One for the road.

Okay, so I am a bit torn on this item. On one hand, it is the most convenient grill ever! It is small, assembles and disassembles easy and takes up very little space in the camping gear box!! It also goes from storage to cooking ready in a very short period of time. On the other hand, it leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to the actual cooking and after cooking cleanup.

Though one could easily be cooking on the Roadtrip Party Grill in a matter of minutes, actual cooking time of the food seems to be pretty slow. In our tests we cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken breasts and a couple of steaks. The results were less than impressive. Some uneven cooking, slow cooking times for larger items and even some burning on our hamburgers left me regretting the purchase price.

Cleanup is also a bit of a pain - but only compared to not cleaning up my larger gas grill after each use. The grill comes apart easily allowing for easier cleanup and the bottom of the grill is bowl shaped allowing water to be poured in to make clean up even easier. That being said, it took quite a bit of elbow grease to get the gunk off the top after some serious cooking.

Overall, I think I will certainly be keeping this little guy in the gear box - but it will be reserved for the light cooking jobs like hamburgers and hot dogs. Anything else just takes too much time.

Kevin had me assemble this grill on my own without any assistance and I figured it out very quickly. That alone gets high marks from me! I agree that cooking times are a bit on the slow side. It took us nearly twice as long to cook a couple of hamburgers on this grill as we are used to on a larger gas grill. Sure, the grill was a bit of a mess when we were finished, but it didn't take much to clean it up, especially after taking it apart.

I think I would compare this to a small charcoal grill. . . Though you get better cooking temperature out of the charcoal and you don't typically have to clean up afterwards, it does take a good amount of time waiting for the coals to reach optimum cooking temperatures. While cleanup of the Roadtrip Party Grill may be a hassle, it sure is nice being able to cook almost immediately out of the box.

Overall, I think this thing is a pretty convenient grill to have for those short camping trips or to quickly grill up the occasional burger on the patio at home. I agree with Kevin though, I wouldn't rely on it for any heavy duty cooking tasks. But I do like it - I mean, look how cute it is!