiments within arms reach.
The burners are made of high-quality stainless steel with a 5-year manufacturer’s warranty against rust through. Above the burners are a ceramic-coated steel griddle and porcelain-enameled cast iron grates that hold heat well and distribute it to your food evenly.
Unlike other grill and griddle combos in this price range that only have 2 burners, the Royal Gourmet GD401’s 4 burners allow you to set up your grill and griddle for direct and indirect heat, adding versatility to your cooking.
As long as you remember to oil the griddle and grates before cooking, this unit is easy to clean after you’re done. The grease management system works well and catches drips and residue in the removable cup below.
One thing worth mentioning about this unit is that’s easy to put together and the assembly guide is generally helpful. Foldable legs make it easy to lift, carry, and transport—though it would have been great if the side tables were foldable, too, since they take up a lot of space.
A compact unit with 3 burners and 20,000 BTUs of cooking power that folds up like a suitcase and unfolds like an ironing board. It's easy to carry around and it gets the job done.
If you’re looking for a grill and griddle that’s smaller and therefore easier to transport, the Coleman RoadTrip 285 is one of the best options on the market today.
This unit has 20,000 BTUs per hour of cooking power, distributed over 3 independently controlled burners. The total cooking area is 285 sq. in., and the two cast iron grill grates can be replaced with flat-top griddles that can be purchased separately.
Preheating takes 10 to 15 minutes (20 to 25 on a cold, windy day). Once it gets up to heat, the unit holds that heat well and distributes it evenly to the food, resulting in well-seared steaks, juicy burgers, and golden brown chicken breasts.
What sets the Coleman RoadTrip 285 apart from the other grill and griddle combos on our list is its portability.
The unit folds up into what resembles a suitcase with a handle and wheels so you can easily take it with you. Whether you’re tailgating or camping, taking it with you and setting it up feels like a breeze compared to the other units in its category.
Once you’ve set it up, it looks like you’re cooking on an ironing board 🙂 . It’s large enough to allow you to cook up a proper meal for a small, hungry bunch—depending on how much you all eat, 2 to 3 or maybe 4 to 5 people—and yet small enough that you don’t need help maneuvering it in and out of your truck.
The water pan is long and shallow, and emptying it is almost always a mess. The hood latch for transportation doesn’t close well, and so you have to lash it down with something else to keep the grill from opening and the grill plates from falling off.
This grill and griddle combo holds more power than its looks give out. With 40,000 BTUs per hour and 430 sq. in., it's a great option for those looking for Barbehow readers looking for a legless unit.
Those among you who are looking for a grill and griddle combo without legs should check out the Royal Gourmet GD4002TB, a little beast of a grill designed specifically for tailgating.
This unit has 40,000 BTUs per hour of cooking power—8,000 BTUs short of our top pick—and offers 430 sq. in. of cooking space divided up between a ceramic-coated griddle plate (right side) and cast iron grill grate (left side).
The 4 stainless steel burners allow cooking with direct and indirect heat in both cooking zones and are covered with “flame tamer” plates that minimize flare-ups and evaporate dripping meat juices for that BBQ aroma and flavor.
The Royal Gourmet GD4002TB burners ignite using a battery-powered electronic ignition system. The one battery required by the igniter is not included, so you will need to purchase it separately. (You can also light the burners manually, a.k.a. the old-school way, using a match stick.)
The grooved drip tray channels fats, juices, and residue into the grease cup for hassle-free, no-fuss clean-up. The tray and the cup are somewhat small at first glance, but they do what they’re supposed to do just fine.
What to Expect
Capacity
On most grill and griddle combs, you can comfortably sear 2 to 3 steaks while simultaneously frying up a triplet of eggs or preparing enough hash browns to feed 2 to 4 people.
In our research and selection process for this list, we’ve made sure to pick out the appliances that offer the most cooking space without compromising too much on portability, which is probably what you need them for in the first place.
Performance
You can cook up a decent meal on a good grill and griddle combo, ain’t no doubt about it. Still, it’s important to temper your expectations when it comes to cooking performance.
To give you the best of both worlds, a grill and griddle combo must sacrifice a little bit of each. These units don’t get as hot as their standalone grate and griddle counterparts do, nor do they heat as quickly.
Still, if you own a griddle and you’ve been missing a good grill, or you’re tired of lugging around a cast iron griddle whenever you want to cook up eggs or hash browns in the backyard, a combination griddle may be the ultimate solution.
Portability
A grill and griddle combo is more portable than the built-in grill in your outdoor kitchen. But transporting it nevertheless requires some lugging on your end.
Every manufacturer claims their grill and griddle are compact and easy to transport. Obviously, their marketing folks haven’t tried loading them into the trunk of a car or lugging them up a flight of stairs themselves.
If lifting weights isn’t your number one pastime—and since you’re here, I’m assuming it’s not—chances are you will need help loading and unloading your unit into the bed of your truck or the trunk of your car. So something to keep in mind there.
Why Trust Us?
To say that selecting the right grill and griddle combo can be daunting is a huge understatement. There are hundreds of options out there, and it can take forever to weed out the good ones from the bad.
We spent 51 hours rounding up the best grill and griddle combos in this guide so you won’t have to.
For our initial selection, we dug deeply into product specs, read assembly guides and owner’s manuals through and through, and turned the web over for customer reviews, positive and negative, to find out what customers really thought about their purchases.
We then drew on the decades of the hands-on grilling experience of the members of the Barbehow editorial team to scrutinize our favorites and come up with the final list of winners, which you can see right before your eyes:
- The Royal Gourmet GD401 was the winner because it offered the best value for the money
- The Coleman RoadTrip 285 was the highest-rated portable grill and griddle combo we managed to find
- The legless Royal Gourmet GD4002TB was small but mighty; it had more cooking powder than its looks gave out
We hope you found our roundup as useful as we enjoyed putting it together, and we wish you nothing but the best no matter what make and model you end up choosing.
