Biolite Portable Grill Review

BioLite Portable Grill Review

By Cory McLaughlin

Just the Facts:

Cook your favorite meals over wood with one of the lightest tabletop grills on the market. Transform your BioLite CampStove 2 into a wood-fired grilling surface with this seamless and fun attachment. The BioLite Portable Grill

Cooking Area 55 sq inches

Folded Size 9.5 x 12 x 3.5 in (24.13 x 30.48 x 8.89 cm)

Fuel Solid biomass. For use with CampStove only

Weight 1.875 lbs (850 g)

Unfolded Size 9.5 x 12 x 10.5 in (24.13 x 30.48 x 26.67 cm)

In The Box BioLite Portable Grill, Instructions, Grill Cover

My Story:

Let’s be realistic for a second. Is this grill going to be able to complete with a typical charcoal grill or a pellet smoker? No it is not, and you should not expect it to. This grill is not even in the same class as those grills and thus cannot be compared. So, what does that mean for those BioLite stove owners looking at purchasing these grills? It means that you are getting a grill unlike any other on the market. It means you are, in a way, a pioneer of sorts. So if being different is your thing this is the grill for you.

I have twice reviewed the BioLite Camp stove and given it very high marks. I absolutely love the thing to be completely honest. When I saw that there was a grill for the stove that I already loved I knew it was something that I was going to have to try. I arranged for one to be sent for testing and I was very eager to get it out in the field and test it out. The Biolite Portable Grill came to me very quikly…

Archery season was the perfect time to get this grill some meat cooking time. I brought it with me to camp and set upon my maiden voyage while cooking some steaks for our first evening at camp. Was it foolish to do my trial run at camp? It might have been but I had a backup plan so I was not worried. I brought a pan and if the grill failed me I knew the stove would not.

Backstrap was on the menu and the boy’s and I were pretty dang hungry. I fired up the CampStove 2 and got it rolling a nice flame. I had the idea while at the store to buy some smoking chips to use for the stove. I figured that the mesquite wood would not only burn well but add some great flavor. Turns out this was a great idea that I would highly recommend.

I was able to cook steaks with the Biolite Portable Grill on a couple different occasions and I found the grill to be sufficient. The heat is certainly not even throughout the grill. The area closest to the fill opening is going to be hottest as it’s closest to the flame. The outside edges of the grill seem to be almost useless for cooking but could be useful for warming precooked hotdogs or even bread. This was not unexpected do to design and not something I see as negative as this is not a professional pit BBQ grill. It is a great little addition that helps offer yet another creative way to cook with your stove.

The grill did turn out some fantastic steaks and I was overall very happy with it. I found that it needed to be tended pretty closely as the stove needs to be continuously fed with more wood. I would say this is not the system for the lazy griller. The flame shield was a bit warped after only a few uses and I had to bend it a bit to get the stove to assemble correctly for storage. I would like to see that worked on a bit.

This grill does not offer competition pit BBQ cooking. What it does offer is a great way to get a wood fired char on your favorite cut of meat while out in the wilds. It gives me another great option for my car camping set up. I was able to come up with a way to get a nice smoke flavor on the meat other than just burning the wood chips. I placed some smoking chips on the grill and let the heat from the fire get them smoking. It worked great!

Overall I love how small the grill is and that it has a cover to keep the yucky stuff off my other gear when it’s packed away. I think that when used correctly you will love this little addition to your already great stove.

Find it Here:

What can be done better?

I am not sure that any improvements can be made to this stove other than possibly making the mettle of the flame shield a bit thicker. I would call this a win for a simple car camping kit and am sure to be getting my fair share of use out of it. BioLite continues to impress me.

I give this stove a 4.75 as I found it to be simply awesome and with a little tweak of the flame shield I believe it could move to 5 stars.