Related: Best Gas Grills for Small Patios and Rentals
Twelve years judging barbecue competitions and fifteen years before that on a restaurant line taught me that most grill shopping happens backwards. People walk into a showroom, get hypnotized by a BTU number, and walk out with a machine that does not match how they actually cook. BTU ratings are marketing. Even heat distribution is engineering. I test with burgers, not brochures.
So here is the order I shop in. Where are the burners, and what shape is the firebox? Burner layout predicts hot spots better than any spec sheet ever will. How fast does the grate recover after you open the lid? That is the most honest number on a grill and it never appears in the brochure. And what does the warranty actually cover, because paper covers parts and steel covers the grill.
The four grills below cover the spread of what people are really shopping for. Two are portable gas grill designs you can move with one hand, one is a gas and charcoal combo for households that cannot pick a side, and one is a natural gas workhorse built to sit in the same corner of the patio for a decade. I am not going to pretend they are interchangeable, because they are not, and buying the wrong one for your cooking style is how a three hundred dollar mistake happens.
Best Overall: Weber Genesis E-325 Natural Gas
If the grill is staying in one place, this is the one I point people to. The Genesis E-325 runs on natural gas, which means no tank swaps, no Saturday afternoon propane run, and no argument about who forgot to fill the spare. If you already have a gas line at the patio, switching to natural gas is the single biggest quality of life upgrade in outdoor cooking. Propane is a utility. Natural gas is a luxury.
Weber's reputation in my book is not about the badge on the lid. It is about the burner warranty, which outlasts most of the grills it competes with. When I size up a grill, the first question is what happens in year four, because that is when the cheap ones start talking. Igniters die first. That is the most common failure I see on mid-range gas grills, and it is why I tell people to walk away from any unit where the ignition feels like an afterthought. If I have to light it with a torch on week three, it goes back.
The tradeoff with natural gas is permanence. You cannot roll this thing to a tailgate, and you need a hookup or a plumber to run a line. If that is your situation, this is a buy it once grill. If you rent, or you move every couple of years, skip down to the portables.
Best Value: Cuisinart Outdoor Gas Grill, 20,000 BTU, 2-Burner
Two burners and 20,000 BTU in a portable body. This is the one that fits the most people's actual life, and it is the grill I would hand to a first-time buyer without a lot of hedging. Two burners is the minimum I would ever recommend, because one burner means one heat zone, and one heat zone means you are cooking everything at the same temperature and hoping.
Two burners give you a hot side and a cooler side. That is the entire trick behind restaurant cooking: sear on the hot side, finish on the cool side, move things around as they talk to you. A grill that only offers one zone is a fire pit with a lid, and I say that with love for fire pits.
Portable here does not mean flimsy. It means it moves, it does not need a permanent gas line, and it does not need a dedicated corner of the yard. That makes it a real option for a small patio, a rental, a camping setup, or anybody who wants to cook outside without committing to a built-in island.
What I would watch on any two-burner portable is the side tables, which are usually smaller than a plate, and the lid height, which decides whether you can close it over a beer can chicken. Neither number shows up on the spec list. Stand in front of the unit and check both with your own hands.
Best Combo: ZH3005Y 2-Burner Gas and Charcoal Grill Combo
I respect all three fuels differently, and this grill is for the person who refuses to choose. Gas on one side for a Tuesday night burger, charcoal on the other for the weekend cook where you actually want smoke on the meat. That is not a gimmick. It is two cooking styles in one footprint, and for a lot of backyards it solves a real problem: you want charcoal flavor without lighting a chimney every time you feed two people.
The honest caveat with any combo unit is that you get good at both and great at neither. A dedicated charcoal kettle will hold heat better. A dedicated gas grill will be simpler to live with day to day. What the ZH3005Y buys you is range, and range is worth something when you only have room for one grill on the patio.
Charcoal is a religion, and I say that as a guy who spends weekends judging charcoal-only competitions and then goes home and cooks on gas. There is no contradiction in that. There is only Tuesday.
Best Small Portable: Cuisinart Petite Gourmet with VersaStand, 5,500 BTU
5,500 BTU is not a lot of heat, and I want to be straight about that before anybody buys this expecting a sear zone. What it is: a genuinely small gas grill on an included VersaStand that folds away, which makes it the one on this list you can keep on a balcony, in a hall closet, or in the trunk of a car.
This is a two-person grill. Maybe four if everybody is patient and you are cooking sausages. It is for the apartment dweller, the tailgater, the camper, and the person whose homeowner association has opinions about outdoor cooking.
Small grills have small hot spots, and that is physics, not a defect. On a unit this size, the gap between the middle of the grate and the edge is the gap between a good burger and a hockey puck, so you learn to work the center and rotate. I learned the same lesson on a line where the back corner of the flat top ran seventy-five degrees hotter than the front. Every cooking surface has a geography. You either learn it or you burn lunch.
If you want one grill and you have a yard, buy the two-burner Cuisinart or the Weber instead. If you want to cook outside and space is the constraint, this is the answer.
How I judge a gas grill
I keep a spiral notebook of every cook: ambient temperature, wind, and where the hot spots showed up. Any grill that comes through my yard gets the same three-part routine. A dozen burgers for evenness, laid out left to right so I can watch which one burns first. A full brisket for heat stability, because a grill that cannot hold 350 for an hour without babysitting is a fire pit with a lid. And a whole chicken for flare-ups, because that is where the marketing claims go to die.
None of that cares about the badge on the lid. Here is what those cooks measure, and what you should be looking at when you cannot put a burger on the floor model.
Heat zones. Two burners minimum, so you can sear on one side and hold on the other.
Recovery time. How fast the temperature climbs back after you open the lid. Most honest spec on any grill, never printed anywhere.
Ignition. If the igniter is an afterthought, you will be lighting it with a torch by week three.
Warranty. Read what is actually covered and for how long. Burners and fireboxes are the parts that matter, and they are the parts that cost real money to replace.
Flare control. Every brand claims flare-free grates. I have been running 2026 models through this specifically, four new brands, all making the same promise, and so far one out of four is telling the truth. Treat the claim as a starting point, not a fact. Dripping fat always wins eventually.
Analysis: how these four actually split
These grills are not ranked by quality, because they are not competing for the same buyer. They are split by lifestyle, and the split is clean.
The Weber Genesis E-325 is a permanence purchase. Natural gas, fixed location, a burner warranty that outlasts the grill's honeymoon by a decade. If you own the house and the patio has a line, this is the end of the conversation. If you rent, it is the wrong answer no matter how good the grill is.
The Cuisinart 20,000 BTU two-burner is the generalist. Two burners, portable, no gas line required, and enough heat to actually sear. It is the grill I would buy for a first house, a small yard, or a deck where the grill has to move when the deck gets resealed.
The ZH3005Y is the range play. You trade peak performance on either fuel for the ability to cook both ways without owning two machines. That is a fair trade for a lot of people, and a bad trade for anyone who has already decided charcoal is the only fuel that counts.
The Petite Gourmet is the constraint solver. 5,500 BTU, a folding stand, and a footprint small enough to disappear. Nobody buys this because they want the best grill. They buy it because they want to cook outside and they do not have the room or the permission.
| Grill | Setup | Fuel | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Visit on Amazon →ZH3005Y 2-Burner Gas and Charcoal Grill Combo |
Two burners, gas and charcoal | Propane and charcoal | One footprint, two cooking styles |
 Visit on Amazon →Cuisinart Gas Grill w/VersaStand, Petite Gourmet, Portable |
Single burner, 5,500 BTU | Propane | Balcony and tailgate sized, stand included |
 Visit on Amazon →Cuisinart Outdoor Gas Grill, 20,000 BTU, Portable, 2-Burner |
Two burners, 20,000 BTU | Propane | Best all-around for small patios |
 Visit on Amazon →Weber Genesis E-325 Gas Grill |
See product | Natural gas | Needs a gas line, buy it once |
Should you buy the Weber Genesis E-325?
Yes, if the grill is staying put and you have a natural gas hookup. No tank swaps, no propane runs, and the burner warranty is the reason I keep sending people here. It is the Corolla of grills: boring, reliable, and outliving things it has no business outliving.
It is not portable and it is not cheap. If you rent, or you move every couple of years, put the money into one of the portables instead and revisit this when you own the patio.
Should you buy the Cuisinart Outdoor Gas Grill, 20,000 BTU?
Yes. Two burners and 20,000 BTU in a portable body is the sweet spot for a small patio, a rental, or a camping setup. Two burners means two heat zones, and two heat zones is the entire game.
The compromises are the usual portable ones: side tables you can barely rest a plate on and a lid you should check with your own hands before buying. Neither is a dealbreaker at this size.
Should you buy the ZH3005Y Gas and Charcoal Combo?
Yes, if you genuinely want both fuels. You will not get the best charcoal grill or the best gas grill in one unit, but you get both in one footprint, and that matters when patio space is the constraint.
Buy it if you cook gas on weeknights and charcoal on the weekends you plan around. Skip it if you have already picked a side.
Should you buy the Cuisinart Petite Gourmet with VersaStand?
Yes, if space is the constraint and you are feeding one or two people. 5,500 BTU will not build a sear zone, so do not buy it expecting steakhouse crust.
Buy it because it folds onto its own stand, fits on a balcony, and cooks dinner without a gas line or a full bag of charcoal. It is the smallest honest answer to "I want to grill and I do not have a yard."